The Émigrée QfL: How can I consider alternative interpretations of specific language choice? Word of the Day: Forgo (v.): To go without She wanted to forgo the dessert and leave while they could. Starter: ‘To leave’ - How many alternative impressions can you come up with for this line? Challenge: What varied contexts might this be related to ?

Considering A02: -Analysis of writer’s methods with subject terminology used judiciously -Exploration of effects of writer’s methods on reader Specific Word Choice Personal impressions Feelings Connotations and associations Considers multiple levels of meaning Critically analysing

The impact of word choice: almost every poetic phrase can be evaluated (critically explore) on multiple levels. An example below: An impression of something never-ending The ‘unknown’- mysterious or shadowy group/figures Implies a separation The concept of support- trust “they circle me.” Implies a large, imposing group- being outnumbered personal experience of isolation A journey- although one without a purpose or destination The concept of equality- levels, scale or viewpoints Being trapped, imprisoned

You will have 2 minutes to add each each new comment/impression. You will be creating some ‘alternative’ quotation explosions today. Your teacher has chosen 8 quotations from a new unseen poem and cut them out. You will pass these between you across the class, adding your ‘alternative’ impressions and insights. You will have 2 minutes to add each each new comment/impression. Read those already there before you add your own- the aim is to expand and deepen the analysis

The overall impression created by these poetic extracts is...... On your tables, stick each of the quotation explosions to the sugar paper and review your ideas. (You will be using these annotations to form your extended response in tomorrow’s lesson Let’s share our impressions! What are the best ideas we have for each quotation? The overall impression created by these poetic extracts is...... as a child It tastes of sunlight. I am branded the bright, filled paperweight like a hollow doll the graceful slopes sick with tyrants dancing through the city

Plenary: Reading the full poem. How does the full text change your impression of the poetic message and impact? What are you surprised by? The Emigrée (1993) Carol Rumens There once was a country… I left it as a child but my memory of it is sunlight-clear for it seems I never saw it in that November which, I am told, comes to the mildest city. The worst news I receive of it cannot break my original view, the bright, filled paperweight. It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants, but I am branded by an impression of sunlight. The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks and the frontiers rise between us, close like waves. That child’s vocabulary I carried here like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar. Soon I shall have every coloured molecule of it. It may by now be a lie, banned by the state but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight. I have no passport, there’s no way back at all but my city comes to me in its own white plane. It lies down in front of me, docile as paper; I comb its hair and love its shining eyes. My city takes me dancing through the city of walls. They accuse me of absence, they circle me. They accuse me of being dark in their free city. My city hides behind me. They mutter death, and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight