Hello, everyone.

My name's Ms. Keller, and welcome to today's lesson.

I'm so glad you could join me.

In this session, we will be exploring how poets reminisce and remember loved ones.

For this lesson, you will need a copy of your AQA Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology.

So by the end of this lesson, we'll be able to identify key similarities and differences between three poems. "Eden Rock" by Charles Causley, "Climbing My Grandfather" by Andrew Waterhouse and "Before You Were Mine" by Carol Ann Duffy.

So let's explore today's keywords.

We have familial, reminisce, ambiguous, multifaceted, and tentative language.

So what do these words mean? Well, familial relates to family bonds and relationships.

Reminiscing is recalling past experiences or events with fondness or nostalgia.

Ambiguous means that something is unclear or has multiple interpretations.

And multifaceted is a word which links to ambiguous because it means that something has many different aspects or facets.

And if we look at those two words together, we could see how something could be ambiguous because it is multifaceted.

And that last word then tentative language is words or expressions used to convey uncertainty.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, we are going to begin by exploring how all three poems are similar, and then when we've done that, we are going to explore how they are different.

All three poems reflect on a familial relationship.

And I'd like to throw it over to you at this point for a quick discussion.

So think about which familial relationship does each of these three poems focus on? So have a discussion with the people around you, or if you are working on your own, that's okay.

Just make notes on your paper or in your exercise book.

Pause the video for as long as you need to, and when you're ready to continue, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really fantastic discussions taking place there, and I'm very impressed by how much you can already remember about these three poems. So well done.

Let's just pick up then on some responses that I overheard.

So "Eden Rock," which type of familiar relationship do we see in this poem? Well done if you picked up on the idea that this poem focuses on the relationship between the speaker and his parents, and then over into "Climbing My Grandfather," I think we've got a bit of a clue in the title there that this poem focuses on the relationship between the speaker and his grandfather.

And finally, in "Before You Were Mine," Carol Ann Duffy focuses on the relationship between the speaker and her mother.

So we've got that core similarity there that all three relationship types that we see in these poems are familial relationships.

So let's have a look at another similarity.

This time, to do with the speaker of all three poems. So I'd like you to think again and discuss with the people around you or make some notes.

What do all three speakers in these poems have in common? So pause the video here for as long as you need to and when you are ready to feedback your responses, click play.

Okay, some really interesting discussions taking place there.

And well done if you picked up on the idea that all three speakers describe childhood memories.

So let's have a look specifically at how each poem does this.

So in "Eden Rock," Charles Causley describes a family picnic.

In "Climbing My Grandfather," again, clue is in the title, but the speaker describes a memory of climbing his grandfather's body as a child.

And then in "Before You Were Mine," the speaker describes how the mother taught the speaker to dance.

So in all three of these poems, our speakers are describing memories from their childhood.

Okay, similarity number three.

All three poems imply that the family members may have since passed away or the poem explores loss in some way.

So over to you again then.

I would like you to think carefully about how each of these three poets conveys this idea.

So pause the video while you discuss this with the people around you or make your notes.

And when you're ready to discuss your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So again, starting with "Eden Rock." We are thinking about how each poet conveys a sense of loss in their poem.

So in "Eden Rock" then, of course it creates an uncanny atmosphere, which implies that the poem may be set in the afterlife.

In "Climbing My Grandfather," the poem ends with a tranquil image of our speaker laying at the summit of the mountain, his grandfather's head, watching the clouds above him.

And then in "Before You Were Mine," in the third stanza, Carol Ann Duffy emphasises how the mother or the younger version of her that we were introduced to in the first two stanzas has now faded away.

And onto our final key similarity then.

The speakers of all three poems suggest their relationship with their loved ones is ambiguous and multifaceted.

And remember those two key words from today's lesson, multifaceted meaning that something has more than one important aspect.

And ambiguous is when something is unclear, perhaps because there are multiple interpretations.

So remembering that key link there between those words.

So I'll hand over to you again.

So how do we get this impression in each of the three poems? Pause the video while you take some time to discuss this.

And when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So let's have a look at how the three poems convey this sense of ambiguity.

So in "Eden Rock," the parents are portrayed as caricatures and Causley often use these quite stereotypical, generalised descriptions of them.

And then in "Climbing My Grandfather," the grandfather is presented as familiar and reassuring yet also wise and mysterious.

