Poet Study

Poet Study We will be learning about a variety of poets. You are expected to take notes and study the things we write down. There will be a poetry test at the end of the unit on the devices and poets we have learned about.

Phillis Wheatly (1753–1784) She was an African slave, and was one of the best-known poets in pre- nineteenth-century America. Wheatley was the abolitionists*' illustrative testimony that blacks could be both artistic and intellectual. Her name was a household word among literate colonists and her achievements a catalyst for the fledgling antislavery movement. This was important because people believed that African Americans were incapable of intelligence and therefore enslaving them was like using a donkey to pull a sleigh or do hard labour. Famous for: On Being Brought from Africa to America, On Imagination, On Virtue *an abolitionist was someone who wanted to abolish (or get rid of) slavery

On Being Brought from Africa to America 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train. Type of poem: couplet

Couplet A couplet is a pair of lines of metre in poetry. Couplets usually comprise two lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end- stopped, implying that there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse. Reminder: Metre is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. MONDAY’S POETRY TASK: Write a couplet about a global issue. Must be 8 lines. ie: slavery, child labour, discrimination, climate change, poverty… etc

Langston Hughes Langston Hughes was first recognized as an important literary figure during the 1920s, a period known as the "Harlem Renaissance" because of the number of emerging black writers Much of Hughes's early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life. It was important to the African-American community that they be represented in an attractive way because there were so many misconceptions about black people and how they lived their life. THINK/CONNECT: How does this same feeling apply to how the Media portrays Muslims? Would you want the best of your to be written about or the worst of you? What impact do you think this could have on society’s views of different groups of people?

Mother to Son Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor- Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So, boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps. 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

Extended Metaphor Tuesday’s Poetry Task: Write a 10 line poem using extended metaphor. Remember than an extended metaphor is when the poem appears to be talking about one thing but is actually talking about something else Example: the staircase in Mother to Son is a metaphor for life. Extended Metaphor Class activity**

Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) In his own day he was said to be—with Queen Victoria and Gladstone—one of the three most famous living persons, a reputation no other poet writing in English has ever had. He felt a conflict between what he thought of as his duty to society and his allegiance to the eternal beauty of nature He lived at a time when London was changing from an industrial and the people of London were unsatisfied with the quality of their life. (London at the time was very dirty, and unkempt, and the quality of life was very very low). He loved rural England and nature in general but felt it necessary to speak out for the people who suffered in the city. Famous for: Beautiful city and many many others

Beautiful City Beautiful city, the centre and crater of European confusion, O you with your passionate shriek for the rights of an equal       humanity, How often your Re-volution has proven but E-volution Roll’d again back on itself in the tides of a civic insanity!

London 1800’s Friday’s task: Write a 10 line poem based on one of these pictures.

Margaret Atwood (1939--) Regarded as one of Canada’s finest living writers, Margaret Atwood is a poet, novelist, story writer, essayist, and environmental activist. Atwood first came to public attention as a poet in the 1960s with her collections Double Persephone (1961) Sherrill Grace, writing in Violent Duality: A Study of Margaret Atwood, identified the central tension in all of Atwood’s work as “the pull towards art on one hand and towards life on the other.” Atwood “is constantly aware of opposites—self/other, subject/ object, male/female, nature/man—and of the need to accept and work within them,” Grace explained. Duality: an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something; a dualism.

The Moment The moment when, after many years of hard work and a long voyage you stand in the centre of your room, house, half-acre, square mile, island, country, knowing at last how you got there, and say, I own this, is the same moment when the trees unloose their soft arms from around you, the birds take back their language, the cliffs fissure and collapse, the air moves back from you like a wave and you can't breathe. No, they whisper. You own nothing. You were a visitor, time after time climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming. We never belonged to you. You never found us. It was always the other way round

Copy the question and answer it in your duo-tang What is the duality at play in Margaret Atwood’s poem The Moment? Explain your thinking. Your response should be 2 paragraphs long. Use evidence from the text to support your thinking.

Diamante Line 1: your beginning topic Line 2: two adjectives about your beginning topic Line 3: three –ing words about your beginning topic Line 4: four nouns or a short phrase linking your topics Line 5: three –ing words about your end topic Line 6: two adjectives about your end topic Line 7: your end topic

Diamante Examples