Hello everybody and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Miss Halliday, and I'll be teaching you today.

Thank you so much for joining me.

It's an absolute pleasure to have so many of you with me today.

I'm really looking forward to sharing ideas.

In today's lesson, we're going to be exploring Larkin's poem, "Afternoons," in a lot more detail, examining some of the key themes, and thinking about Larkin's use of tone throughout the poem.

As I say, I can't wait to share ideas with you,, and having so many of you here will really serve us well in today's lesson.

So let's get started.

So today's lesson is called Analysing Afternoons, and by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to analyse how Larkin presents the themes of a loss of innocence and the passage of time in afternoons.

Here are the keywords for today's lesson.

We've got cynical, burdensome, tone, foreboding, and autonomy.

I'm just going to pick a few of these keywords out to define as I think they're slightly harder to pronounce, or you might not have heard them before.

So first of all, that word cynical means being distrustful of other people, believing the worst about their intentions and their integrity.

Burdensome means undesirable, restrictive.

So if something stops you from doing something that you really want to do, you might describe it as being quite burdensome.

And finally, another word that you may not have come across before is that word autonomy at the bottom.

Now, autonomy is a person's freedom and independence.

So for example, if you were to put somebody in prison, you would be taking away their autonomy.

If you would like to take a moment to pause the video and jot down the definitions for the other keywords, then do feel free to do that now.

Here's today's lesson outline and how we're going to progress through our learning together.

We're gonna start off by looking at the theme of the loss of youth before moving on to examining Larkin's changing tone throughout the poem.

But let's start first of all by looking at the theme of the loss of youth.

So we are going to track the theme of the loss of youth throughout the poem.

However, I think it's really important, first of all, for us to define what that word youth actually means, so that we're all on the same page as we're examining the poem.

So I'm gonna invite you now to pause the video for a moment while you discuss or consider independently what you think a person's youth is.

And secondly, if somebody is described as youthful, what might that mean as it might have a slightly different meaning.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider those questions with the people around you or think about them independently.

If you are working alone today, pause the video, and off you go.

Some fantastic discussions there, and really well done, and thank you for being so respectful of one another while you were conversing.

So in terms of what a person's youth is, well, a person's youth can be described as their younger days, so the days they might spend as a child, okay? When a lot of people talk about their youth, that is exactly what they mean.

They mean their time spent as a child.

So in other words, their childhood.

However, if we describe somebody as youthful, so when youth becomes an adjective as youthful, somebody who is youthful is someone who is excited about life, somebody who's still really keen to learn and experience life to its fullest.

When we are children, we have that kind of endless optimism.

We have that real thirst and excitement about everything in life.

And so if we describe a person as youthful, that's kind of what we're alluding to.

So let's start off first of all by considering the title of the poem, okay? So we know that the title is "Afternoons," which might seem like a little bit of a strange title once you've read that poem, but I think it's one of the most interesting titles of any of the poems in this anthology.

So I'd like to take a moment to just consider it first.

So let's think about how the title might reflect the idea of the loss of youth.

And because this is a difficult idea or concept, I've given you a little bit of a hint.

So here's your hint.

If we consider our whole life as a day, so for example, the moment we're born to the moment we die, if we take that metaphorically as one day, then what stage in our lives would the afternoon represent? And then I'd like you to think, well, why is the title "Afternoons," plural, and not just "Afternoon," singular? So some real food for thought here, and I'd like you to be able to take a moment to pause the video and really consider these questions and interrogate them either in groups or independently.

I really wanted to get your brains in gear at the beginning of this lesson.

So I'm looking for some really hard and deep critical thinking here.

So I'd like you to pause the video now while you consider these questions, as I said, either independently or with the people around you, and I'm really looking forward to us coming back together as a group and discussing some of your ideas.

So pause the video and off you go.

Some really fantastic discussions there and some really innovative and insightful thinking.

So really well done there.

Here are just some of the ideas you might have got.

And actually I heard many more fantastic ideas.

So please don't think that if you raise an idea that is not on screen that it was wrong because it absolutely wasn't.

I heard some brilliant, brilliant suggestions there.

Here are just some of the ideas that you might have raised.

So as Andeep points out, the title "Afternoons" could refer to the time of day that Larkin is observing the children playing, or it could be the metaphorical afternoon of a person's life.

So when they start to slow down, they might start taking on that slightly slower chapter of their life journey, okay? And I think it's really important here, and I enjoy that Andeep has talked about the fact that this poem is very much about Larkin and observing young mothers at a playground with their children.

And that's perhaps reflected in the title of the poem.

