Hello everyone.

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

In this session, we are going to be reading and exploring the poem, "Eden Rock" by Charles Causley.

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

So let's gets started.

Okay, so by the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to explain how Causley presents an uncanny reunion between the speaker and their parents.

So let's have a look at today's keywords.

We have nostalgia, ambiguous, intimidating, vague, and caricature.

So what do these words mean? Well, nostalgia is a sentimental longing for the past and often an idealised version of the past.

Ambiguous is when the meaning is unclear or open to interpretation.

Intimidating is when something causes fear or apprehension, often due to perceived power or authority.

Vague is a lack of clarity or precision characterised by an absence of specific details.

And finally, caricature, which is an exaggerated portrayal of someone that emphasises distinctive features or traits.

So how is today's lesson going to look? Well, in the first half, we are going to read and explore the poem, and then we are going to look at interpreting the poem as a memory.

So I'd like to start off with a discussion.

So have a look at the title, "Eden Rock".

What predictions can you make about what you think the poem will be about? So discuss this with the people around you or if you're working on your own, that's absolutely fine.

Make a few notes on your paper or in your exercise book.

Pause the video for as long as you need to and when you are ready to discuss your responses, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really fantastic discussions taking place there to start off the lesson.

So let's just explore some of the responses that I overheard.

So in particular, I would like to pick up on this idea that "Eden Rock" perhaps makes us think of memories of visiting a place.

Straight away, I'm looking at Eden Rock and I'm thinking that seems like a specific place.

We've got the two proper nouns there, Eden Rock.

So perhaps this poem is going to be about somebody's memories of visiting a specific place and also with this word rock, we are definitely getting a hint that this place is going to link to the natural landscape.

We can infer that we may looking at a rural setting rather than an urban setting.

And if we look at the the name of this place, then, Eden Rock.

so we might be able to assume that the location in this poem is going to be called Eden Rock.

And if we drill down even further into that word, Eden, I wonder if any of you managed to pick up on that link there to the Garden of Eden, which is quite famously known in the Bible.

So perhaps potentially we might have some religious links.

So let's have a look at Charles Causley's life and his experiences and see what relevant information we can take from this.

So he grew up in Cornwall and actually much of his poetry draws on the natural landscapes.

We're already getting that link there to the title.

His poetry is also known for its simplicity and direct messages about love and loss.

Cousley himself confirmed that Eden Rock is not a real place.

However, he did indicate that if it were real, it would likely be somewhere in Cornwall.

So we're getting this idea perhaps that he's based it on this landscape that he's familiar with from Cornwall.

And lastly then, the title of the poem is symbolically vague, so we've got that keyword there.

It's uncertain or unclear because perhaps we don't have enough information.

So these words, Eden and Rock, both contribute to this idea that it is a place that is there to be respected and hallowed.

It's perhaps sacred place.

So let's just return to these initial predictions from our discussion.

How does this contextual knowledge affect our initial interpretations of the title? So just take a few moments to have a look at our ideas from earlier and see if you can make any important links to that contextual information that we just discussed.

So pause the video here while you have a good think and when you're ready to discuss your responses, click Play and we'll carry on.

Welcome back.

I hope you had a chance to have a really good discussion there.

So let's just pick up on a few of those ideas.

So well done if your discussions were also drawing on this idea that potentially, the idea that this is a fictional place, it's not a real place, could suggest that Causley perhaps based it on a place from his childhood.

And in that sense, the poem could be semi autobiographical, or at least linked to cause these memories of Cornwall.

And finally then, we had a lot of people picking up on the links between how his poetry often dealt with themes of love and loss and perhaps considering whether this poem might be focused around a memory of somebody who has died.

So perhaps somebody Causley knew in his childhood that now is no longer with us now that he's an adult.

So let's just pause here and check our understanding of the poem in the wider context so far.

So true or false, Eden Rock is a real place in Cornwall where the poet Charles Causley grew up.

So pause for a few moments while you have a think.

And when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said false.

So now it's time to justify our answer.

So have a look at these two possible explanations and decide which one you think best supports our claim above.

So pause the video while you have a think and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer again, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, well done to those of you who said B.

Causley he did grow up in Cornwall, but this particular place is fictional, although he did suggest that it was based on the Cornish landscape.

So now it's time for us to read the poem.

So grab your copy of your anthology and open it to the poem, "Eden Rock".

And as you are reading or after you've read it, I would like you to pause and discuss the following questions.

