Home > Resources > > This Is Poetry HL 26
This is Poetry HL 26
Video 1: The Fish
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by the poet herself:
1. Working as a class, mention three words or phrases that Bishop emphasized as a she read.
2. What impression of Bishop’s personality do you get from her reading style?
3. Would you agree that Bishop’s delivery becomes more emotional near the ending of the poem?
Give a reason for your answer.
Video 2: The Bight
Watch the following video, which features Key West Harbour, the setting for this poem:
1. Working as a class, pick three adjectives would you use to describe this environment.
2. Is it a place you would like to visit? Give a reason for your answer.
3. Based on your viewing of this video, what do you anticipate the poem will be about?
Video 3: At the Fishhouses
Watch the following video, which features a trailer for a documentary about Bishop’s life and work:
1. What impression does the trailer provide of Bishop’s life ad personality?
2. Is this a documentary that you personally would like to see? Give a reason for your answer.
3. ‘I have always been terrifically good at losing things’. Working as a class, can you suggest two or three things that
Bishop lost throughout her life.
Video 4: The Prodigal
Watch the following video, which features the biblical story of the Prodigal Son:
1. Describe in your own words the conditions on which the younger son found himself, after his funds had run out.
2. Do you think that the father’s treatment of his two sons was fair and just? Give a reason for your answer.
3. Based on your viewing of this video, what do you anticipate the poem will be about?
Video 5: Questions of Travel
Watch the following video poem, based on Bishop’s ‘Questions of Travel’:
1. What enjoyable and pleasant aspects of travel feature in the video?
2. What problems with travel does the video highlight?
3. In the opinion of the class, did the addition of visuals and music make the poem more relatable and accessible?
Video 6: The Armadillo
Watch the following video, which describes the process of manufacturing sky lanterns or fire balloons:
1. Write a paragraph describing the main steps in this process.
2. Do you imagine that these lanterns or balloons could be dangerous? Give a reason for your answer.
3. Based on your viewing of the video, what do you anticipate the poem will be about?
Video 7: Sestina
Watch the following video, which features a dramatized reading of the poem:
1. Would you agree that that the video successfully captures a childhood mentality? Give a reason for your answer.
2. As a class, comment on the actor’s delivery of the poem’s conclusion. Did you find her approach too emotional, not emotional enough or just right?
3. In the opinion of the class, did the addition of visuals help bring the poem’s atmosphere into focus?
Video 8: First Death in Nova Scotia
Watch the first four minutes following video, in which Dana Gioia reminisces about having Elizabeth Bishop as a teacher:
1. True or false: Elizabeth Bishop’s course was very popular.
2. How does Gioia characterise Bishop’s demeanour and personality?
3. Describe in your words how Gioia reacted when he entered Bishop’s classroom and saw her in person for the first time.
Video 9: Filling Station
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by actor Glenn Close:
1. Working as a class, can you identify at least two moments where Close conveys an attitude of contempt or disgust?
2. Can you identify two moments where her reading seems amused or light-hearted?
3. Would you agree that her delivery becomes more serious and emotional near the ending of the poem? Give a reason for your answer.
Video 10: The Waiting Room
Watch the following video, which features Bishop reading the poem accompanied by an animation:
1. ‘The animation successfully conveys the poem’s themes of confusion and alienation’. Discuss this statement as a class.
2. ‘Bishop reads the poem in a surprisingly flat and neutral manner, avoiding obvious emotion’. Discuss this statement as a class.
3. Working as a class, identify a place in the reading where Bishop slows her delivery a little. Can you suggest why she might have done so at this point
John Donne
Video 11: Song: Go, and catch a falling star
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by actor Richard Burton:
1. Pick out three words or phrases to which Burton gives particular emphasis while he reads.
2. Identify one place where he speeds up his reading and one place where he slows down.
3. How would you describe the tone of voice with which Burton reads the poem? Is it amused and light-hearted or serious and solemn?
