Notes from the City of the Sun Mao was often known as ‘the red sun of our hearts.’

Lesson 1 – Notes from the City of the Sun AIM: to understand the difference between connotative and literal meaning in poetry. The poem’s sections are the notes of the title, symbols of the search for meaning in the ‘City of the Sun’. This poem marks Bei Dao’s rejection of the official poetic expression allowed by the communist party.

What ideas and feelings do these images suggest to you?

What is the difference between connotative and denotative meaning?

Connotative Meaning Connotative meaning is what a word or image suggests to the reader, for example: ‘black’ = despair ‘boat’ = travel Images in poetry often have a connotative meaning, rather than being simply literal.

Reading the poem - the Task You will explore connotative meanings of images in the poem. For example, the first section is ‘Life’. What does the line ‘And the sun has risen too’ suggest about life? What connotations does sunrise have?

Questions to ask when analysing each section. What might the image or combination of images represent? Explain the possible meaning of the section you have been given. Be prepared to justify your decision.

Mind-mapping the poem Using the Inspiration mind-map program the teacher will now map the responses of each group, projected onto the screen. What has ‘Life’ become by the final section of the poem, ‘Living’? TOK: What is the difference between life and living? The teacher will post the mind-map on the CLC for you to annotate the poem at home.

Plenary TOK: When we read images in a poem how can we know if our interpretation is the correct one?

Homework Beginning and ending with ‘Life’ and ‘Living’ choose 3-5 other headings from Notes from the City of the Sun, and write images of your own that best reflect your experience of life, youth, love, faith, living etc. Next lesson you will display and read your poem to the class, who then will explain the connotative meaning of 1-2 of the images chosen.

Lesson 2 – Notes from the City of the Sun AIM: to understand poetic language and how a poet thinks. Last lesson, what did you learn about reading symbolic images in poetry? Today you will display and read your own poems written in the same structure as ‘Notes from the City of the Sun’. The class will feed back, making comments on the connotative meaning of the images you have chosen to illustrate life, love, living etc.

Questions and Answers What do you think each image represents about the writer’s attitude towards life, faith, love etc?

Interpretation TOK: why were some class members’ readings of the images different from other class members’ readings? How can we test the validity of our reading?

Plenary How has writing a poem composed of images that represent ideas and feelings helped you understand poetic language, and the way a poet thinks?

Homework Read Bei Dao’s ‘Head for Winter’ and choose five images from the poem. Explain what you think each one connotes about the author’s experience of life in communist China. What is the significance of the poem’s title?