First of all, who are the four characters in the poem? Where are they? What is happening? And finally, what initial feelings or emotions can you identify? So pause the video while you give the poem a really good read and take some time to discuss these questions and when you are ready for us to discuss it, click Play and we'll carry on.

Okay, welcome back.

Hope you had a chance to have a really good read.

So who are the four characters in the poem? Well, we have the speaker, their mother, their father, and the family dog.

And where are they? We drew on this idea earlier, but they are at a place called Eden Rock, which is a fictional natural landscape located by a stream.

And what happens in the poem then? Well, the speaker is watching their parents have a picnic from a distance and then at the end of the poem, they encourage him to cross over a stream.

And finally then, what initial feelings or emotions can you identify? Now, this last question is a little bit more linked to your personal interpretation, so you might not have exactly what we've got here, but let's have a look.

So you could have picked up on the idea that maybe there's a nostalgic mood to the poem that it draws on themes of loneliness, loss, distance and separation.

And lastly, this idea of perhaps confusion created by that vague, dreamy atmosphere that Causley creates.

So let's focus specifically then on the speaker's descriptions of the parents and how these descriptions give us an indication of the speaker's feelings towards them.

So I'd like to start with the speaker's mother.

What can we infer about the mother based on these descriptions of her? So we've got four different moments from the poem.

So we've got line five when the speaker describes how she's 23.

On lines five to six, we've got this description that she's wearing a floral dress and a summer hat.

On line eight, we've got the image of the light shining through her hair.

And then on line nine, we've got the description of how she sets out the picnic and pours the drinks.

So pause the video here while you discuss these quotes in detail or you make some notes on your paper thinking really carefully about the inferences we can make about the mother and in particular, the speaker's feelings towards her.

So pause the video for as long as you need to and when you're ready to continue and discuss your responses, click Play.

Okay, welcome back.

Again, another fantastic discussion there with lots of people really drilling down into Causley's use of language, which is fantastic.

So let's discuss these key quotations in a bit more detail, starting with this first one there on line five.

So we've got the idea then of this description of the mother as a young woman.

She's in her early twenties.

So this perhaps gives us this image of a young and beautiful woman, something that is supported by this next description of her wearing a floral dress and a summer hat, getting this idea in particular that she's traditionally feminine.

So our speaker's perception of her is she's young, feminine, and beautiful.

And then over on line eight then, this description of the light shining through her hair could give us the impression of her as perhaps glowing like an angel.

She has this angelic aura that surrounds her as the light shines through her hair.

And finally then the idea that she sets out the picnic and pours the drinks could link this idea of her as a domestic figure in the speaker's life, perhaps the one who does do most of the food preparation, is responsible for caring for and feeding and nurturing the speaker.

And then also in this vein, the idea that she's maternal, maybe our speaker has a fairly traditional impression of the role that a mother plays.

So now it is time to think about how the speaker describes his father.

So let's have a look at these four quotations.

So we've got 25 there on line two.

On line two and three, we've got this description of how he is wearing the same outfit.

On line four, we've got this image of the dog trembling as it stands next to him.

And last of all, on line 16, we've got the adverb leisurely to describe how he skims pebbles across the stream while he's waiting for the picnic.

So pause the video again here while you discuss these key quotations.

And then when you're ready to feed back your responses, click Play and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

Again, lots of fantastic discussions there.

So let's just pick up on a few of the ideas that's overheard.

So again, we've got this description of the father as a young man, but crucially, slightly older than his partner.

Our speaker here has taken pains to describe that there is this age gap, so potentially, that might be important.

And then we've got lines two and three, the idea that he always wears the same outfit, which could indicate to us that he's a man of routine, perhaps he has very strict routines and that is our speaker's perception of him or perhaps what he remembers about his father.

Line four then, the dog is trembling next to him, implies perhaps that he's quite dominant.

His role within the family is a dominant, powerful one and perhaps that he's quite strict and intimidating.

And then last of all then, leisurely, the idea that he's leisurely skipping pebbles while he waits for the picnic could link to the idea of traditional gender roles, 'cause if we compare this to what the mother is doing at this point in the poem, she is sat there perhaps setting the table, so to speak, laying out the food and pouring the drinks, and rather than help her out with this task, the man, the male figure of family is standing off to one side and waiting for his wife to do that.

So we are definitely getting this impression that our speaker perhaps views their family as having quite traditional gender roles.

So let's just summarise our speaker's impressions of each of his parents.