Video 12: The Flea
Watch the following video, which features a dramatised reading of 'The Flea':
1. What is the character played by the male actor attempting to do?
2. What emotions does the female actor display as she responds to his efforts?
3. Did you find the performance effective or silly and over-the-top?
Video 13: The Dream
Watch the following video, which features Katherine Rundell, the author of Super Infinite, a book about John Donne:
1. Rundell found Donne a fascinating subject to weite about. Mention three reasons she gives for this fascination.
2. Mention three features of the age in which Donne lived.
3. True or false: Rundell believes that Donne’s times have little on common with our own.
Video 14: The Sun Rising
Watch the following video, in which the poet Richard Wilbur reads one of his poems:
1. According to Wilbur, what kind of poem is an ‘aubade’?
2. Would you agree that ‘The Sun Rising’ could be described as an aubade?
3. As a class, mention one similarity between ‘The Sun Rising’ and the poem that Wilbur reads. Mention one difference between them.
Video 15: Song: Sweetest love, I do not go
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by B.W. Thornton:
1. Working as a class, identify three adjectives that describe the tone in which Thornton reads the poem.
2. Is his approach to reading the poem an effective one in the opinion of the class?
3. In which lines does Thornton’s reading become most emotional and intense?
Video 16: A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Watch the following video, which features a scene from the end of the famous movie Casablanca:
1. What does Rick want Ilsa to do? How does Ilsa respond to this demand or request?
2. Rick gives several reasons why he and Ilsa must go their separate ways. Describe two of these in your own words.
3. Rick says that he and Ilsa will never actually be apart. What does he mean by this, in the opinion of the class?
Video 17: The Anniversary
Watch the following video, in which the presenter discusses the literary concept known as the extended metaphor:
1. Having watched the video, can you define the term extended metaphor in your own words?
2. According to the presenter, why do authors employ extended metaphors? Does she suggest more than one reason for their use?
3. Working as a class, can you identify an extended metaphor in ‘The Anniversary’?
Video 18: Batter my heart
Watch the following video, which features a musical setting of the poem by the composer John Adams:
1. Did you find the music engaging and enjoyable or boring and old-fashioned?
2. What emotions did the music convey? Did it suggest a relaxed state of mind or one that is stressed and pressured?
3. Based on your viewing of the video, what themes or emotions do you anticipate will be tackled by the poem ‘Batter my heart’?
Video 19: Thou hast made me
Watch the following video, which depicts the Biblical scene in which Satan temps Jesus in the desert:
1. Describe in your own words how the video depicts Satan. Does it fit with traditional portrayals of Satan in film and television?
2. What three things does Satan tempt Jesus to do? How does Jesus respond in each case?
3. ‘The video highlights how Satan, as he is traditionally portrayed, preys upon our various human weaknesses’. Discuss this statement as a class.
Video 20: At the round earth's imagined corners
Watch the first minute following video, which describes the end of the world as it is depicted in the Bible’s Book of Revelation:
1. What impact will the first angel’s trumpet have on the world’s trees and on its grasses?
2. Would you agree that this Biblical depiction of the world’s end is a terrifying one? Give a reason for your answer.
3. The poet wants to be alive when this terrible cataclysm occurs. Working as a class, can you anticipate why this might be the case?
T.S Eliot
Video 21: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Watch the following video, which features an animated version of ‘Prufrock’, paired with a reading of the poem by Eliot himself:
1. What does the animation suggest about the charcter of Prufrock? Working as a class, identify three adjectives that best describe his personality?
2. What does the animation suggest about the world in which the poem takes palce? Is it warm and inviting or cold and oppressive?
3. Working as a class, consider Eliot’s approach to reading his poem. Is it emotional and passionate or deadpan and constrained?
Video 22: Preludes
Watch the following video, which features a reading of 'Preludes' by the actor Jeremy Irons:
1. Pick out three words or phrases to which Irons gives particular emphasis while he reads.
2. Identify one place where he speeds up his reading and one place where he slows down.
3. Working as a class, identify three adjectives that best describe the tone of voice in which Irons reads the poem. Does the class agree that his his tone is suitable to the poem’s atmosphere and setting?
