Your homework was to use SMILE to annotate your poem.

Work with the people on your table to discuss and add to your annotations…

Add any additional ideas and seek help.

Starter

5 minutes

PoetryL.O: To analyse the imagery in Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes

Monday, 24th February 2014

Hawk Roosting I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.Inaction, no falsifying dreamBetween my hooked head and hooked feet:Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. The convenience of the high trees!The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s rayAre of advantage to me;And the earth’s face upward for my inspection. My feet are locked upon the rough bark.It took the whole of CreationTo produce my foot, my each feather:Now I hold Creation in my foot Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly –I kill where I please because it is all mine.There is no sophistry in my body:My manners are tearing off heads – The allotment of death.For the one path of my flight is directThrough the bones of the living.No arguments assert my right: The sun is behind me.Nothing has changed since I began.My eye has permitted no change.I am going to keep things like this.  

The poetTed Hughes was born near Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1930. His father was a carpenter and a veteran of World War One. Although his family moved when he was eight years old, the landscape of his birthplace had a huge impact on his writing. He went to Cambridge in the 1950s where he read English Literature, Anthropology and Archaeology. While at Cambridge, he met his first wife, Sylvia Plath, whom he married in 1956.  After university he had various jobs, including working in a zoo, teaching and reading scripts at Pinewood Studios. Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes had two children but later separated. In the year after their separation she committed suicide. Hughes’ next relationship was with Assia Wevill. They lived together and she looked after his children from his first marriage. However, she also committed suicide, gassing herself and her daughter in a manner similar to that of Plath. In 1970, Hughes married Carol Orchard and they remained together until his death. In 1984 Hughes became Poet Laureate and held the post until his death. He died in 1998, shortly after the publication of Birthday Letters, a collection of poems about his relationship with Sylvia Plath. His ashes were scattered on Dartmoor.

Hawk Roosting ‘Hawk Roosting’ was published in 1960 as part of Hughes’ second book, Lupercal. It is one of many poems that he wrote about nature and the natural world. At the time of writing Hughes was living with his wife Sylvia Plath, in America.

Imagery In pairs Choose what you think is the most striking image

in the poem. Then prepare an explanation saying:

what the image is what it means in your own words why you think it is striking.

These do not have to be lengthy explanations.

Each pair should write their chosen image onto the A3 sheet and prepare to share with the class

Classifying the images

In small groups (on your table) write the categories onto cards and classify each image as either positive or negative.

While discussing you should be questioning what makes something positive or negative; discussing the process of making value judgements.

Each group will feed back to the class.

Alternatives Think of other ways the images could be

divided into groups or categorised, Look for links and make creative

connections. For example, you could try placing the

images under headings such as arrogance, violence and enjoyment. The important thing is not that you find categories that work absolutely, but to find categories that work.

Review Which image do you feel is most

important when relating this poem to the theme of power and control?

Why?

Write a sentence summarising your ideas.

Look at the pronouns used in the poem.

List the different ones used and count the number of times they are used.

What might this suggest about the poem and its narrator?

PoetryL.O: To analyse the language in Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes

Wednesday, 26th February 2014

Control and ownership List all the nouns used in the poem.

something that is part of the hawk a natural phenomenon something that the hawk thinks it owns

or controls.

Use highlighters or coloured pencils to indicate which category each word belongs to.

1. How does the poet create a sense of the hawk's superiority? 2. Why do you think the poem is written in present tense?3. Could this poem be linked to the government and political leaders? If so how?4. Is the reader supposed to agree with the hawk's opinion of itself?5. Why do you think the poet has chosen a hawk to convey his opinions?

PoetryL.O: To analyse the language and structure of Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes

Thursday, 27th February 2014

Hawk Roosting I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.Inaction, no falsifying dreamBetween my hooked head and hooked feet:Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. The convenience of the high trees!The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s rayAre of advantage to me;And the earth’s face upward for my inspection. My feet are locked upon the rough bark.It took the whole of CreationTo produce my foot, my each feather:Now I hold Creation in my foot Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly –I kill where I please because it is all mine.There is no sophistry in my body:My manners are tearing off heads – The allotment of death.For the one path of my flight is directThrough the bones of the living.No arguments assert my right: The sun is behind me.Nothing has changed since I began.My eye has permitted no change.I am going to keep things like this.  

Structure - Look closely at each stanza . What do you notice? What does this link to?

Punctuation - Track the use of punctuation. Why are there so many end stopped lines? Meaning – What is the main

theme of the poem?

Imagery - What extended metaphor is used

in the poem? Language – What language

features have been used and why?

Effect – How does the poet feel about the subject? Are you being offered a message or a view of things the writer wants you to share or understand? If so, what?

Structure - Turning points

Identify a turning point in the poem. A place where the mood or topic changes.

One school of thought about this poem suggests that there is a turning point in the poem – line 13.

The theory is that the poem revolves around that point as the hawk thinks the world turns around it.

Another school of thought holds that the mood of the poem changes several times and so there are several turning points.

This poem is just about a hawk…

Some people have suggested that it is really about people’s arrogance, the attitudes of those in power, rich people and even Satan.

However, others have argued that Hughes’ nature poems are just about nature and so the poem is just about a hawk.

CHOOSE ONE OF THE TOPICS BELOW. Discuss in pairs-5 minutes-Then write a response.

This is a poem about humans rather than a hawk. Discuss.

This is a poem about power. Do you agree?

THINK – PAIR - SHARE

Review Peer assessment – swap your work and

mark with…