So we've got this idea that the mother is presented as gentle and feminine, someone who provides for the family and is viewed in a positive light because we get this description of her with this angelic glow, whereas the father is presented as an intimidating figure, with old fashioned beliefs and strict routines.

So not quite as much of a positive presentation as we had there with the mother.

So I'd like to pause for another discussion.

For two young people in their twenties, these parents are presented as quite old fashioned.

So I'd like you just to pause and have a think about why this could be.

So discuss this with the people around you or make a few notes and when you're ready to discuss your responses, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really interesting discussions taking place there and really like that some people were already beginning to consider how these slightly uncanny descriptions of the people in the poem suggest perhaps that we are not just witnessing a scene from the speaker's childhood.

So well done if you also picked up on this idea that perhaps we are viewing a memory from the speaker's childhood.

So we've already got this idea that what we're seeing is channelled through the speaker's perspective on what happened and isn't necessarily just recounting a memory.

Or also, we had some other people that suggested that perhaps this is the speaker's imagined view of what his parents were like as younger people.

So sometimes it's perhaps a bit tricky for us to imagine what our parents or carers might have been like before we came along.

But maybe this is the speaker's perspective on what they were like before he knew them.

So let's pause and check our understanding.

True or false, the speaker appears to view one parent more positively than the other.

So pause while you have a think and click Play when you're ready for me to reveal the right answer.

Okay, well done to those of you who said true.

So now it's time to justify our answers then.

So have a read through of these two possible explanations.

Decide which one you think best supports our statement above and then click Play when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer.

Okay, well done to those of you who said A.

The speaker describes the mother in a positive way, but hints that the father has a strict, intimidating side to him.

So now we've had a chance to read and explore the poem, it is time for the first practise task of today's lesson.

And what I would like you to do is to answer the following question: how does a speaker feel about each of their parents? I'd like you to use evidence from the text to support your ideas and challenge yourself to use some words from this vocabulary bank to add detail to your explanation.

So if you have a look in that box, we've got lots of words from the discussions that we've been having already in today's lesson, as well as some keywords.

So pause the video for as long as you need to to give this a really good go.

And when you think you are ready to feed back your response, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So let's have a look at one of our Oak students, Sam's, response.

So she says, "Causley's descriptions of the parents give us an insight into the speaker's feelings towards each of them.

The mother is presented positively since the description of how the light shines through her hair gives the impression that she's surrounded by an angelic glow.

This suggests the speaker likely views their mother as a gentle, kind person, whereas the father is presented as a dominant, intimidating figure through the description of how the dog Jack is trembling next to him.

Arguably, this implies that the speaker is aware of a stricter side to him." So one thing that was particularly effective about Sam's response is that she was able to add lots of detail using these words from the vocabulary bank.

So I'd like you to take a moment to read through your own response.

Did you use words from the vocabulary bank? Perhaps underline or highlight any of the words that you managed to use in your own response.

If you managed to use all of them, then well done, fantastic job.

If not, don't worry.

It would've been very challenging to get that many words into such a short paragraph.

But just take a moment to note down a word that you didn't use this time as a target word to include in your next response.

So pause the video while you review your answer and when you're ready to continue, click Play.

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

So well done for all your efforts so far and keep up the good work.

In this part of the lesson, we are going to be exploring an interpretation of the poem as a memory.

So to start off with then, I would like you to close your eyes and imagine somebody that you haven't seen for a long time.

Try to picture them clearly in your mind.

I'll give you a few moments to do that.

Okay, so hopefully you have got a clear image of them in your head.

And now what I would like you to do is discuss with the people around you or make a few notes about these questions.

So firstly, how clear is that image in your mind? Can you see their face and what they look like? What are they wearing in this memory that you have of them? And lastly, very important question, how accurate do you think this memory is to what they actually look like? So pause the video for a few moments while you discuss these questions or make some notes and then when you are ready To Feed Back Your Responses, click Play and we'll carry on.

Okay, so one thing that I definitely overheard in the discussions there is a lot of people suggesting that perhaps their memories weren't as accurate as they would like to think that they are.

When we first close our eyes and we try to imagine a memory, it seems so clear, almost perhaps like we are watching a film or looking at a photograph, but then I dunno about you, but I find when I try to zoom in on individual details in a memory, that is when the overall picture becomes very, very fuzzy.

So let's just discuss memories then.

So memories are really important to us because they help form our identity.