Video 23: Aunt Helen
Watch the following video, which features a reading of 'Preludes' by the actor Jeremy Irons:
1. What impression did you get of Aunt Helen’s personality?
2. Was Aunt Helen someone who cared much about the opinion’s of others?
3. Did the speaker respect his Aunt Helen in the opinion of the class?
Video 24: A Game of Chess
Watch the following video, which features Oliver Tearle discussing The Waste Land, the long poem from which ‘A Game of Chess’ is extracted:
1. Tearle describes The Waste Land as a poem of breakdowns. Mention three different types of breakdown that the poem deals with.
2. Tearle describes how Eliot refers to many long dead writers, especially to Shakespeare. Mention one such Shakespearean character that features in the poem.
3. True or false: The Waste Land had little impact on younger writers when it first appeared.
Video 25: The Journey of the Magi
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by Tim Martin:
1. Watch the opening of the video closely. Identify three words or phrases that Martin emphasizes as he describes the hardships of the mahi’s journey.
2. Working as a class, identify three places where Martin slows or pauses in his reading. Can you suggest why he does so in each case?
3. ‘Martin’s reading is brilliant with the right touch of tiredness, sadness, and resignation’. Discuss this statement as a class.
Video 26: Landscapes
Watch the following video, which features a musical setting of the ‘Rannoch, by Glencoe’ by the composer Conor O’Reilly:
1. Did you find O’Reilly’s musical style appealing or unappealing? Give a reason for your answer.
4. Pick three adjectives that best describe the mood and atmosphere that the music conveys.
5. Based on your viewing of this video, what do you anticipate the poem ‘Rannoch, by Glencoe’ will be about?
Video 27: The Journey of the Magi
Watch the opening four minutes of the following video, which features the poet Seamus Heaney and the writer Jeanette Winterson speaking about Eliot.
1. The video begins with Eliot reading from Four Quartets, the long poem from which ‘East Coker IV’ is extracted. What impression does the class get of his personality based on this footage?
2. True or false: Heaney’s friend Ted Hughes found Eliot to be a casual and approachable person.
3. In what sense, according to Winterson, did Eliot suffer? What did he do to minimize this suffering?
Seamus Heaney
Video 28: The Forge
Watch the following video, which depicts a blacksmith at work in Bunratty Castle, County Clare:
1. What is the blacksmith making?
2. Can you name two different pieces of equipment that he uses?
3. Choose three adjectives that might describe the sounds of the forge and three adjectives that might describe the colours and visual appearance of the forge.
Video 29: Bogland
Watch the following video, which describes the discovery a churn of bog butter in a bog in Tullamore, County Offaly:
1. How much did the churn weigh? Was it completely full of butter or only partially full?
2. True or false: This was the first such discovery in Ireland.
3. How did the turf-cutters remove the churn from the bog? What will happen to it now?
Video 30: Tollund Man
Watch the following video, which depicts the naturally preserved body known as the Tollund Man:
1. For how long did Tollund Man lie in the bog? What casued his face to be so perfectly preserved?
2. What evidence suggests that the Tollund Man was killed as a religious sacrifice rather than an executed criminal?
3. What significance did bog-lands have for Iron Age peoples? Whar physical features of the bogs caused them to be regarded in this way?
Video 31: Sunlight
Watch the following video, which describes how to make traditional Irish brown bread:
1. True or false: This type of bread has a strong family association for the presenter Sinead Davies.
2. Mention four ingredients involved in this recipe.
3. Would you agree that making this type of bread appeals to differnet senses? Give a reason for your answer.
Video 32: A Constable Calls
Watch the following video, which depicts a series of events that took place twenty years after those described in this poem:
1. Describe in your own words at least two of the separate incidents depicted in the video.
2. What is ticking at the conclusion of the poem? What other devices are known for producing a ticking sound?
3. In what sense do these lines anticipate the Troubles depicted in the video?
Video 33: The Skunk
Watch the following video, which focuses on the power and symbolism of the skunk:
1. What traits or characteristics is the skunk said to symbolise?
2. In what sense can the skunk’s signature defence mechanism serve as a reminder to human beings?
3. Why might a skunk be regarded as a symbol of peace and tranquillity?
Video 34: The Harvest Bow
Watch the following video, which features Heaney reading ‘The Harvest Bow’, then answer the questions that follow:
1. From what material were harvest bows made?
2. Heaney suggests that this custom survives from some ancient ritual. What does he suggest might have been the purpose of this ritual?
