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 are going to be exploring Jane Weir's poem "Poppies" and looking at ways we can compare it to other poems in your anthology.

So, let's get started.

So, by the end of today's lesson, we will be able to explain similarities and differences between different poets' viewpoints.

So, let's just have a look at today's key words.

So, feel free to pause the video for a few moments and make sure you are really familiar with each of these definitions, because we will be encountering each of these keywords quite a lot in today's lesson.

But before we move on, I'd just like to zoom in on two and explore them in a bit more detail.

So, I want to look at the third and fourth word, tenuous and compliment.

So, to start off with then, we've got compliment.

And this word is not to be confused with the other sort of compliment, which means to say something nice about somebody.

Compliment here, mean when something supports something else or makes it more effective.

So, we're probably going to be using that word to talk about how we could link those poems, because they compliment one another.

And then I'd like to look at that word tenuous, because actually, there's a link here between compliment and tenuous, because the meaning of tenuous is lacking a strong basis, support, or clarity.

It's weak or easily challenged.

And the reason why we might encounter tenuous in today's lesson is because perhaps if we have chosen two poems or two ideas that don't compliment each other very well, then the point that we will be making about them could be tenuous.

So, how is today's lesson going to look? Well, in the first half, we are going to compare the war poems in your anthology, and then in the second half we are going to compare the poems which focus on ideas related to inner conflict.

So, I'd like to start off by just recapping our knowledge of "Poppies".

So, some of our Oak pupils have been discussing some of the war poems in your anthology.

So, my question to you is this, which of the Oak pupils is describing "Poppies"? So, pause the video here and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So, well done, if you correctly identified that Sam was describing "Poppies".

So, which poems were Izzy and Jacob describing? Well, Izzy was describing "Exposure" and Jacob was describing "Charge of the Light Brigade".

So, if we just put Sam's summary of "Poppies" over there to remind us as we go along.

So, which of these statements about "Poppies" are accurate? So, pause the video and click Play when you're ready for us to discuss it further.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really fantastic discussions taking place there.

So, let's just start with that first statement.

The speaker's son has left to fight in World War I.

Well, actually this is a really common misconception about "Poppies", because obviously, this symbol of the poppy is something that we would associate with World War I and in particularly, remembrance of World War I.

So, although this poem is entitled "Poppies", actually it isn't specifically about World War I and instead it focuses on the conflict and grief associated with various wars.

The second statement then.

This poem focuses on more than one type of conflict.

Could hear lots of people discussing this in their groups.

Yes, it does.

"It focuses on the military conflict of war, but arguably also on the speaker's inner conflict," because we do get an insight into the mother's feelings when her son leaves.

The third statement, we could argue that this poem is a form of propaganda.

So, although war poems are commonly used for propaganda, we can really argue that this is a propagandist text, because Weir are doesn't present war in a positive way.

The next statement, this poem combines memories of the past with descriptions of the present.

I think this statement is accurate, because we do have these two clear scenes almost that take place.

Most of the poem is delivered in the time where the speaker is alone in her house after her son has left, but there are moments where she looks back at memories of his childhood.

So, we are definitely getting those two time settings there.

And the final statement, this poem explores ideas linked to generational conflict.

And generational conflict is conflict across different generations, so people of different ages.

So, although the poem focuses on a maternal relationship, so we do have that generational difference, I'm not convinced we could argue that it's a poem with ideas linked to generational conflict, because there isn't any conflict between the mother and the son.

So now, we've recapped our knowledge of "Poppies".

Let's start having a think about how we could compare it to some of the other anthology poems. So, because "Poppies" explores the effects of military conflict, it's a great poem to compare to the other war poems in the conflict anthology.

So, a quick fire discussion question for here then.

What are the other war poems in the anthology? So, see if you can remember the titles of those poems or perhaps grab your anthology and have a look at the contents page and see if you can decide which ones focus on military conflict.

So, pause the video while you take a moment to discuss it or have a look and make some notes for yourself and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

I'm sure by now you have realised that there are lots of poems in the anthology that are also focused on ideas linked to war.

So, you could have said "Exposure", "The Man He Killed", "The Charge of the Light Brigade", "The Destruction of Sennacherib", "War Photographer", "Belfast Confetti", and "What Were They Like?".

So, my next question to you is this.

Can you find any of these links? So, take a moment with the people around you or if you're working on your own, make some notes, but see if you can find any important connections between "Poppies" and any one of these poems in the list.

So, pause the video here and when you are ready to discuss it together, click Play, and we'll continue.

