‘Your Dad Did What?’

Your Dad Did What? Where they have been, if they have been away, or what they’ve done at home, if they have not - you make them write about the holiday. One writes My Dad did. What? Your Dad did what? That’s not a sentence. Never mind the bell. We stay behind until the work is done. You count their words (you who can count and spell); all the assignments are complete bar one and though this boy seems bright, that one is his. He says he’s finished, doesn’t want to add anything, hands it in just as it is. No change. My Dad did. What? What did his Dad? You find the ‘E’ you gave him as you sort through reams of what this girl did, what that lad did, and read the line again, just one ‘e’ short: This holiday was horrible. My Dad did. http://poetrystation.org.uk/poems/your-dad-did-what/

Connecting the title to the poem What parts of the poem link to the title? What has happened to the father? What are the poet’s intentions? What effect did the poet want to have on her readers?

Annotating the Poem What techniques has Hannah used to express feelings of sadness and regret? Rhyme Repetition Sentence Structure Vocabulary

The Pen and the Gun There’s never a time I use this fountain pen without I’m haunted by a pigeon’s pain. This pen scrats out the panic that it felt. It took almost two days dying. All my fault. My friend Pinhead got an airgun once and what we did with it still makes me wince. His mam bought him it when his dad died. She thought it’d help him not to miss his dad. It was the thing that Pinhead wanted most. He had the first few goes, and always missed the pigeon on his chimney, nowhere near, so wide the bird stayed basking, unaware. Then I tried and got, beginner’s luck, a hit, of sorts, with my first ever shot. It fell in the gutter out of reach and sight but for its claws that scraped against the slate and scratched all day, all night, and not until teatime the next day were those claws still. I was young enough to cry. Never again did I show any interest in a gun I grew to think the pen far mightier than though the scraped claw sound still haunts me from back then. This pen scratching like its slowly blunting claw Has haunted me for fifty years or more

Connecting the title to the poem: How does the title connect to the ideas/feelings expressed in the poem? What do you think the poet’s intentions are? What effect do you think he wanted to have on his readers?

Approaching Section C: Question 2 Compare ‘Your Dad Did What?’ and ‘The Pen and the Gun.’ In these poems, the speakers describe feelings of sadness and regret. What are the similarities and/or differences between the way the poets present these feelings? 8 marks – 15 minutes. Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate

Level 4 7–8 marks • Exploratory comparison of writers’ use of language, structure and form with subject terminology used judiciously • Convincing comparison of effects of writers’ methods on reader Level 3 5–6 marks • Thoughtful comparison of writers’ use of language and/or structure and/or form with subject terminology used effectively to support consideration of methods • Comparative examination of effects of writers’ methods on reader Level 2 3–4 marks • Relevant comparison of writers’ use of language and/or structure and/or form with some relevant use of subject terminology • Some comparison of effects of writers’ methods on reader Level 1 1–2 marks • Some links between writers’ use of language or structure or form • Some links between effects of writers’ methods on reader

‘The Pen and the Gun’ ‘Your Dad Did What?’ Rhyme Structure  ABAB Short sentences  ‘My dad did.’ Emotive language/alliteration  ‘holiday was horrible’ Repetition  Questions  Rhyme Structure  Half rhyme Short sentences  ‘I was young enough to cry.’ Emotive language  ‘wince,’ ‘pain,’ & ‘haunts’ Repetition  Alliteration 

What are other similarities and differences are there in the poems? Comparison What are other similarities and differences are there in the poems? Your Dad Did What? The Pen and the Gun

Subject terminology Impact on the Reader Analysis Both poems, ‘Your Dad Did What’ and ‘The Pen and the Gun,’ use an intriguing title and anecdotal structure to recall a memory of the past where the speakers show feelings of sadness and regret. Hannah uses a structured rhyme scheme of ABAB to convey her speaker’s tale which lulls readers into a false sense of security, the realisation of the ‘one ‘e’ short’ only occurring right at the end with the emotive final line: ‘This holiday was horrible. My dad did.’ The use of short sentences highlights the speaker’s eventual understanding that the child’s father has died and its punchy delivery at the end shocks readers. Furthermore, the use of alliteration speeds up the pace of the poem, arguably reflecting the child’s desire to forget what has happened. Similarly, Harrison uses two line stanzas with half rhymes to convey his speaker’s sadness and trauma of killing a pigeon: ‘once/wince’ and ‘pen/pain.’ He contrasts neutral words with quite negative and emotive lexis to highlight the speaker’s horror of having caused this pigeon so much pain so much so that the memory has ‘haunted’ him for years afterwards, creating a ghost-like image of the pigeon for readers. Overall, Harrison’s speaker is a lot more forthright in explaining his feelings, repeating words such as ‘haunts’ and ‘pain’ and telling us he cried, showing his feelings quite clearly to readers. This is in contrast to Hannah’s speaker whose feelings seem more subtle and readers are left to infer her regret at making the child ‘stay behind until the work is done’ as it takes her some time to finally ‘find the E’ and realise exactly what has happened.

Write a comparative PEELA in response to both poems. In these poems, the speakers describe feelings of sadness and regret. What are the similarities and/or differences between the way the poets present these feelings?