“The Jaguar”

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The Jaguar

The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun.

The parrots shriek as if they were on fire, or strut

Like cheap tarts to attract the stroller with the nut.

Fatigued with indolence, tiger and lion

 

Lie still as the sun. The boa-constrictor’s coil

Is a fossil. Cage after cage seems empty, or

Stinks of sleepers from the breathing straw.

It might be painted on a nursery wall.

 

But who runs like the rest past these arrives

At a cage where the crowd stands, stares, mesmerized,

As a child at a dream, at a jaguar hurrying enraged

Through prison darkness after the drills of his eyes

 

On a short fierce fuse. Not in boredom—

The eye satisfied to be blind in fire,

By the bang of blood in the brain deaf the ear—

He spins from the bars, but there’s no cage to him

 

More than to the visionary his cell:

His stride is wildernesses of freedom:

The world rolls under the long thrust of his heel.

Over the cage floor the horizons come.

 by Ted Hughes

Paying close attention to your structure (TEEL), write an analytical paragraph about “The Jaguar”. Be as insightful as you can. Also, make sure you link to your thesis, which is as follows:

Meanings within poems are accessible to everyone because they are messages about life.

Metaphorical poems

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Write your own metaphor poem using the process done in class – looks like, sounds like, feels like, smells like, tastes like. Make sure you provide the “when” and “where” for each line.

Happiness…

sunshine on a white sandy beach at late afternoon

laughter in a pre-school during play-time

a warm hug on a cold winter morning in front of the fireplace

freshly baked biscuits at Grandma’s cottage on school holidays

turkish delight with friends at the movies on a hot summer night

Bliss!

Abstract ideas being explored include rage, hope, vengeance, love, laziness, empathy, friendship, kindness etc.

Assessing Essays

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After reading the two essays, make a list of observations.  What was done well?  What wasn’t?  Make sure you structure it according to the following formatting. For example:

Poem 1 – “The Jaguar”

Things done well

• thesis is clear and frequently referred to
• language is sophisticated

Things not done well

• needs more cohesive ties
• spelling is a problem

“Break, Break, Break” Analysis

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Paying close attention to your structure (TEEL), write an analytical paragraph about “Break, Break, Break”. Be as insightful as you can.  Also, make sure you link to your thesis!!

“Break, Break, Break”

Break, Break, Break

Break, break, break,
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy,
That he shouts with his sister at play!
O, well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.

What is this poem about? Write a paragraph about the subject and mood, using quotes from the poem as evidence.

Euphemisms

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The euphemism for the above replaces the pharse, “I am going to sack you.”

Find four examples of euphemisms and pose them here.

“Killing a Whale”

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Thesis: Throughout their poems, poets arouse their readers’ interest in aspects of life, including personal experiences and public issues.

Write 300 words analysing “Killing the Whale”, using SLIM to do so.  Don;t write an introduction, just go straight into your body paragraphs linking back to the thesis.  Write effective topic sentences.

Killing a whale
A whale is killed is follows
A shell is filled with dynamite and
A harpoon takes the shell.
You wait until the great grey back
Breaches the sliding seas; you squint,
Take aim.
The cable snakes like a squirt of paint,
The shell channels deep through the fluke
And flank, through mural softness
To bang among the blubber,
Exploding terror through
The hollow fleshy chambers,
While the hooks fly open
Like an umbrella
Gripping the tender tissue.

It dies with some panache,
Whipping the capstan like
A schoolboy’s wooden top,
Until the teeth of the machine
Can hold its anger, grip.
Its dead tons thresh for hours
The ravished sea,
Then sink together, sag –
So air is pumped inside
To keep the corpse afloat,
And one of those flags that men
Kill mountains with is stuck
Into its massive death.

Dead whales are rendered down,
Give oil.

“The Sea”

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The Sea

The sea is a hungry dog,
Giant and grey.
He rolls on the beach all day.
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws
Hour upon hour he gnaws

The rumbling, tumbling stones,
And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones! ‘
The giant sea-dog moans,
Licking his greasy paws.

And when the night wind roars
And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud,
He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,
Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,
And howls and howls long and loud.