A lot of who we are today is based on things perhaps that we can remember from our childhood.

Positive memories and negative memories shape the person that we become as we grow up.

And they also help us to remember people and to remember experiences.

So just as these memories shape us, it's also really important for us to remember the people around us, parents, grandparents, friends that we might have had.

And lastly, and really importantly, memories help us to process big emotions.

For example, if we lose a grandparent or another family member, our memories of them help us to process the grief that we might feel.

However, memories can be very vague and this links to this idea that I was saying earlier, they can be very unclear because perhaps we don't have all the information that we need to picture something clearly.

They can also be very unreliable.

And often what we think we may be very, very sure when we picture something in our mind, what a place looked like or where it was, and sometimes if we go and speak to somebody else that was also there, we can discover that our memory of it was in fact completely wrong.

And this is particularly the case when we try to remember our childhood memories.

And last of all, memories can quite often be unrealistic or dreamlike.

I dunno if you've ever remembered a really big place, for example, but I could perhaps remember one room and another room quite clearly.

But the journey between those two rooms would be quite fuzzy, maybe even unrealistic, a really short journey when in reality, it was really long.

So how can we apply this then to an interpretation of this poem as a memory? Well, many people have suggested that the scene described in "Eden Rock" could be the speaker's memory of the past because of the descriptions of the family, the descriptions of the setting and the ambiguity created through Causley's phrasing and language choices.

So let's explore this interpretation in a bit more detail, starting with a description of the family.

We have this idea that the parents seem a bit too young to have an adult child, so we have this adult voice of the speaker, yet we have the description of how the father is 25 and the mother is 23.

We are not hearing this memory through a childlike voice.

So we can infer perhaps that we have an adult speaker who may be looking back to a moment in their childhood when their parents were this young.

And we also have this idea that the descriptions of them are quite generalised and stereotypical, almost like they're caricatures of real people.

And remember we've got that keyword caricatures there from today's lesson, which is an exaggerated portrayal of somebody that focuses on emphasising particular characteristics.

So if we think back to these inferences that we were putting out about the mother and the father, perhaps our speaker here is focusing on just a few aspects of their character and showing us that through these exaggerated descriptions, and in particular we've got this idea of how the parents are dressed, so we've got the dad in a Tweed suit, which really leans into that idea of him as a traditional old-fashioned sort of person.

And we also have the mother's floral dress, which leans into the speaker's perspective of her as gentle, feminine, young and pretty.

And in this vein then, the traditional gender roles also seem quite exaggerated.

We have this idea that the mother is laying the table, so to speak, she's setting out the picnic and playing that traditional maternal or feminine role.

And then we've also got the idea of the father as strict and intimidating and quite detached from his family.

He stood off to one side with the dog who seems quite fearful of him.

And lastly then, they're only described as parents.

If we look at how the speaker talks about them, they're never described as a couple or individual people.

They're only ever described in the role that they play, as far as the speaker views it, so as though it's almost seen through the eyes of the child.

So at the end of the poem, they both speak to the speaker when they beckon him to cross over the stream, but at no point in the poem do they actually interact with each other.

So now let's have a look at how Causley's description of the setting creates this dreamy memory-like mood.

So first of all then, there are no other people or animals in this description.

So the speaker only hears their parents.

We also get this impression that they didn't necessarily arrive together and that the speaker watches from the other side of a stream.

So here, we're very much picking up on that idea of an unreliable memory.

If this was a childhood memory, it seems quite strange for us to think that the child would not have arrived with their parents.

Yet, at the beginning of the poem, they are waiting for him.

A lot of the descriptions of natural features in the poem are described in a very vague and dream-like way.

So we have words like somewhere and then we have this reference to the sky and the stream and the stone and the bank.

You know, these four natural features are quite common in the natural landscape, so they, again, could be quite general.

We could see the sky anywhere, we could see lots of streams, we could see lots of stones if we're out in the natural landscape, is very non-specific, but yet the descriptions of the people in the picnic, they are very specific.

So we have that reference there of that brand name HP, when we're talking about the milk bottle that the family are using.

We have, again, Tweed, which is capitalised here, the proper noun referring to that brand name, they're Tweed.

Same again with Thermos.

These are all very specific and they locate our poem within a certain part of the world and perhaps, within a certain period of history.

And we also have the idea of the blue picnic crockery that the mother is setting out, which is a very vivid image that we can see in our mind.

So it's interesting to consider how these vague natural descriptions contrast with these very specific descriptions of the people and the objects, the props in the poem.

