2. Poetry Anthology – Revision Session 1
Poem at 39

3. Wednesday
Poem at 39
Wednesday
Piano/The Tyger
Wednesday
Remember/Sonnet 116
Wednesday
Telephone Conversation
Wednesday
Mother in a Refugee Camp
Wednesday If
Wednesday
Do Not Go Gentle

4. Themes (links) Love Family War Memories Hopes for the future Racism
Childhood
Conflict
Parent and child
Close relationship
Images of
Behaviour
Hopes and fears
Tell stories
Death
Life
Childhood
Memories
People
Pain and suffering
Thoughts and feelings

5. Themes (links) Love Family War Memories Hopes for the future Racism
Childhood
Conflict
Parent and child
Close relationship
Images of
Behaviour
Hopes and fears
Tell stories
Death
Life
Childhood
Memories
People
Pain and suffering
Thoughts and feelings

6. Themes?
Love
Death
Parental relationship
Memories
All
About
The speaker’s father has passed away; she is 39 years old. The poem describes, chronologically, the memories she has of her father.
Message
Parents have a huge influence on their children.
Fade
Feelings of the speaker/voice/character
Admiration of her father
A tone of regret
A celebration of his life and influence
Like
Language – poetic techniques – that link to the theme(s) ?
Soft
Structure
Free verse
Enjambment (train of thought)
First part of the poem is her regrets; the second is her pleasure in being similar to him
Rainbows
Reader response
Reminds me of my relationship with my dad, sympathy, appreciate the time that I have…

7. How I miss my father! He cooked like a person dancing in a yoga meditation and craved the voluptuous sharing of good food. Now I look and cook just like him: my brain light; tossing this and that into the pot; seasoning none of my life the same way twice; happy to feed whoever strays my way. He would have grown to admire the woman I’ve become: cooking, writing, chopping wood, staring into the fire.
How I miss my father. I wish he had not been so tired when I was born.
Writing deposit slips and checks I think of him. He taught me how. This is the form, he must have said: the way it is done. I learned to see bits of paper as a way to escape the life he knew and even in high school had a savings account.
He taught me that telling the truth did not always mean a beating; though many of my truths must have grieved him before the end.

8. Follow the star… Explore the theme of loss in the poem…
Walker explores losing her father in ‘Poem at 39’. She explains that he had an influence on her, ‘now I cook and look just like him’. The phrase ‘just like him’ tells the reader that she has almost become her father. She is able to remember her father which helps her with grieving the loss of him.

9. Structure Discussion
The poem is written with short lines in free verse
The intuitive leaps between verses and the informal tone make it sound like a stream of thought
The frequent use of “I” makes this very personal and the nostalgic atmosphere makes it clear that she is recalling happy times from the past that she has spent with her father

10. Discussion Points Relationship with father Relationship with money
Dad as an influence
Echoing the first line?
Turning point in the poem?
Does she still want his approval?
Impact of free verse?

11. Top Tips for the Anthology Question
You don’t need to compare
Centre your discussion around the key theme in the question – bring everything you say back to this key word
When you select a quotation, analyse it and link it back to the theme of the question
Use the A M F L S R to help you structure your answer

12. Possible Response Structure?
Poem 1
Poem 2
Paragraph 1
About/Memories P2
Fade P3
Like P4
Soft P5
Rainbows
And remember…
Every sentence you write, point you raise of quotation you analyse needs to link back to the THEME OF THE QUESTION