3. Mention two lines or phrases that Heaney emphasises in his reading. Suggest why he might have given particular weight to these words.
Video 35: The Underground
Watch the following video, which features Heaney reading ‘The Underground’, then answer the questions that follow:
1. Suggest why Heaney might have chosen to read this particular poem on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
2. What happened to his wife’s white coat during their honeymoon in London?
3. Consider the tone with which Heaney reads the poem itself. Is his reading grave and serious or relatively light-hearted? Did this surprise you? Give a reason for your answer.
Video 36: The Pitchfork
Watch the first two and a half minutes of the following video, which describes the mission of the Voyager 1 probe:
1. On what date was the Voyager 1 probe launched into space?
2. What information did it provide about the moon of Jupiter called Io and the moon of Saturn known as Titan?
3. On what date did Voyager 1 leave the solar system utterly behind and reach ‘interstellar space’?
Video 37: Lightenings VIII
Watch the following video, which features Heaney reading ‘Lightenings VIII’, then answer the questions that follow:
1. In his introduction to the reading, Heaney suggests that the poem has a ‘dream truth’. Working as a class, discuss what he might mean by this term.
2. Suggest why Heaney might have chosen to conclude his reading with this particular poem.
3. Mention two lines or phrases that Heaney emphasises in his reading. Suggest why he might have given particular weight to these words.
Video 38: A Call
Watch the following video, which depicts trailer for a modern production of the medieval play entitled ‘Everyman’:
1. What type of lifestyle has the character Everyman, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, been enjoying? Give a reason for your answer
2. In what sense. for Everyman, might the ‘hour be later’ than he thinks it is?
3. Describe in your own words how Everyman reacts to this news.
Video 39: Postscript
Watch the following video, which combines a reading of ‘Postscript’ with footage of the Flaggy Shore in County Clare:
1. Mention two distinctive features of the Flaggy Shore as depicted in this video.
2. Is this a landscape in which you would personally like to spend time? Give a reason for your answer.
3. Do you agree that it would be ‘useless’ to park in an effort to capture this landscape more thoroughly? Refer to the video in your answer.
Video 40: Tate's Avenue
Watch the following video in which an employee of the Seamus Heaney Centre discusses the poem:
1. How many different stages of the poet’s relationship with his wife are described in the poem?
2. What type of object is present in all of the stages he describes?
3. According to the presenter, is the poem’s final stanza set in the past or n the present day? Does the class agree with this view?
Paula Meehan
Video 41: Buying Winkles
Watch the following video, which depicts Dublin at the time the poem’s events ocuured:
1. Mention two ways in which the city has changed since that time. Mention one way in which it is the same.
2. Do you think a young child would feel safe walking Dublin’s streets alone in the late 1950’s?
3. Do you think such a child would feel safer in the modern Dublin of today? Give a reason for your answer.
Video 42: The Pattern
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by the poet herself:
1. Mention three things we learn about the poet's mother from the introduction to the reading.
2. Pick out two or three words or phrases that Meehan particularly emphasises as she reads.
3. During what section of the poem did the poet's reading become most emotional? Give a reason for your answer.
Video 43: The Statue of the Virgin at Granard Speaks
Watch the following video, which is the first part of a documentary about the tragic death of Ann Lovett:
1. Mention three things you learned about Irish society in the 1980s.
2. Has Irish society changed completely since that time?
3. Are any aspects of Irish society the same, in the opinion of the class?
Video 44: My Father Perceived as a Vision of St Francis
Watch the following video, which is a scene from the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon about the life of Saint Francis of Assisi:
1. Who has St Francis come to visit and what does he want to achieve by this visit?
2. Do Francis and his followers seem out of place n this location? Give a reason for your answer.
3. Pick three adjectives that best describe your impression of St Francis's personality
Video 45: The Exact Moment I Became a Poet
Watch the following video, which features an excerpt from the poet’s appearance on the Tommy Tiernan show:
1. What according to Meehan is the ancient symbol of Irish poetry?
2. Describe in your own words how that symbol came about.
3. Meehan insists that poetry is a ‘living thing’. What might she mean by this in the opinion of the class?
Video 46: Death of a Field
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by the poet herself:
1. Would you agree that Meehan’s reading has an incantatory or prayer-like quality?
2. Mention two or three phrases where her reading became particularly intense.
3. How would you describe the tone in which Meehan reads the poem’s conclusion? Is it resigned, sorrowful, optimistic or something else entirely?
