Download File - Mrs Watson`s English Classroom

Lesson objective:
 To develop our poetry analysis skills
 To explore the main themes and ideas as presented
by Rumens within the poem.
‘The Emigrée’
by Carol Rumens
To identify the meaning
of a poem through close
language analysis
To be able to comment on
structural features and poetic
devices in a poem
To be able to respond
creatively to a poem through
analysis paragraphs
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question
Getting started...
1.
Note down any words or phrases that are repeated within the poem. Do
you notice anything interesting about these words/phrases?
An émigré is a person who has "migrated out", often with a
connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the
past participle of the French émigrer 'to emigrate'.
2.
What is an ‘emigrée’?
3.
Highlight any words or phrases that are connected to the idea of being
forced to leave somewhere.
4.
What do the opening words ‘there once was a country’ suggest about
what to expect from the poem?
To identify the meaning
of a poem through close
language analysis
To be able to comment on
structural features and poetic
devices in a poem
To be able to respond
creatively to a poem through
analysis paragraphs
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question
Contextual Information
Carol Rumens is a British poet who has travelled
extensively in Eastern Europe and Russia. Often,
Rumens uses these experiences within her poems.
‘The Emigrée’ was first published in Rumen’s collection
‘Thinking of Skins: New and Selected Poems’ in 1993.
To identify the meaning
of a poem through close
language analysis
To be able to comment on
structural features and poetic
devices in a poem
To be able to respond
creatively to a poem through
analysis paragraphs
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question
The poem’s narrator
What do we learn about the poem’s narrator?
What we
know
Narrator left
their home
country as a
child.
What is
suggested
Evidence to
support this
inference
The country
may no
longer be as it
is
remembered.
‘The worst news I
receive of it cannot
break / my original view,
the bright, filled
paperweight’.
Working with the poem
 Make a list of five positive and
five negative words from the
poem.
 Identify two sets of contrasting
images and ideas in the poem
that are related to:
• Light – especially sunlight
• Restriction – lack of freedom and
oppression
 What does the use of these
contrasts suggest to you about
the ideas that the poem explores?
To identify the meaning
of a poem through close
language analysis
To be able to comment on
structural features and poetic
devices in a poem
To be able to respond
creatively to a poem through
analysis paragraphs
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question
The detail
• The ‘exploring the detail’ sheet should help you
form a close understanding of the main ideas
within the poem.
• The poem takes the literal meaning of ‘emigrée’ and
explores how it can also be used to represent other kinds
of isolation or forced absence. This is called an extended
metaphor.
• Do you think any other kinds of absence may be implied
within the poem? Explain your reasons using textual
references.
To identify the meaning
of a poem through close
language analysis
To be able to comment on
structural features and poetic
devices in a poem
To be able to respond
creatively to a poem through
analysis paragraphs
LO: To be able to effectively respond to a poetry exam question
To summarise…
Key vocabulary:
Emigrée: An émigrée is a person
who has ‘migrated out’, often with
a connotation of political or social
self-exile.
Key features:
•
You could compare ‘The Emigrée’ to:
•
‘Tissue’ and ‘Checking Out Me
History’
•Formal structure of three eight-line
verses.
•Imagery relating to light, contrasted with
images of darkness and oppression.
•The idea of being an émigrée as an
extended metaphor to explore other
interpretations of the word and the
concept of having to leave a place or
person.
Homework
Complete the worksheet.
Annotate the poem in the anthology, with
reference to the poetry tree.
Assessment points
 Explain how the poem, ‘The Emigrée’ uses
specific language and imagery to explore
different ideas about oppression and
banishment.
Compare the ways in which ‘The Emigrée’ and
‘Checking Out Me History’ present ideas about
the conflict between the past and the present.
 To develop our poetry analysis skills