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This is Poetry OL 26
Video 1: 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 2: 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 3: 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 4: 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 5: 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 tone is suitable to the poem’s atmosphere and setting?
Video 6: Aunt Helen
Watch the following video, which features a reading of the poem accompanied by a simple animation:
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 7: 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 8: 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 9: 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 10: 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 11: 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 12: 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.
Video 13: 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 14: 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?
Video 15: 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 16: 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 17: 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 18: 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 19: 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 20: 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