Video 47: Them Ducks Died for Ireland
Watch the following video in which an unidentified man recounts his memories of the Easter Rising in 1916:
1. Where was the man in the video when he first heard that the Rising had commenced?
2. True or false: The man in the video encountered no immediate physical danger when he returned to Dublin.
3. ‘Ordinary people, like the man in the video, are all too often forgotten by the history books’. Discuss this statement as a class.
Video 48: Cora, Auntie
Watch the first two minutes of the following video from about 12.00 to 14.00, which features an interview with Paula Meehan:
1. In what sense does Meehan think of Dublin’s inner city as a ‘magic place’?
2. In what sense was Meehan ‘surrounded by poetry’ as she was growing up?
3. In what sense did Meehan’s childhood connect her with Irish history?
Video 49: Prayer for the Children of Longing
Watch the first two minutes of the following video, which features a reading of the sequence ‘The Lost Children of the Inner City’:
1. In what sense were the children of the inner city ‘overwhelmed’?
2. True or false: Meehan believes the Irish State is not to blame for the fate that befell these children.
3. In what sense might Molly Malone, the character from the famous song, be considered one Dublin’s lost children?
Video 50: Hearth Lesson
Watch this short video describing the relationship between Zeus and Hera and answer the following questions:
1. According to the narrator, how do ancient myths differ from modern day novels and movies?
2. What scheme does King Cithaeron propose to help Zeus win Hera back? What convinces the king that this scheme is likely to succeed?
3. Based on the behaviour of both Zeus and Hera depicted in this video, do you think they are capable of having a normal, stable relationship? Give a reason for your answer.
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Video 51: Lucina Schynning in the Silence of the Nicht
Watch the opening two minutes of the following video, in which Ní Chuilleanáin introduces a reading of her work:
1. In the opinion of the class, what does Ní Chuilleanáin mean when she says that Ireland has ‘a lot of history’?
2. Ní Chuilleanáin suggests that Irish people ‘can’t cope with history’. Is she correct in the opinion of the class?
3. What strange power or ability as possessed by the character Proteus in Greek mythology? Why might Ní Chuilleanáin consider Proteus a good metaphor or symbol for the concept of history?
Video 52: The Second Voyage
Watch the following video, which discusses how the character of Odysseus, from Greek mythology, has been represented in literature, art, and cinema over the ages:
1. Mention three features of Odysseus’s personality as described by the video’s presenter.
2. How does Ní Chuilleanáin’s portrayal of Odysseus compare to that outlined in the video?
3. Why do you think the poet was drawn to Odysseus? What is it about this character that she finds most fascinating? Give a reason for your answer.
Video 53: Deaths and Engines
Watch the following video, in which Ní Chuilleanain discusses her collection pf poetry The Map of the World, which appeared in 2023:
1. Mention two impulses that lay behind the writing of this recent volume.
2. Ni Chuilleanáin mentions W.B Yeats as an early influence on her work. Working as a class, describe in your own words what she learnt from him.
3. Describe in your own words the role that waiting plays in her writing process.
Video 54: Street
Watch the opening four minutes of the following video, which features Ní Chuilleanain in conversation with Susan McKay:
1. Mention three different ways, according to Ní Chuilleanáin, in which St Brigid’s Day is or ahs been significant to the Irish people.