But on quiet days in May or June,
When even the grasses on the dune
Play no more their reedy tune,
With his head between his paws
He lies on the sandy shores,
So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.

James Reeves

Choose two stanzas from the above poem but change the metaphor from a dog to something else – it an be absolutely anything. What do you think of when you are at the beach watching the surf? Follow the poem’s pattern, rhyme and use of poetic devices where you can. Have fun with it.

Songs with Lyrics

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Choose a song which has at least three poetic devices in it, list them and copy the url into this post.

Provide the title of your song and the artist’s name.

A symbol that reflects me – and why

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Symbols are packed with lost of messages that we often interpret subconsciously and as such, they are powerful conveyors of information.

Decide upon a symbol that accurately represents you, or an important aspect of who you are as a person.  What do you believe?  What are your values? What are your hobbies?

The above symbol is the yin and yang symbol which symbolises harmony and balance.  For some of you, this may reflect you as a person, but it may not for others.

Tom’s World 1000 Years From Now

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Step 1: Let your imagination run wild with a description of the world 1000 years from now. Be detailed in your description – what does it look like, sound like, feel like? Write approximately 80-100 words.

Step 2: Explain how Tom would react? Think about Tom at the start of the novel and Tom at the end of the novel.  He changes a lot. Insert the Tom we know at the start of the novel. Write about 60-100 words.

My Practise Journal – Koro

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Write a journal from Koro’s perspective at the moment when he is lying on his bed and Paikea has just placed the invitation to her concert on his pillow.  Write a minimum of 300 words.

Provide information on:

• events (or experiences) that happened which are meaningful to him
• his feelings about such events
• his attitudes
• his relationships with others

IMPORTANT: Make sure you READ at least one other student’s response and COMMENT on it.

Practice Paragraph

The Fantale

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Upload your analysis of the Fantale. Be precise.  Be concise.  Be specific.  No general statements are allowed.

Read everyone’s and make a comment about its clarity and depth.

NOTE: A Martian who has never had the lolly before should almost be able to taste it and visualise it without either seeing it or eating it.  That is the test.

My Reponse to “Whale Rider”

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What was your personal response to the movie? Think about:

• tradition,
• culture,
• leadership,
• the characters,
• goodness,
• females in leadership roles,
• stubbornness,
• the need for culture to evolve…

“Whale Rider” and Cultural Traditions

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Read the overview of the movie in http://www.greenmanreview.com/film/film_whalerider.html and focus on the last line:

“This is the way ancient traditions still operate today: silly when you don’t believe, and powerful when you do…”

Think about the emphasis on culture and reflect on the following:

• is culture important?
• if yes, why?
• if no, why?
• do you have a form of culture that is active in your life?  What is it?  Do you like it?

Developing your first point

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Here you will post your first point that argues your thesis.  It needs to:

• be well-formulated
• contain at least two quotes
• contain perfect grammar and punctuation
• link to your thesis.

Make sure you have your scaffold sheet in front of you as you write the paragraph – it’s important that you provide a sentence about your issue for each bullet point.  Doing so is critical for developing perfect structure.

Let’s practise blending quotes seamlessly into our own sentences

Never just drop the quote into the paragraph – always work it in seamlessly.

For example:

Brian was exposed to the elements and he “knew he had to do something. He couldn’t just sit at the bottom of the tree and stare down at the lake for four days” so he did what survivors do; he built a shelter (p.43). He searched a ridge line for  a small hollow and found one. Later, after a painful encounter with a porcupine that filled him with “new waves of self-pity” that  made him cry “until he was cried out”, he improved the shelter with “heavier logs and fastened several of them across the opening, wedging them at the top and burying the bottoms in the sand” (p.65, 107). It took three days to complete, again showing tenacity and determination, the key elements of survivors.

NOW: Practise this technique by writing a paragraph with quotes – draw on the issue your thesis is arguing.

Introduction for My Thesis

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Create an introduction for your thesis using the scaffolding sheet given to you in class.  It must follow the bullet points exactly.

My Issue – Persuasive Speech

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Type your issue here by stating your thesis. For example:

The carbon tax should be abolished.