Perhaps Larkin often spent afternoons at the park simply observing, or perhaps it's a nod to the fact that these young mothers were spending a lot of afternoons at the park with their children.

So I think it's really nice that Andeep has picked that idea up in his interpretation.

And secondly, Sam had this to say.

Sam's idea is that perhaps Larkin made the title plural, because he's trying to suggest that this loss of autonomy is happening to many different young families, particularly the women in these families.

So by calling the poem, "Afternoons," he's kind of making it a more universal and generalised idea of this loss of youth, this loss of autonomy by suggesting that it's happening to families everywhere.

It's not just about one family, okay? Larkin is not just at the at the park observing one family, he's noticing this pattern in lots of different families, and perhaps that's why he makes the title plural.

So again, really well done if you got those ideas.

Brilliant work.

So what we're going to do now is we're going to reread the poem.

'Cause I think it's really important whenever you come back to a poem, to reread it and refresh your memory, but also, every time you read that poem again, you'll notice something different.

So I would like you to reread the poem in full, and then I would like you to focus specifically on stanza one, thinking about the following question, where do we get the sense of youth in the first stanza? So what or who is presented as youthful in that stanza? So again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video.

You may consider this question independently, if that's what you'd prefer, or you can discuss it in small groups, it's completely up to you.

Pause the video, and off you go to consider that now.

Fantastic discussions, and really well done as I did hear many people pointing out that actually it is the mothers who are characterised as young in the first stanza.

And also the fact that the park is new suggests that kind of youthfulness and a new life experience for these women.

So it's almost like these women are entering a new era in their lives of motherhood, and that is reflected not only in their characterization, but also in the characterization of the setting that they're in, which is this park.

So really well done if you've got that brilliant reading.

So what I'd like you to think now is, well, where is that sense of youth that comes through in the first stanza, also contrasted by that slight threat of time, okay? So again, you'll need to refer back to your poem, and you may consider this independently or in groups.

So pause the video and consider that question now.

Fantastic, and great to see so many of you making little annotations on your anthology, that's brilliant because these notes will be really useful for you when you come to revise this poem.

So in terms of that contrast between that sense of youth, and the threat of time, well, actually the sense of youth is very much contrasted with the threat of passing time throughout this stanza, and in fact, throughout the whole poem.

Now, this is shown really poignantly and memorably in the first stanza when Larkin uses that word, fading, to describe the season, okay? And that characterises the changing of seasons as a further threat to the young mother's independence and autonomy.

Perhaps Larkin is saying, you know, as time goes on, you are just going to lose more of your autonomy as the child's demands will start to grow, okay? So perhaps here, the passing of time is kind of that sinister threat to the young mother's independence and autonomy in this poem.

Okay? He seems to be quite cynical about family life and therefore perhaps he's kind of suggesting that these women in some way are wasting their precious time and lives.

okay? So thank you very much if you got those ideas, brilliant, brilliant suggestions.

So let's have a look now at stanza two, okay? 'Cause when we're working our way through a poem, it can be really useful to track the ideas through chronologically, and see how they develop as the standards continue.

So looking at stanza two now, and I'd like you to think, well, can you identify any phrases that show that the young families' youth, or their excitement for life is slowly being drained away from them, or is slowly leaving them in some way? So again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you consider that question independently or in groups, however works best for you today.

Pause the video and off you go to do that now.

Fantastic discussions and really well done if you manage to identify that in the second stanza, we actually see the young mothers being really burdened with an estate full of cleaning and washing to do.

Now that word, burdened, is one of our key words, and it means kind of held back by, if you're held down by something, if something is stopping you from fulfilling your potential, it is burdening you.

So here, perhaps Larkin is suggesting that these young mothers are absolutely overwhelmed, not only with the demands of childcare, but also the demands of domestic life.

So things like washing and cleaning, and that word, estateful, okay? It's a really, really clever, and very interesting word choice, because we know that an estate is somewhere where people tend to live in small groups, it's a community.

So perhaps Larkin is saying that, you know, these mothers, they've got so much washing that it's almost as if you know a whole village has provided their washing for them to do, okay? It also perhaps suggests the community of the young mothers as well, so I think it's a really intelligent, and interesting word choice from Larkin there, that estateful of washing that is burdening these young women.

So again, another question for you to consider.

Well, how is family life presented as burdensome in the stanza? Okay, so not only talking about the washing, but what other aspects of family life does Larkin seem to be presenting as being quite burdensome? Okay, so being quite demanding, perhaps stopping the women from living their lives to the fullest.

So again, I'm gonna invite you to pause the video while you consider that question, either independently or the people around you.

Off you go.