2. Describe in your own words how Ní Chuilleanain became involved in the St Brigid’s Day festival.
3. What impression of Ní Chuilleanain’s personality do you get from this interview?
Video 55: Fireman’s Lift
Watch the following video from about 1.00 to 3.45. It discusses the fresco painted on the ceiling of Parma Cathedral by Antonia Da Corregio in the 16 th Century:
1. How long did it take Corregio to paint the ceiling of the cathedral?
2. Who can be seen reaching down from the ‘oculus’ of light at the centre of the image? Who is being propelled upward toward this light?
3. According to the presenter, why does Corregio’s of image have a rather bizarre quality?
Video 56: All For You
Watch the following video, in which Ní Chuilleanáin reads and speaks about 'All For You':
1. What provided Ní Chuilleanáin's original spark of inspiration for the poem? To what extent is the house in the poem the same house in which Ní Chuilleanáin herself grew up?
2. What effect did Ní Chuilleanáin wish to convey through her depiction of the house's ovens?
3. What trope common to many fairy tales does Ní Chuilleanáin refer to in the video?
Video 57: Following
Watch the Watch the opening three minutes of the following video, which features an interview with the poet:
1. What is Ní Chuilleanáin’s definition of poetry?
2. True or false: Ní Chuilleanáin believes poetry and art have no connection with politics.
3. In what sense, according to Ní Chuilleanáin, has the relationship bwtween politics and life in general changed during her lifetime?
Video 58: Kilcash
Watch the following video, which features a performance of ‘Caoineadh Cil Cais’ or ‘Lament for Kilcash’, the old Irish song on which the poem is based:
1. Did you find the song and its musical style appealing or unappealing? Give a reason for your answer.
2. Pick three adjectives that best describe the mood and atmosphere that the music conveys.
3. Based on your viewing of this video, what do you anticipate the poem ‘Kilcash’ will be about?
Video 59: Translation
Watch the following video, which features a tarielr fro the 2002 film The Magdalene Sisters:
1. What impression does the video provide of the institutions known as Magdalene Laundries?
2. How do you think, based on your viewing of the video, that young women ended up in these institutions?
3. Based on your viewing of this video, what do you anticipate the poem ‘Translation’’ will be about?
Video 60: The Bend in the Road
Watch the following video in which four writers describe what literature means to them personally:
1. Write a sentence describing in your own words each participant’s view of literature.
2. Ní Chuilleanain suggests that literature might ‘liberate us’. What might she mean by this, in the opinion of the class?
3. Which view struck you as most inspiring and relatable?
Video 61: On Lacking the Killer Instinct
Watch the following video, which features a short interview with the poet:
1. What happens, according to Ní Chuilleanáin, when a poem is read aloud before an audience?
2. What effect does narrative have on the readers of poetry?
3. At the end of the video Ní Chuilleanáin focuses on one of the benefits of literature. Working as a class, describe in your own words the benefit she has in mind.
Video 62: To Niall Woods and Xenya Ostrovskaia, Married in Dublin on 9 September 2009
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by the poet herself:
1. Mention three words or phrases to which Ní Chuilleanáin gives particular emphasis as she reads.
2. Consider the tone with which reads the poem. Is her reading grave and serious or relatively light-hearted? Did this surprise you? Give a reason for your answer.
3. As a class consider the manner in which the poet reads the conclusion of the poem. What emotions did this part of the reading convey?
Tracy K Smith
Video 63: Joy
Watch the following video in which Smith discusses her understanding of the emotion joy:
1. Is joy, for Smith, the same thing as happiness? In what sense does joy involve ‘sacrifice?’
2. How has Smith’s understanding of joy changed since she became a parent?
3. Why according to Smith is the work associated with joy more vital now than it ever was?
Video 64: Dominion over the beasts of the Earth
Watch the following video (from about 2:30 to 4:30) in which life coach Clark Kegley tackles the topic of relationships:
1. What does the speaker suggest we have to get over in order to move on from past relationships?
2. What does the speaker say he regularly hears from people when they are talking about their past relationships?
3. The speaker says we tell ourselves two stories about past relationships. How does he characterise each of these stories? Does he think we are being honest when we tell ourselves these stories?