Welcome back.

So, let's just run through some of the connections that you could have made between "Poppies" and these poems. So, let's start with "Exposure".

So, we could have argued that both poems focus on the psychological impact of war, but perhaps do so from different perspectives, because in "Exposure" we are getting this firsthand experience of war and of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even arguably, the futility of war, the hopelessness perhaps that the soldier feels watching so many people lose their lives around him.

Whereas in "Poppies", although we are also getting the psychological impact, because we're looking at the mother's experience of war, it is very different.

We're not getting that firsthand experience, we're almost getting that indirect experience.

So, we're witnessing the mother's grief and loss.

"The Man He Killed", so we could have argued that both poems focus on inner conflict and the powerlessness of the soldiers.

In "The Man He Killed", Hardy uses lots of wordplay to imply that the soldier perhaps doesn't fully understand why war is so polarising.

So by polarising here, I mean why war situates people as opposites even though perhaps these people have never met before? And in "Poppies", we've got that really important word intoxicated.

How the mother describes the son's perhaps reaction or the son's perception of his duty as a soldier.

Perhaps she feels that he didn't fully understand the dangers and perhaps he was wrapped up in the excitement or the novelty or even perhaps any propaganda that he may have come across.

So, the next two I have grouped together, because I could argue that all three poems focus on the loss of life associated with war.

Although it's fair to say that "Poppies" is a much more personal and emotional account of that.

So, "Poppies" has that first person narrative style.

So, it's more relatable and intimate, because we're experiencing our speaker's inner thoughts and feelings.

Whereas in "Charge of the Light Brigade" and "The Destruction of Sennacherib", we've got that epic narrative style, which is actually quite detached.

Onto "War Photographer".

So, we could argue that both poems focus on people who exist on the periphery of military conflict.

And by periphery here, I mean on the edges.

So, in "War Photographer", our speaker works in the war zone, but isn't a soldier who is involved in the fighting.

So, they're witnessing that war happen, but perhaps they don't have a direct influence on the military conflict itself.

Whereas in "Poppies", we're focusing on relatives who are left back home and the emotional toll that war takes on them.

With the "Belfast Confetti" and "What Were They Like?" then, again, I've grouped all three poems together, because arguably they all focus on the people who have to live with the consequences of war.

So, in "Belfast Confetti" and "What Were They Like?", we get vivid descriptions of the chaos of war and on looking back on the conflict.

And then in "Poppies" we've got vivid descriptions of life before the war.

So, we are getting that real distinction there between the mother's experience before her son left for war and after the war.

So, some of the poems better compliment "Poppies" than others, and this is because there are many similarities and differences, and we've got that important word there compliment that we were talking about at the beginning.

So, the poems I would argue better compliment "Poppies" are "Exposure", "The Man He Killed" and "War Photographer".

And although we did manage to link the other poems to "Poppies", arguably the connections here were a bit more tenuous.

They were much more perhaps easily challenged.

There was a lot less evidence to support these connections and actually, they may not provide enough comparison for an entire comparative analytical response.

So, when you are selecting your poem, it's really important to think about how many connections you can make, because remember, you are going to need to make more than one point in that response.

So ideally, we're looking for these poems that compliment each other, where there is a lot to say about the similarities and differences.

So, let's compare two of the poems using a single paragraph outline.

So, for our topic sentence than, if we were comparing "Poppies" and "War Photographer", we might say both "Poppies" and "War Photographer" explore how war impacts those on the periphery.

Weir explores the emotional toll felt by the mother of a serving soldier, and Satyamurti explores the realities of working in a war zone.

And then for a concluding sentence, both poems express the emotions of the speaker and show the impact war has on them.

Satyamurti speaker seems detached from the grief and anxiety, whereas Weir's speaker seems utterly consumed by it.

So, if you notice there in our topic sentence, we've got that really important similarity indicated by both.

And then actually in the concluding sentence, we've been able to develop that a bit further in order to explore a difference, because though they both express emotions, Satyamurti's speaker seems detached, whereas Weir's speaker is the opposite, utterly consumed by these emotions.

So, we've got our beginning and our end of our paragraph that we might then write up.

So now, we need supporting detail, and this is really the bread and butter of your paragraph because this is where you are backing up your ideas with quotations from both texts and you are analysing the poet's use of language, form, and structure.

So, take a moment then can you identify supporting detail from both poems to support this interpretation? And we are aiming here for two quotations from each of those poems. So, pause the video here and click Play when you're ready for us to discuss it together.