Fantastic, and again, some brilliant, brilliant ideas raised there.

Now, in terms of what you might have said, our Oak pupils wanted to contribute their ideas, because they were having a similar discussion to you.

Andeep had this to say on the matter, "We see family life becoming burdensome through the image of the neglected and discarded wedding albums, which are positioned near to the television." I am so glad that Andeep has brought this up, because I must say this is one of the most, my most favourite images in the whole poem, because I think it's super sad, actually.

I think this is what makes this poem really kind of memorable in a very heartbreaking way.

Okay, and we're gonna talk about the kind of symbolism of the wedding albums in just a moment.

But I really, really, I'm glad that Andeep has brought this up.

And well done to those of you at home who also managed to identify that this image of the wedding albums also presents kind of married life or family life as burdensome.

So I want to consider this image in a bit more detail, because as I said, this is one of my favourite images in the whole poem.

So I'd like you to think now, well, what does the fact that the albums are lying next to the television perhaps show us about where the young couple are in their relationship? So what can we work out about the young couple's relationship with one another? So not with the child, with one another as husband and wife.

Okay, so again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you consider that with the people around you, or think about it independently.

Off you go.

Fantastic, and it was great to see so many of you really getting stuck into this image and unpicking it, and thinking about why this perhaps does present family life as being quite burdensome.

Now, I think Larkin presents a very, very cynical view of modern relationships here, actually, okay? And it's all kind of conveyed through that contrast between the wedding album and the TV.

Now, Larkin seems to be suggesting that whilst the couples once relied on each other for entertainment and company, perhaps through, you know, traditional conversation and courting, the noise of the TV now provides them with the entertainment.

He's suggesting that there is real emotional distance between the young couples.

The wedding album arguably is representative of really happy memories of when the couple were at their best.

You know, they just got married, how exciting, okay? How in love must they have been to get married? And now we see that wedding album discarded, just strewn onto the floor, just left near to the TV, and it's almost like the TV has imposed on their lives, okay? So modern life and entertainment has kind of driven this wedge between the couples maybe.

Okay, so I've really liked that image from Larkin of the discarded wedding album lying next to the TV.

So what I'd like you to think about now, and I know we've touched on it a little bit already, but I'm interested to hear some perhaps slightly different ideas, is well, what might have caused this distance between these couples? So I'd like you to think really carefully about what might have got in the way of their relationship.

Why might these couples kind of not be communicating in the same way anymore? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider that again with people around you, or independently, whatever works best for you.

Off you go.

Fantastic, and again, really, really impressed to see many people trying to think outside the box, trying to provide an alternative explanation for this to the one that we've already offered, which is obviously this idea of perhaps modern life and modern entertainment getting in the way of their traditional relationships.

However, perhaps Larkin might also be suggesting that the great, great responsibility of caring for a child might have driven a wedge between the couples.

Now, this could represent a loss of youthfulness because the couples seem to have lost their enjoyment of one another and their passion for conversation.

Perhaps they don't have time for conversations anymore, now that they've got a child.

Perhaps they're just not interested in one another anymore.

But it's quite sad really when you think about it, the fact that Larkin is suggesting that bringing a new life into the world has in some way detrimentally impacted on the couple's relationships, and I think that's why I find this poem so sad, 'cause it just kind of, it's very reflective of a lot of the challenges of family life.

But arguably, has Larkin considered the benefits of family life? Perhaps not, but I do think it's very, very sad here, the way in which he kind of suggests that, you know, the children have driven a wedge between the couples.

Okay, so well done if you manage to get that, brilliant analysis and interpretation.

So let's check for understanding before we move on, what might the word, lying, suggest about the couples' relationships? And to answer this question, I would highly recommend that you have a look at that word in context.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you make your answer selection.

Off you go.

Fantastic, and congratulations if you correctly selected B, perhaps the word lying suggests the lack of care that they now show for one another, okay? Because that wedding album has simply been discarded onto the floor with very little care.

So perhaps it shows that lack of care for one another.

So really well done.

So onto our first task of the lesson now.

Having read the poem, Andeep had this to say, he said, "There are many moments in the poem where I feel a loss of youth.

I can imagine the love of life slipping away from these young couples, particularly the mothers, but no more so than in the final two lines." And what I would like you to do now is think, well, to what extent do you agree that the last two lines of the poem best exemplify the theme of the loss of youth? So basically, I'm asking you, do you think that the last two lines of this poem best justify that Larkin was actually trying to portray the loss of innocence or loss of youthfulness in this poem? So I'd like you to make sure that you justify your opinion by using words like, because, for, and, as, as these really show that you are explaining your point of view and justifying it.