So throughout this poem, we get these two quite contradictory portrayals of the grandfather, which gives us this impression that our speaker's view of him is multifaceted.

And perhaps this leads us to view the grandfather as an ambiguous figure.

And finally then in "Before You Were Mine," the mother's feelings are conveyed through the speaker's perspective.

So although at times in this poem we get the impression that perhaps the mother felt a sense of loss in terms of the loss of her independence, we do always hear these opinions through the voice of our speaker.

So it does lead us to think, is this actually what the mother thinks or is this our speaker's perspective of what they imagine their mother would think? So let's just summarise these similarities then.

So all three poems reflect on a familial relationship, describe childhood memories, explore themes of loss and remembrance, and portray an ambiguous and multifaceted relationship.

So now we've got these key similarities.

The next step in our analysis is to find and analyse relevant supporting detail from each of the poems. So let's start with that first bullet point then.

All three poems reflect on a familial relationship.

So here's a reminder of the three different points that we made about each of the poems and how they conveyed this familial relationship.

And now, what I'd like you to do is to find some supporting evidence from each poem.

So pause the video and then click play when you're ready to feedback your responses.

Okay, welcome back.

It was great to see so many of you get into grips with these poems again.

So let's have a look at the evidence you could have selected from each of the poems. So just zooming in there on "Eden Rock," we have first of all, got the words mother and father.

Then in "Climbing My Grandfather" and "Before You Were Mine," we can actually use the title of each of those poems as our supporting evidence because we have that keyword grandfather and we also have this "Before You Were Mine." We're getting this impression that the poem is directly addressing somebody else.

So hand it over to you again.

Then what does each of these quotations suggest about the familial relationship that is portrayed in each poem? So pause the video while you have a good think about these quotations and the impression that they give.

And when you're ready to discuss your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Welcome back, some really fascinating discussions taking place there with people really unpicking that language, so that is fantastic.

So let's start with "Eden Rock" then and the word "mother" and "father." So well done.

If you also picked up on this idea that these are quite formal terms of endearment, I'm not sure about you, but I know that I didn't refer to my parents as mother and father, perhaps use more informal terms such as mom and dad.

So this idea of mother and father perhaps suggests that they aren't very close.

They have quite a detached relationship.

So having a look at this second quotation from "Climbing My Grandfather" then.

So this use of a verb here, "climbing" and also the possessive pronoun, "my." When we put them together, they give this impression that the grandfather is the speaker's property to explore.

Because it's quite strange that our speaker is climbing another person.

So the fact that the grandfather perhaps is patient and kind and allows his grandchild to do that suggests a lot about their relationship.

And finally then, "Before You Were Mine" getting a similar idea there, because Duffy also uses a possessive pronoun, which suggests perhaps that the mother belongs to the child and that we're getting this speaker's perspective on her mother.

Okay, so onto similarity number two then.

So now it's time to find some evidence that shows that all three poems describe childhood memories.

So over to you again, have a look through the poems, see what you can find, and then click play when you're ready to continue and feedback your responses.

Welcome back.

Let's have a look at some of the evidence you could have selected to support this second point.

So "Eden Rock" there we could have selected "thermos" and "plates" because these words obviously do make us think of a picnic.

From "Climbing My Grandfather," we could have selected "scramble" and "altitude," these words then linked to climbing.

And finally, we could have selected "Cha cha Cha" for "Before You Were Mine" because we've got that link to dancing.

So now it's time to think carefully about what these quotations suggest.

So how do each of them present the childhood memory in each case? Pause video while you have a think and discuss it with the people around you or make your notes.

And when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play.

Okay, so let's start then by having a look at "Eden Rock." So we've got thermos and plates, and in fact.

Thermos and plates are not the only two words that cause the uses that are linked to picnics.

And one writer does this, uses lots of words that is associated with a certain idea or theme.

He can actually group more together into what's called a semantic field.

So here we could say that Causley uses lots of words from the semantic field of picnics.

And perhaps he does this to build a relatable image of a family picnic.

But drawing on all these things that readers might also associate with picnics, we can instantly imagine this scene in our minds perhaps using our own memories to build this picture in our head.

So "Climbing My Grandfather" then.

So scramble and altitude.

So again, we've got watt house using a semantic field.