Welcome back.

So, starting with "Poppies", we were looking for quotations or evidence which suggested that Weir's speaker was utterly consumed by these emotions that she felt.

So, first of all, "steeled" and "brave", both of which suggested that the mother was trying to control her overwhelming emotions.

And then secondly, we had that description of the songbird and how when her son had left, she went into his room and it was like letting a songbird out of a cage.

So, we've got this idea that her uncontrollable grief and sadness are finally released once her son has gone.

In "War Photographer" then, so we are looking remember for detachment.

So, first of all, we had this word arbitrary, which means random or not necessarily chosen with any strategy or any purpose.

And at the end of the poem, Satyamurti uses this to describe the blood stain suggesting that the photographer is desensitised to it.

And if we imagine that their job involves perhaps seeing chaos on a daily basis, so it's quite easy to assume that over time they might become quite desensitised to that violence and to the suffering.

And also, we had the two different scenes that Satyamurti describes that the photographer has photographed.

So, first of all, we had the Ascot girls juxtaposed with last week where the photographer was in the war zone.

So, the idea that we've got these discourse markers here "when" and "last week" suggests almost that the speaker is simply viewing both experiences as different days at work, which also suggests perhaps that they've become quite desensitised to it if they're able to compare these two quite different experiences.

So now, let's pause and check our understanding.

So, both "Poppies" and "War Photographer" explore what? So, pause the video, have a think, and when you're ready for me to reveal the correct answer, click Play.

Okay, welcome back and well done to those of you who said C, the impact of conflict on people who are on the periphery.

So now, it is time for our first practise task of today's lesson, and we're going to practise comparing these war poems. So, we've been focusing on comparing "Poppies" and "War Photographer".

So now, I would like you to have a go at using a single paragraph outline to compare "Poppies" with a different war poem thinking about how both poets present conflict.

So, here is a reminder of what a single paragraph outline looks like, and here is a reminder of the other poems that you could choose.

So, for your topic sentence, you need to make sure that you are introducing your comparison of key ideas in a full sentence.

And then in your supporting detail section as we just did, you're copying and annotating up to four pieces of evidence, ideally two from each poem.

And finally, in that concluding sentence box, you are summarising your argument in a full sentence and linking to the writer's intentions or the wider context, if it's relevant to do so.

So pause the video here, select your other poem, and build your analytical paragraph using this single paragraph outline.

And when you are ready for us to go through it together, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So now, it's time for you to review your single paragraph outline, and ask yourself the following questions.

So with your topic sentence, does your initial comparison lead with key ideas instead of comparing literary methods? And this is known as feature spotting and it's something that's best to avoid, because although it's really useful for us to analyse how writers use methods or language, form, and structure, ultimately, we are comparing these poems by focusing on the key ideas.

Because remember that question focus is asking us to think about conflict.

It's not asking us to think about language, form or structure.

It's asking us to compare them primarily by thinking about conflict.

And then we can develop that argument by exploring the language, form, and structure.

So yeah, have a think to yourself, is that comparison leading with those key ideas? And then onto your supporting detail.

So, is your evidence copied accurately? So, double check that you've copied it exactly as it appears on your text.

Is it relevant to your topic sentence? So, think really carefully about whether you've selected the best quotes in order to help you argue that point you've made above.

Are they chosen judiciously? That means have we chosen not necessarily the first relevant quote that we came across, but the best relevant quote.

And finally, the concluding sentence.

Then have you linked to the writer's intentions and/or the wider context.

So, take this opportunity to redraft your work and add in anything that you have missed out.

So, pause the video here while you review and redraft, and when you're ready to continue, click Play and we'll carry on.

So, we've made it to the halfway point of today's lesson.

So, now we have explored the war poems, it's time for us to think about comparing poems that are linked to inner conflict.

So, earlier in the lesson we identified that "Poppies" focused on more than one type of conflict, military conflict and inner conflict.

So, how can we interpret "Poppies" as a poem about inner conflict? So, pause the video while you take a moment to discuss it and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

I could hear lots of interesting interpretations there.

So well done, if your discussions were picking up on some of these key ideas.

So, first of all, this poem focuses on the mother's trauma as she's separated from her son.

So again, this idea of conflicted feelings within somebody.

Arguably, Weir also explores the conflict found in the maternal relationships.

We were discussing this idea earlier.

So, wanting a child perhaps to realise their dreams and ambitions versus not wanting to let them go.

So, we've got that conflicted nature of that maternal relationship.