Video 65: The Searchers
Watch the following video which contains the final scene from The Searchers. Some years ago, Debbie was kidnapped by a tribe of Native Americans known as the Comanche. Now, having been rescued by her Uncle Ethan, she is returned to the bosom of her family:
1. What emotions, if any, does Debbie convey at having safely returned home following her captivity among the Comanche tribe?
2. How do Debbie’s family members react to her safe return?
3. Ethan, having returned Debbie to her homestead, has completed a long and very difficult quest. How does he react to this achievement? Does his response surprise you?
Video 66: Letter to a Photojournalist Going-In
Watch the following video, from about 2.00 to 4.30, which follows a war-photographer as he goes about his work:
1. What problem has affected the citizens of Ni’lin? How have they responded to this development?
2. What potential dangers and hazards will the photographer face as he films events in Ni’lin?
3. Working as a class, can you suggest what might motivate the photographer to undertake such difficult and dangerous work?
Video 67: The Universe is a House Party
Watch the following video, which discusses the creation of the Hubble telescope, a project on which Smith’s father was employed:
1. What power source does the Hubble telescope use?
2. How often does the telescope orbit the earth?
3. What was the telescope upgraded during its most recent servicing mission?
Video 68: The Museum of Obsolescence
Watch the following video, from about 16.57 to 19.00, in which Smith discusses the importance of being a poet today:
1. Working as class, discuss the anxiety that Smith feels about our consumer-based modern society.
2. Poetry, according to Smith, can ‘help us find our way back to something’. Working as a class, discuss what she means by this.
3. Poetry, according to Smith, can allow us to ‘ponder things’. Working as a class, suggest two different aspects of life that poetry might help us think more clearly about.
Video 69: Don’t you wonder, sometimes?
Watch the following video, from about 14.48 to 18.00, which features Smith reading a section of the poem:
1. From where did Smith derive the title of this poem?
2. Working as a class, comment on how Smith’s reading emphasises the poem’s rhythm and internal rhymes.
3. Working as a class, comment on Smith’s tone of voice as she reds. Is its grave and serious or more casual and light-hearted?
Video 70: It’s not
Watch the first minute and a half of following video in which Smith discuses her prize-winning collection Life on Mars:
1. True or false: Smith hated doing the research for this book.
2. Mention three science fiction films that influenced Smith during her composition of the book.
3. Smith suggests that these films gave her a ‘different language’ for thinking about science and space. Discuss this statement as a class.
Video 71: The Universe as Primal Scream
Watch the following video, which features an excerpt from the ‘Dawn of Man’ sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey:
1. What emotions does the screaming of the apes seem to convey?
2. What new technology have the screaming apes discovered?
3. What new era might their screaming herald? Why might the apes have ‘no name’ for this era?
Video 72: The Greatest Personal Privation
Watch the following video, which discusses the institution of slavery in the American South during the 19th century:
1. What does the presenter mean when slaves were sold with no concern for ‘parentage?’
2. What threat was posed to this society by the sight of freed black people? What steps were taken to offset this fear?
3. Based on your viewing of this video, what do you anticpate the poem will be about?
Video 73: I will tell you the truth about this, I will tell you all about it
Watch the following video, in which Smith reads an excerpt from her long poem ‘I will tell you the truth about this, I will tell you all about it’:
1. Mention three words or phrases to which Smith gives particular emphasis as she reads.
2. Consider the tone with which reads the poem. Is her reading grave and serious or relatively light-hearted?
3. As a class consider the manner in which the poet reads the conclusion of the excerpt. What emotions did this part of the reading convey?
Video 74: Ghazal
Watch the first two and a half minutes of the following video, which features a new report describing Smith’s appointment as poet laureate of the United States:
1. According to the presenter, what is the goal of the poet laureateship?
2. Smith suggests that language can be a ‘revelation’. What might she mean by this in the opinion of the class?
3. Mention two themes that Smith identifies in her poetry collection Life On Mars. Was she consciously aware of those themes when she was composing the book?
William Butler Yeats
Video 75: The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by the poet herself:
1. Would you agree Yeats’s reading style has an incantatory or prayer-like quality?
2. Mention two or three phrases where his reading of the poem became particularly intense.
3. How would you describe the tone in which Yeats reads the poem’s conclusion? Does his voice convey sorrow or happiness or some mixture of the two?