And again, these are not the only two words that he uses that are linked to this idea of climbing or mountains or exploring.

And in doing so, Waterhouse actually emphasises the grandfather's size by comparing him to this mountain that we need to climb, particularly that word altitude there, which we usually use to refer to the atmosphere in a very high place.

So this really emphasises how big the grandfather is to our childhood speaker.

And finally then in "Before You Were Mine," cha cha cha.

So here we've got staccato sounds and these are short sharp sounds, cha cha cha, which I believe helps to give us a really vivid image because we can hear the rhythm of that dance.

So not only can we perhaps see the mother and the daughter doing it, but we are hearing the rhythm of their steps in our minds.

So onto our third similarity then, all three poems explore themes of loss and remembrance.

So over to you once again.

Here's a reminder of the key points.

Can you find the relevant supporting evidence? Pause the video while you select your evidence and when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at the evidence you could have selected.

So first of all then, with "Eden Rock," we were looking for something that indicated this uncanny atmosphere.

And we've got the idea coming through, first of all, in that word "somewhere," and also in the reference there to Eden in "Climbing My Grandfather".

Then we were looking for something that linked to the tranquil image at the end, and we could have selected birds and clouds.

And finally, in "Before You Were Mine," we were specifically looking for a quotation there from Stan up three that emphasises how the mother has faded away.

So you may have chosen the words "ghost" or "relics." So I would like you to think carefully then and discuss with the people around you or make some notes.

How do these quotations link to the themes of remembrance and loss? So pause the video while you have a think and when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So having a look then, first of all, at "Eden Rock." So with that word, somewhere, we've got this idea of quite a vague description.

It is not precise location, it's somewhere over there which could help to create this uncanny atmosphere.

We don't know exactly where this scene is taking place.

And also there in that word, Eden, from the title, we've got a link to some biblical imagery, the Garden of Eden, which could also help to create an uncanny atmosphere because it could suggest that there is a mysterious atmosphere associated around this place.

It is perhaps a sacred and hallowed space.

So "Climbing My Grandfather" then.

In this description of the birds and the clouds, Waterhouse is here using natural imagery to create this peaceful, heavenly image and give this impression that our speaker is perhaps above the clouds.

And then last of all, in "Before You Were Mine," we have this metaphor that the woman is now compared to a ghost, which implies that she is a thing of the past, or at least this younger version of her is a think the past.

And also that word "relics," which is used to describe her going out shoes from when she used to visit the ballrooms as a young woman are again described like these objects from history.

Okay, let's pause here and check our understanding of the similarities between these poems. So we have just identified four similarities between all three poems and they're listed below.

Can you identify the missing word from each similarity? So pause the video where you have a think and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click play.

Welcome back.

So for a then, all three poems reflect on a familial relationship.

They all describe childhood memories.

They all explore themes of loss and remembrance.

And finally, they all portray an ambiguous and multifaceted relationship.

So now it's time for the first practise task of today's lesson.

And what I would like you to do is to complete the table below identifying and analysing relevant supporting evidence for the final similarity that we identified.

So this table is structured exactly the same as the other three that we've worked through together.

So it's up to you to identify your relevant supporting evidence and identify and analyse methods and effects of creative choices.

So pause the video here while you give this a really good go.

And when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So here is what you could have written.

So starting with "Eden Rock" then.

We needed some evidence that suggested that the parents were portrayed as characters.

So we could have chosen the words "light" and the word 'trembling" because these words linked to these descriptions of each parent.

We had this image of the light that was glowing through the mother's hair, and we also had this image of how the dog was trembling as it stood next to the father.

So here, Causley uses subtle imagery suggesting that the mother has an angelic glow.

She's kind, perhaps nurturing, whereas the father is presented as strict and perhaps an intimidating presence that scares other people or other animals around him.

If we look now then at "Climbing My Grandfather," we were looking for something that suggested these two different sides to the grandfather.

So we could have chosen the quotation.

Smiling, which describes his mouth and earth stained, which described his hands.

And we've got this idea then through the use of Waterhouse's extended metaphor, that the grandfather is kind and familiar, he's smiling, he's a happy person, but he also has a mysterious past.

Because his description of earth-stained suggests that he has had some life experiences.

He has gone out and got his hands dirty by experiencing the world.