And also, the use of first person in this poem means that we're able to experience the speaker's inner thoughts and feelings.

So, because we are hearing those inner thoughts, we are also getting to see and to experience the inner conflict.

So, now it's time to think about how we could use those ideas relating to inner conflict, compare "Poppies" to other poems from the anthology.

So, are there any other anthology poems that focus on inner conflict? So, pause the video for a moment, have another look down your contents page and see if you can identify any other anthology poems that are also drawing on these ideas of inner conflict.

So, pause the video here and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Okay, welcome back.

I could hear lots of people picking up on different poems. So well done, if your discussions covered any of these.

What similarities or differences can we identify between "Poppies" and each of these poems? We pause the video again while you take some time to discuss it and make your initial comparisons.

And when you're ready for us to discuss it together, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Some really fantastic responses that I overheard there.

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

So, starting with "Exposure".

So, we could argue that both poems focus on the psychological impact of those who experience war, because in both cases we are getting that first person account that focuses on these emotions and feelings with "A Poison Tree".

We could argue that both poems explore how relationships with others can cause inner conflict, because in "A Poison Tree" we've got the exploration of negative feelings towards others that arise out of this interpersonal conflict.

And then in "Poppies" we've also got negative feelings, but they're not related to interpersonal conflict, because remember there isn't really any conflict between the mother and the son.

But instead, they're all centred around the mother's feelings of loss and grief.

"Extract from the Prelude".

Then we could argue that both poems explore the depth and complexity of negative emotions, because in "Extract from the Prelude" the emotions our speaker feels are triggered by their experience of the natural world.

In "Poppies", we are getting that exploration of complex negative emotions.

However, they are triggered by something different, because here they're triggered by loss and separation.

In "The Man He Killed", we could argue that both poems look back on a time of togetherness, exploring what has changed perhaps in a relationship.

Now, two people are apart.

So, in "The Man He Killed", we've got feelings of anger perhaps that our soldier felt on the battlefield are now feelings of guilt and regret.

Whereas in "Poppies", the feelings of pride and love perhaps are now feelings of loss and grief.

So, we've got that shift in how our perceptions or our feelings about something can change.

With "Catrin", we could argue that both poems explore the complexities of the maternal relationship and perhaps in different ways explore the inner conflicts that this can lead to.

So, in capturing our mother, the speaker explores the closeness and distance in a maternal relationship, whereas although "Poppies" also explores closeness and distance, this is more physical separation, because the son has actually left the mother in "Poppies", whereas in capturing this distance perhaps is more emotional.

And finally, in "Belfast Confetti", both poems explore the inner conflict caused by the chaos of war.

So, in "Belfast Confetti", the speaker mourns the loss of his hometown, whereas in "Poppies", the speaker mourns the loss of closeness with their child.

We've got that linked idea there of mourning, but perhaps our speakers are mourning for different things or different people.

So.

now looking at this list then, which of these poems are best to compare to "Poppies"? So, just take a moment to think really carefully considering which poems best compliment each other.

Because remember, we want to avoid those tenuous links that perhaps won't give us enough material for an entire comparative analysis response.

So, pause the video here while you take some time to discuss this with the people around you or make some notes and click Play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back.

So, arguably "Exposure", "Catrin", and "Belfast Confetti" better complement "Poppies".

This is because they focus on similar key ideas and themes.

And what these three poems have in common is that in each we've got this firsthand perhaps experience that we are witnessing through that first person narrative.

So, we are getting the inner thoughts and feelings of the speaker in each case.

And arguably, these three do have some links to "Poppies", but they are more tenuous.

So perhaps not going to give us enough material for that entire response.

So, let's read a comparison of "Poppies" and "Belfast Confetti".

Both Weir and Carson explore the psychological impacts of war and conflict on those who experience it.

In "Belfast Confetti", the speaker' experience is direct as he watches his hometown of Belfast descend into chaos during the troubles.

However, in "Poppies", Weir explores a mother's emotional turmoil after her son has left to fight in a war.

This experience is more indirect than in "Belfast Confetti", but is depicted as equally intense.

Carson conveys the overwhelming experience of war by dropping the readers straight into the middle of the chaos.

The poem begins "in medias res" describing how chaos was raining over the speaker.

He uses symbolism, comparing it to exclamation marks to suggest that the scene causes the speaker to feel fear and panic, whereas Weir's speaker has an indirect experience of war since she isn't experiencing the chaos herself.