Video 76: September 1913
Watch the following video, which showcases ‘September 1913’ as performed by Stephen James Smith and Enda Reilly:
1. What emotion, in your opinion, come across most strongly in this performance?
2. Did you think the musical accompaniment suited the themes and imagery of the poem?
3. In the opinion of the class, why might two contemporary performers be drawn to this text which was written over one hundred years ago?
Video 77: The Wild Swans at Coole
Watch the following video, which showcases Coole Park, County Galway:
1. Mention three features of Coole Park as depicted in the video.
2. Is this is a place you personally would like to visit? Give a reason for your answer.
3. Working as a class, can you suggest why a poet like Yeats might be drawn to such an environment?
Video 78: An Irish Airman Foresees His Death
Watch the following video, which contains a montage of clips from various action movies. Watch the video carefully, then answer the following questions:
1. Which clip is your favourite? Give a reason for your answer.
2. In the opinion of the class, which clip best conveys the exhilaration of travelling at great speed or of controlling a powerful machine?
3. How does the filmmaker achieve this effect?
Video 79: Easter 1916
Watch the following video, which describes the origins of the Easter Rising:
1. Mention at least three individuals who were involved in the organisation of the Rising.
2. What did those who organised it hope to achieve?
3. In what sense did the fail in the achievement of these aims?
4. In what sense might they be considered to have succeeded?
Video 80: The Second Coming
Watch the following video, which features a dramatised reading of the poem:
1. As a class, comment on the images chosen to accompany to the poem. Which images did you find most effective? Are there any that struck the class silly or inappropriate?
2. Based on your viewing of the video, what topics do you anticipate will be tackled by ‘The Second Coming’?
3. What do you anticipate will be the tone of the poem? Do you expect a joyful, optimistic piece or one filled with anxiety and dread?
Video 81: Sailing to Byzantium
Watch the first three minutes of the following video, which considers the art of the medieval Byzantine Empire:
1. The city once known has Byzantium has had two other names over its long history. What are these?
2. True or false: The art produced by the Byzantine Empire has always been held in very high regard.
3. In what century was the building known as the Haghia Sophia built? How long did it take to build? What Emperor was responsible for its creation?
Video 82: The Stare’s Nest by My Window
Watch the following video, which features Thoor Ballylee in County Galway, the tower in which Yeats once made his home: below and answer the following questions:
1. According to the video, why was Thoor Ballylee so important to Yeats?
2. In what year did he move from this tower? What happened to the tower after he left it?
3. What happened to the tower in 2015?
Video 83: In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz
This video depicts Lissadell House in Co. Sligo. After watching the video carefully, answer the questions below:
1. What recent projects have been undertaken with regard to the house and its gardens?
2. What features of the house and its gardens strike you as appealing? Are there any features of the property that strike you as unappealing?
3. Is it a place where you personally would like to live or spend part of every year? Give a reason for your answer.
Video 84: Swift’s Epitaph
Watch the following extract from an episode of The Daily Show:
1. Google the term 'satire. Who or what is being satirised in this extract?
2. How is the satire being carried out?
3. Is it easy to see why creators of satire, like Jonathon Swift, might cause outrage and anger?
Video 85: An Acre of Grass
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem by the actress Sarah Joyce:
1. Was this reading of the poem an effective one in the opinion of the class?
2. Mention two or three phrases where Joyce’s reading of the poem became particularly intense.
3. Which emotions did her reading convey?
Video 86: from Under Ben Bulben
Watch the following video, which features the song ‘Yeats’s Grave’ by The Cranberries:
1. Did the class find the lyrics and music of the song appealing?
2. In the opinion of the class, what attitude toward Yeats and his work is conveyed by the song?
3. Can the class identify any words or phrases by Yeats that have been incorporated into the song’s lyrics?
Video 87: Politics
This video contains newsreel footage from 1938, the year in which the poem was written:
1. Where did Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, travel to? Who did he meet there?
2. What did Chamberlain believe he had achieved by means of this visit?
3. What do you imagine the mood in Europe must have been like at this time?