However, our speaker doesn't necessarily know what our grandfather has experienced in his life.

Finally then, "Before You Were Mine".

So we needed something that suggested that the mother's feelings were conveyed by the speaker.

So we could have chosen that vault that occurred about halfway through the poem.

And in particular, that informal word at the end there, a, and the structure of it as a rhetorical question.

Because we could really hear the speaker's voice coming through in this particular line.

And structure in this line as a rhetorical question, gave it that accusatory tone almost as if the speaker was saying, "Oh, so your life was better before I came along then." Which could indicate that there is a bit of guilt coming from the speaker, that perhaps they feel a little bit guilty because they know that their arrival caused their mother to lose her independence.

So take a moment to review what you have written.

It doesn't matter if you haven't chosen the same quotes as I have.

That is the beauty of analysing literature.

As long as there is that clear link between your supporting evidence and your analysis, then it's likely what you have chosen is valid.

So take a moment to just highlight any keywords or phrases from that supporting evidence that you've zoomed in on.

Pause the video while you review your work and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, so we've reached the halfway point of today's lesson.

So now we've explored how the poems are similar, it's time to think about how they're different.

And a great way to do this is to expand on the similarities that we've already found because they won't necessarily all do the same thing in the same way.

So over to you then.

I would like you to discuss with the people around you or make some notes.

Can you think of a difference that is related to our first similarity? So we said that all three poems reflect on a familial relationship.

Can you think about how each of those poems may go about representing that relationship in a slightly different way? So pause the video while you discuss this and click play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, some really interesting responses there, so well done.

So here is an example of what you could have said.

"Eden Rock" and "Before You Were Mine" focus on a parental relationship.

Whereas "Climbing My Grandfather" focuses on the speaker's relationship with his grandfather.

So we are already starting to group those poems. We've got two parental relationships and one that focuses on a relationship with a grandparent.

So that is perhaps one way that we could discuss a difference.

Another difference that we could consider is "Climbing My Grandfather" and "Before You Were Mine," both portray a close and familiar relationship, whereas "Eden Rock" portrays a more detached relationship.

So we've actually grouped the poem slightly differently there because we are thinking about how that relationship is presented.

So now I'd like you to think about those other three similarities that we came up with earlier.

And again, see if you can expand on those similarities to find some differences.

So perhaps you can group two of the poems that do something similar or you could even discuss how all three have that similarity, but they do it in a different way.

So here are three similarities that we came up with earlier as a reminder.

Take some time to discuss this then, or make some notes.

And when you're ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, some really interesting discussions taking place there, and I was particularly impressed by all of your personal interpretations and the ways that you are starting to group these poems. So let's just have a look at some fantastic responses that I overheard starting with that first one.

So all three poems describe childhood memories.

Waterhouse and Causley use the present tense to transport the reader to the memory, whereas Duffy uses the past tense to imply the speaker is looking back.

So you've actually got a difference there with the way that the poets use language.

Onto that second one then, all three poems explore themes of loss and remembrance.

Arguably, Causley is depicting the afterlife and death, whereas Duffy and Waterhouse perhaps describe the death of an earlier version of someone.

So again, we are able to group those two poems. We perhaps have a symbolic representation of the afterlife versus just a more metaphorical figurative death of the person that somebody used to be.

And finally then all three poems portray an ambiguous and multifaceted relationship.

Waterhouse and Duffy focus on aspects of the relative's character, whereas it's caused these ambiguity focuses on the parent's role in the poem.

So really picking up on those generalised descriptions that Causley uses there.

So actually, each of these similarities and differences that we've outlined would make a great topic sentence if we were going to write an analysis paragraph about all three of these poems. So let's have a look at how we might use that information to build this analysis paragraph.

So if we take that first point then and we turn it into our topic sentence, all three poems reflect on a familial relationship.

Waterhouse and Duffy portray a close familial relationship, whereas Causley portrays a more detached relationship.

And then we can use the evidence and the inferences and analysis that we did earlier on in the lesson to form the rest of our paragraph.

So how would this look if we wrote it up as an analysis paragraph? Well, we might see something like all three poems reflect on a familial relationship.

Waterhouse and Duffy betray a close familiar relationship, whereas Causley portrays a more detached relationship.

Both Duffy and Waterhouse imply that the speaker's relationship with their relative is close and familiar through their use of a possessive pronoun mine and mine.