The speaker describes how she smoothed her son's uniform before he left, remembering how she would play with her son when he was little.

Here, Weir are takes a retrospective approach, juxtaposing happier times with the present in order to emphasise the speaker's sense of loss now her son has left.

These happier memories arguably amplify the emptiness left behind now her son is gone.

Although they take very different approaches, both poets focus on the life-changing effects of war and conflict on those who are forced to live through it, whether they are friends and relatives left to mourn lost lives or those living in fear in the centre of the action.

So, now we've had a chance to read through that response.

I'd like you to think carefully about what was effective about the response and perhaps how it could have been improved in future.

So, pause the video and take a moment to discuss it with the people around you.

Given this response, a what went well and an even better if.

Click Play when you're ready to feedback together.

Okay, welcome back.

I could hear lots of fantastic suggestions both related to what was good about this response and also how it could be improved.

So, let's unpick it in a bit more detail then.

Zooming in on some of the particularly effective things that this response does.

So first of all, it starts right away with this comparative language, both correlative conjunctions, then grouping the texts together based around a similarity.

And then later on we've got however indicating a difference.

So, that's really fantastic, because it makes it really clear to the reader what the relationship between these two texts are.

and it actually allows you to then be able to move backwards and forwards across the text as this paragraph does in order to explain the point, because the relationship between them isn't confusing at any point.

Another really good thing that this response does is it zooms in on evidence, exploring the writer's use of methods.

So, every time we find a key quotation somewhere in this paragraph, near to it we'll get a zoomed in comment perhaps about the methods or perhaps about inferences.

So, we've got this comment about symbolism, about the retrospective approach and the juxtaposing of these contrasting ideas.

So, these are all really fantastic words that help us to articulate our interpretations of the text.

Arguably, I think the one thing that this response needed to do perhaps to improve the next time is to make a little bit more of this concluding sentence.

So, although it summarised the similarities and differences, it could have developed that a little bit further by perhaps exploring the writer's intentions and/or the wider context.

So, over to you again then.

How could we use this even better if to redraft the response.

So, take a moment to discuss it with the people around you or make some notes and when you're ready to feedback together, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

Well, we could have said something like this.

Carson's own experience of living in Belfast during the troubles, may have influenced his writing here, helping to bring a vividness to his descriptions of the conflict.

In contrast, Weir's poem focuses on the aftermath of war and the loss of life.

"Poppies" a symbol of World War I remembrance act as a reminder for the mothers of all the children lost to different wars throughout history.

So now, it's time to pause and check our understanding.

True or false? In both "Belfast Confetti" and "Poppies", the speakers are in a state of mourning.

So, pause the video here where 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 true.

So now, it's time to justify this response.

So, take a look at these two possible explanations and decide which one you think best justifies our ideas above.

Click pause while you take some time to think.

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

Welcome back, and well done to those of you who said B.

We could argue that the speaker of "Belfast Confetti" is mourning the loss of the city of Belfast, which has turned into a war zone.

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

And what I would like you to do is add another comparative paragraph to the model answer we just read.

So, imagining that we are continuing this response.

So, you can find a copy of the response we just looked at in the additional materials.

And what I would like you to do is use the following single paragraph outline as your plan.

So, you've got a topic sentence and you've got a concluding sentence, and you will need to find your own evidence.

So, pause the video and give yourself enough time to give this a really good go.

And when you're ready for us to feedback together, click Play and we'll continue.

Okay, welcome back.

So, now, we have written our paragraphs.

It is time to review your work.

And I'd like you to do this and asking yourself the following questions.

Did you signpost the similarities and differences between the two poems using comparative language? Did you introduce your argument with a clear concise topic sentence? Did you zoom in on evidence from both texts to identify methods and explore subtle meanings? And did you use your concluding sentence to link to the writer's intentions and/or the wider context? So, take some time to go back over your work and check that you've included all of these things.

And what we'd like you to do is set yourself a what went well and an even better if for next time.

So, pause the video here while you take some time to review your work and set those all important targets.

And when you're ready to continue, click Play and we'll carry on.

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

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

"Poppies" can be compared to many of the other war poems in the anthology.

Unlike other war poems, "Poppies" focuses on the relatives of soldiers who go off to war.

"Poppies" could be compared with poems that explore inner conflict and themes of loss.

It's important to choose poems that compliment each other and avoid tenuous links.

And finally, comparative language enables us to signpost the similarities and differences between two poems. So, thank you very much for joining me in today's session and for all your hard work.

I hope you have a fantastic day, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.