So it is really important that you are using these connectives to link your ideas together.

So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you have a go at considering Andeep statement and providing a justification for your opinion.

So off you go.

Fantastic work.

Really, really impressed with the insightfulness that was demonstrated there, as well as how much you were using your anthology to really help you form your opinion on that statement.

So really well done.

What I thought would be really nice now is for you to be able to share your opinions with a peer.

So in order to do that respectfully, you may wish to use these discussion starters to help you get started.

So you might say, "I agree with Andeep, because," "I disagreed with Andeep, because," and "Although Andeep raised a great point, I felt that this," and actually if you tweak these sentence stems just a little bit, you can use them to really respectfully agree or disagree with one another as well.

So it might be an idea to both state your opinions and then start a little bit of a debate using these discussion starters and making sure that you're being respectful of other people's opinions.

So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you share your opinion, and then perhaps have a little bit of a back and forward if you would like about whether or not you agree with one another as well as Andeep.

So pause the video, and off you go to do that now.

Fantastic, really respectful discussions there, and I could see that many of you were bullet pointing ideas as you were talking to your partner, which is fantastic.

It's always great to magpie other people's ideas, and add them to your own.

So really well done.

So onto the second part of the lesson now where we're going to have a look at Larkin's changing tone.

So as I said, we're gonna to look at how the tone changes as the poem progresses.

But first of all, in order to do that, we need to have a really solid understanding of exactly what tone is, and why it's super important.

Why are we bothering to track tone through the poem? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider that question, again, with people around you or thinking about it independently.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions, and really well done if you were able to remember, like Izzy, that actually "Tone is how the writer conveys their attitude towards their subject matter.

Tone is really important, because it can give us a very, very vital insight into what the poet's intentions were in writing the poem or what their beliefs and values were.

Okay, so tone tells us everything, okay? Tone tells us the poet's perspective, the poet's opinion, and the poet's attitude towards their subject matter.

So it is actually really useful to track tone through a poem, and that's what we're going to do now.

Before we do that, I would just like to check your understanding of what tone is.

So true or false, tone is the pitch of voice that you use when you read a poem out loud.

I'm going to give you a few seconds to pause the video while you decide whether you think that is true or whether you think that is false.

Off you go.

Fantastic and well done as I think most people got that right and said that it was in fact false.

Here comes the hard part now where I'm going to ask you to justify your answer using one of the two statements below.

So again, I'm going to invite you to pause the video while you take the time to read both justification A and justification B, and decide which you think is the correct reason for that statement being false.

So pause the video and off you go to do that now.

Congratulations and well done to those of you that correctly selected A, tone can still be detected even if you read a poem in your head.

So you don't necessarily have to read it out loud to be able to detect tone, it just helps.

Tone is how the writer conveys their attitude towards their subject matter.

So really well done if you got that right.

Brilliant recall.

So we're going to start tracking Larkin's tone through the poem.

So in a moment I'm going to give you lots of different words that you can use to describe a writer's tone, and you are going to choose at least one word per stanza to describe the tone that Larkin uses throughout the poem.

So here is your list of tones.

So we've got a threatening tone, a sinister tone, an ominous tone, a foreboding tone, okay, so that idea that something bad might happen at any moment, a distant tone, a cheerful tone, a humorous tone, and a hopeful tone.

Okay, so those are our lists of tones.

As I said, you are choosing one minimum.

However, if you feel that one stanza contains different tones, then obviously feel free to choose more than one.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you have a go at seeing whether you can attribute one word at least to each of the stanzas to describe Larkin's use of tone.

Off you go.

Fantastic, really, really well done and great to see many of you making notes directly onto your anthology.

So here's what Izzy, our fantastic Oak pupil had to say about tone in this poem.

She said, "I found Larkin's use of tone particularly interesting in the first stanza.

He opens the poem with quite a solemn and almost foreboding tone by describing the summer as fading.

But then the last line of the first standard is much more optimistic as he describes the young mothers freeing the young children." And I think that word freeing is quite an optimistic word, isn't it? So thank you to Izzy for identifying that change in tone in the first stanza.

So what I'd like you to do now is consider whether or not you agree with Izzy.

So do you think that Larkin does contrast tone throughout this poem, or do you think that he uses the same tone throughout? And then I'd like you to think whichever way you feel.

So whether you think he changes tone or whether you think he keeps the tone consistent, I'd like you to think why might have made those creative choices.

So this is a really difficult question, and if you are able to discuss it with other people, I think that would be hugely beneficial.

However, obviously if you can't just think about it independently, and we will share some ideas in a moment, pause the video and off you go to consider that now.

