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This Is Poetry Higher Level 2021 Videos
The Bight
Watch Video 1 How would you describe Key West Harbour, which is shown in the video? What three adjectives would you use to describe it? Is it a place you would like to visit? Give a reason for your answer.
The Prodigal
Watch Video 2, which features the biblical story of the Prodigal Son. Were you familiar with this story? Do you think that the father’s treatment of his two sons was fair and just? Give a reason for your answer.
The Armadillo
Watch Video 3, which describes how to manufacture sky lanterns or fire balloons. Write a paragraph describing the main steps in this process.
The Black Lace Fan
Watch Video 4 which is about the material known as 'tortoise shell'. Why, according to the filmmaker, should we avoid purchasing products manufactured from this substance?
White Hawthorn in the West of Ireland
Watch Video 5, which features a reading of the poem by Boland herself. Consider the West of Ireland as it is portrayed in this footage. Does it strike you as an attractive and inviting landscape or as a bleak and forbidding one? Give a reason for your answer.
Outside History
Watch Video 6. What do you know about stars and their distance from Earth? Approximately how long does it take the light of a star to reach us?
Love
Watch Video 7, which recounts Aeneas’s journey into the underworld, a story referenced by Boland throughout the poem.
The Forge
Watch Video 8 of a blacksmith at work in Bunratty Castle, Co. Clare. Then answer the following questions: • What is he making? • Name the different pieces of equipment he uses. • Choose three adjectives that best describe the sounds of the forge and three adjectives that best describe the colours and visuals of the forge.
Bogland
Watch Video 9. What impression does this video give you of the Irish bogland and its ability to tell us about our past?
Bogland
Watch Video 10. Why do you think the poet dedicated the poem to the artist T.P. Flanagan?
The Tollund Man
Watch Video 11. Why does the presenter consider the Tollund Man’s death to have been a sacrificial killing rather than an execution?
A Constable Calls
Watch Video 12, which depicts a series of events that took place twenty years after those described in this poem. What is ticking at the conclusion of the poem? What other devices are known for producing a ticking sound? Do these lines anticipate the Troubles depicted in the video?
Harvest Bow
Watch Video 13 of Seamus Heaney reading ‘The Harvest Bow’ and ‘A Call’. Describe in your own words how these bows were manufactured. Why, according to the poet, did this tradition originate?
The Underground
Watch Video 14 of Seamus Heaney speaking about and reading this poem. What feelings or emotions come across from his performance of the poem? Does his reading style convey regret, anger, fondness, nostalgia, or something else entirely?
The Pitchfork
This video contains a news item on NASA’s space probe Juno. Watch the video carefully, then answer the following questions: • How long has Juno been flying through space? What was the probe’s destination? • Describe in your own words the shape and movement of the probe. • List three aspects of the planet investigated by Juno. • What eventually happened to Juno?
A Call
Watch Video 16, which is based on the medieval play called Everyman. What in your opinion are the three or four main things this story says about death and dying?