Last of all then, let's have a look at the ambiguity that Causley creates with his use of phrasing and some of his language choices.

So first of all, it's very ambiguous when this scene takes place.

And a quote that indicates that to us is this description of how the dog is still the same age, which implies that this might not even be the first time our speaker has visited this place and the dog is still the same age that it was the last time that they were there.

And we also have lots of hazy, dream-like description.

So again, that word somewhere is very vague.

Somewhere could be anywhere.

We have the description of how the sky is white, which perhaps gives us this very dream-like, heavenly description of the sky there.

And we also have adverbs which help to slow down the pace of the poem.

So words such as slowly and leisurely, they help to create this very slow and dream-like pace.

There's also a repetitiveness to the poem, like it's not the first time that it has occurred.

So that links very much to that idea at the top there, how the dog is still the same age, but also we have the repeated use of the word same, firstly to describe the father's outfit, so he's wearing the same clothes, but also that they're using the same picnic stuff.

So we've got this idea that this is not the first time that this scene or a similar scene has occurred.

And last of all then, that final line of the poem seems quite cryptic, particularly in the post use of the pluperfect tense.

What had they, it describes how one event happens before another.

So we get this idea that the speaker has thought about this moment before they've experienced it in this memory, and actually, how it hasn't met their expectations.

It's not how they thought it might be.

So let's just pause then and check our understanding of this interpretation of the poem.

So which word is missing from this sentence? So pause the video while you have a think about what that missing word could be.

And when you think you found it, click Play and I'll reveal the correct answer.

Welcome back, and congratulations to those of you who said ambiguity.

So this ambiguity that Causley creates, it helps to give the poem a hazy dream-like mood, which implies that it could be the speaker's memory of their childhood.

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

And what I would like you to do is to respond to each of these statements, and I'd like you to support your opinions with evidence from the poem and links to contextual knowledge.

So let's have a look at the statements.

So we have number one, Causley creates an ambiguity around when and where this scene takes place.

Number two, the speaker of the poem has relived this memory before.

And number three, this poem is a memory from Charles Causley's past.

So I'd like you to think carefully about your opinions on these statements.

Do you agree? Do you disagree? And what your reasons might be.

Here is a really great checklist for you to use while you are writing your responses to make sure that you're including enough detail.

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

And when you're ready to feed back your responses, click Play and we'll carry on.

Okay, so here's how you could have responded.

So we have that first statement then.

Causley creates ambiguity around when and where this scene takes place.

You could have said, I agree with this statement because the poem has a hazy dream-like feel.

The descriptions of the natural setting are sparse, compared to the specific descriptions of the people and picnic things and the references to time and place are vague and ambiguous.

For example, the parents are located somewhere near to Eden Rock.

Number two, the speaker of the poem has relived this memory before.

You could have said, it's likely the speaker has experienced this particular memory before, since there is a familiarity and repetitiveness to the descriptions of the family.

The speaker notes how the father's outfit and the picnic crockery are the same, and how the dog is still the same age.

These descriptions give the impression that the speaker has seen this image before and they're reliving it exactly as it was the last time.

And finally, statement number three.

This poem is a memory from Charles Causley's past.

You could have said, although it's plausible that this poem describes a nostalgic memory, we cannot be certain it is from Causley's own past.

Causley grew up in Cornwall and has claimed that the fictional "Eden Rock" is based on the Cornish landscape.

However, this does not prove the poem is autobiographical.

Causley's poetry often focuses on themes of love and loss.

So it's possible "Eden Rock" is just a lens through which he explores these key themes.

So now it's time for you to review your responses.

Have you included everything on the checklist? Well done if you have.

But if not, don't worry.

Just take a few moments to redraft your response to include anything you've missed.

So pause the video while you review and redraft your work and click Play when you're ready to continue.

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

So well done for all your hard work today and hope that you feel a bit more confident when it comes to understanding the poem "Eden Rock".

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

The speaker meets his parents in an ambiguous, dream-like location.

The speaker describes his parents, particularly his mother, in intricate detail.

The speaker also describes the picnic in intricate detail, suggesting he's recalling a memory.

The speaker is separated from his parents by a stream, which they encourage him to cross.

And finally, Causley grew up in Cornwall and has suggested that the fictional "Eden Rock" is based on the Cornish landscape.

So once again, thank you for joining me and I hope you enjoyed today's lesson.

I look forward to seeing you again soon.