Fantastic discussions, and as always, a really diverse range of opinions there with lots of you actually agreeing with Izzy that the tone does change throughout.

And I heard one person say something really, really perceptive that I just wanted to share with the group.

So I heard one person saying that perhaps Larkin's change of tone reflects his kind of uncertainty about family life, maybe because as we know, Larkin did have a close relationship with his own family.

However, he arguably also was quite cynical about family life.

So perhaps the fact that he changed his tone throughout represents his kind of conflicting emotions towards family life.

And I just thought that was a really interesting and unique perspective.

So thank you so much to the student who raised that.

I thought that was a brilliant point, and I really appreciate you sharing it.

So thank you very much.

So onto the last task of the lesson, and I'd like you to think, well, what might Larkin's use of tone reflect in the poem? So I'd like you to consider the themes of the poem and how the tone might reflect these themes.

So we know that we have this idea of the passage of time.

We know that we have this theme of the loss of autonomy, so freedom and individuality and identity of the mothers.

And we also know that there is that distinct theme of the loss of youth in this poem.

So I'd like you to think now based on what you think Larkin's tone is throughout this poem, the fact that it is in some ways quite foreboding, quite sinister in parts, but also that slight optimism that comes through every now and again.

Well, how might those tones reflect these themes? Okay, so why might Larkin have used these tones, basically? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you discuss that with the people around you, or if you're working independently, bullet point some notes for yourself.

So pause the video and off you go.

Really well done.

This was such a difficult question and I was super impressed by your resilience here and how much effort you put into trying to answer this question.

Okay, and some of you came up with some absolutely fantastic answers, which is brilliant.

But I also noticed that some of you were struggling a little bit.

Do not worry because we're going to go through some ideas together now.

So here's an idea that Andeep contributed that I'd really like to share with you.

So as I said, if you did struggle with that question, don't worry at all, because you can take on some of Andeep's ideas and perhaps use them as a starting point to continue considering this question of why Larkin perhaps contrast tone throughout the poem.

So here's what Andeep had to say.

He said, "Larkin's use of a foreboding, and at times quite sinister or threatening tone could reflect time creeping up on the young couples." So I really love this idea here that Andeep is almost alluding to time being presented as almost predatory in the poem, okay? This idea that time creeps up on the couples and snatches their life away almost, I think that's a really perceptive idea from him.

"It could represent the idea that the passing of time is inevitable and inescapable.

Loss of autonomy as we get into the afternoon of our life and become parents is unavoidable.

So perhaps Larkin is really trying to demonstrate what a great commitment having a family actually is and how much toll it can take on the individual.

Perhaps Larkin wanted to create this quite foreboding tone throughout to reflect the idea that he feels these young mothers are wasting their lives by choosing to sacrifice their autonomy and individuality for the sake of having a family.

Something that Larkin was cynical about and critical of." Okay, I think this is a brilliant response from Andeep.

Okay, it's not necessarily one that everybody would agree with, but that's absolutely fine, because he's justified it really well.

Okay, and I really like the fact that he's talked about Larkin's cynicism and how it manifests in the poem.

So well done if you got that.

Now, you'll notice that Andeep used a lot of the keywords from today's lesson.

So foreboding, tone, autonomy, and cynical.

And what I'm going to ask you to do now is reread Andeep's answer, and think, did he use those keywords accurately and correctly? Because it's no good using sophisticated vocabulary if you are not doing it accurately.

So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you reread Andeep's response and decide whether you think he's used them accurately or not.

So pause the video, and off you go.

Fantastic, and really well done because actually, Andeep did use all of the keywords correctly.

So a massive well done to Andeep.

He has smashed this lesson, and a really well done to those of you who were able to identify that he had in fact used them all correctly.

I felt like some of you thought I was trying to trick you there, but no, he did use them all correctly, and well done if you managed to recognise that, that shows me that you have a really solid understanding of these keywords and how to use them within a sentence.

So brilliant work there.

So to summarise the learning from today, well first of all, we know that Larkin presents the young couples as having lost their youthfulness as a result of having children.

Larkin arguably presents the responsibility of having a child as burdensome in the poem.

Larkin also illustrates the obligation and the duty that women particularly are put under when they have a family.

And he uses contrasting tones in the first stanza, perhaps to reflect the expectation versus the reality of having a child.

And finally, larkin's ominous, and at times, quite foreboding tone could represent time creeping up on the young couples.

I'd like to thank you for coming to today's lesson and engaging so actively in your own learning.

I've loved hearing all of your contributions and exploring this poem in more depth with you.

Thank you so much for your engagement.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you next time.

See you later.