This implies that the speakers are fondly reminiscing about a loved one now lost to them.

However, Causley suggests that the speaker and his parents have a detached, less familiar relationship because the depiction of them is more generalised, presenting them both more like caricatures.

They refer to as mother and father, formal sounding terms of endearment.

And the descriptions of them are fairly stereotypical.

The mother is kind, gentle and nurturing, whereas the father seems emotionally distanced and strict.

So now let's explore what makes this analysis so effective.

But it begins with a topic sentence that is nuanced because it's exploring both similarities and differences.

And then we've got some comparative conjunctions there which really make it clear to the reader what the relationship is between those texts.

So we've got and there and both which signify similarities and then we've got words such as whereas and however, which indicates that there is a difference.

So these comparative conjunctions are really, really important tools to use when we are comparing two poems. And then we've got some really great analysis of methods and some fantastic justifications in this response.

So we first of all got the identification there of pronouns.

We've also got this description of how the depiction of the parents is generalised and words such as terms of endearment, formal and stereotypical.

And then we've also got these justifications.

So the possessive pronoun implies that the speakers are fondly reminiscent.

And the generalised descriptions of them present them like caricatures, which suggest that they have this detached relationship.

And we've also got lots of tentative language in there, which shows our reader that what we've written is a personal interpretation.

We are not explaining concrete facts because we can never know why the poets made the creative choices that they did.

We can only interpret the evidence that we have and try to give a compelling justification for our ideas.

So words such as implies and suggests are really useful in indicating that what we've written is a personal interpretation.

So let's just stop and check our understanding at this point then.

Which of these helps to show the relationship between two texts? Pause the video while you have a think and then click play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said comparative and correlative conjunctions.

And just a reminder there that correlative conjunctions are pairs.

So the examples we've got here are "both" and "and" and "neither" and "nor." So they're great ways of grouping ideas or poems or examples.

Okay, onto the final task of today's lesson then.

I would like you to choose another of those comparative points that we came up with together earlier.

I'd like you to have a go at writing an analysis paragraph, exploring the similarities and the differences.

So just a reminder of those three points that we came up with then.

All three poems describe childhood memories.

Waterhouse and Causley use the present tense, whereas Duffy uses the past tense.

All three poems explore themes of loss and remembrance.

Arguably, Causley depicts the afterlife, whereas Duffy and Waterhouse perhaps describe a figurative death of who somebody used to be.

And finally, all three poems portray an ambiguous and multifaceted relationship.

Waterhouse and Duffy both focus on aspects of the relative's character, whereas Causley's ambiguity focuses more on his parents' role in this scene.

So choose one of these points and use it to build your analysis paragraph.

It's a good idea perhaps to go back and look at the evidence and inferences that we came up with earlier on, or you may wish to use the evidence and inferences that you did in the earlier task in today's lesson.

So pause the video where you give this a really good go.

And when you are ready to feedback your responses, click play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

I hope you had a chance to give that a really good go.

So now it's time for you to check your work and self-assess whether you've included each of these things.

So did you include a clear and concise topic sentence? Have you embedded relevant support in detail? Have you shown the relationship between the text using those comparative and correlative conjunctions? Have you identified the writer's methods and justified your ideas? And finally, did you use that all-important tentative language to indicate that what you had written was a personal interpretation? So take some time to go back over your answer and ask yourself whether you included each of those things.

And then when you've done that, I would like you to set yourself a What Went Well and an Even Better If for the next time that you complete a task like this.

So pause the video while you review your work and when you are ready to continue, click play.

Okay, so we've made it to the end of today's lesson.

I hope that you're really pleased with everything that you've achieved in this session.

Comparing poems is not an easy thing to do, and I hope that you feel a lot more confident when it comes to comparing these three texts.

So let's just summarise what we've covered in today's lesson.

All poets reminisce on memories of familial relations.

All poets convey a sense of admiration that they felt towards their loved ones.

All the poets present the process of reminiscing about a loved one as complicated and multifaceted.

Duffy and Waterhouse reflect on childhood memories, whereas Causley creates ambiguity, possibly symbolising the afterlife.

And finally, exploring differences within similarities can result in a nuanced analysis.

So thank you very much for joining me in today's lesson, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

I look forward to seeing you again soon.