1. Shooting Stars Analysing Quotes
Learning Intention:
I can write in detail on a key quote in a text I am studying.

2. Analysis: What I am looking for
That you can identify what POINT the writer is making with this part of the poem
You can pick out and analyse the key aspects of each quote
You can identify the relevance of the quote to:
Character – how the persona of the Holocaust victim is developed
Setting – A concentration camp and the violence and brutality that happens within there
Theme – Persecution/Religion/Humanity
Again, you can edit according to ability
With a Higher class – you may wish to let them annotate in groups, perhaps assigning them a stanza each. However, the lecture style method may help them prepare for the pace in National 6. With the Nat 5 classes, you may wish to take your time, even given them a photocopy of the annotated slides.

3. Quote 1/9
POINT
What point is Duffy making about the treatment of the Jews in this quote?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
After I no longer speak they break our fingers to salvage my wedding ring.
Break
What are the connotations of break?
What does this reveal about the treatment of the Jews?
After I no longer speak
What does this suggest about the woman
What is the effect on the reader?
Salvage my wedding ring
What does the word choice “salvage” tell you about what is happening
Why is it significant that it is her wedding ring?

4. Quote 2/9 Beneath the gaze of men with guns. POINT
What point is Duffy making about the men who guard the women?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
Beneath the gaze of men with guns.
What does the guns suggest about the concentration camp?
What does this tell you about who has the power in this relationship
Gaze – look steadily without emotion – what does this suggest about the men?

5. Quote 3/9 Mourn for our daughters, upright as statues, brave. POINT
What point is Duffy making about the women of the camp?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
Mourn for our daughters, upright as statues, brave.
What emotion is evoked in the reader by use of the word “daughters”
Analyse the connotations of the word “mourn”
Analyse the simile and what it tells you about the attitude of the women to what is happening to them?

6. Quote 4/9
POINT
What point is Duffy making about the theme of remembrance?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
Remember. Remember those appalling days which make the world forever bad.
What connotations/meaning does the word appalling have?
Why does Duffy repeat the word remember?
Why does she use capital letters?
Why has the world gone “forever bad”?
What does this tell you about Duffy’s opinion of the Holocaust?

7. Quote 5/9
POINT
What point is Duffy making about acts of violence?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
One saw I was alive. Loosened his belt. My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear.
Why is the effect of using the word “one”?
What does this say about how prisoners and guards view one another
How would you expect a man to behave – and how does he actually behave?
What is implied by this phrase?
Why is this a powerful statement?
What is suggested by this metaphor?

8. Quote 6/9
POINT
What point is Duffy making about death?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
How would you prepare to die, on a perfect April evening with young men gossiping and smoking by the graves?
What is the effect of using “you”?
Why does Duffy ask this question at this point?
Why is this an unusual or shocking image?
What does this imply about the guards?
What is the contrast created between this description and the reality of what is going on?
What is the effect on the reader?

9. Quote 7/9
POINT
What point is Duffy making the treatment of the Jews?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
My bare feet felt the earth and urine trickled down my legs. I heard the click. Not yet. A trick.
What is the effect of using the sentence structure AND internal rhyme?
What does this show about the nature of the guard?
What does this show about the experience of the woman?
What is implied by the phrase “bare feet?”

10. Quote 8/9
POINT
What point is Duffy making the violence taking place in the concentration camp?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
After immense suffering someone takes tea on the lawn. After the terrible moans a boy washes his uniform.
Why is this such a shocking image?
Why is the word “boy” significant in the poem?
What does this imply about the guards?
Comment on the connotations of the words in these two phrases

11. Quote 9/9 Turn thee unto me with mercy, for I am desolate and lost.
POINT
What point is Duffy about her view of the world?
RELEVANCE
Character?
Setting?
Theme?
Turn thee unto me with mercy, for I am desolate and lost.
What is the final truth of the poem?
Why does the narrator address the reader at this point?