Hi everyone, this is Mr. Chandrapala, and I'm really looking forward to working with you today as we discuss how to form comparisons within poetry.

This is often something, that when I'm discussing with my students, they say is something they find really difficult, whether it is the unseen poems or whether it is the anthology poems. I think the main thing I would want to emphasise to all of you today is that if we follow these simple steps, which is just gathering the evidence that we have ahead of us, and then thinking about how we can thematically link them, we should be okay.

Let's get into it.

So as ever, let's start off by just having a look at our outcome, which is to plan a comparative response to unseen poetry.

Our key words for today's lesson include the noun transience, which is the state or fact of lasting only for a short time.

The adjective coherent, which is something that is logical and well organised.

It is easy to understand and clear.

The adjective logical, which is characterised by or capable of clear, sound reasoning.

The noun thing, which is a central, unifying idea.

And the noun progression, which is the act of changing to the next stage of development.

So as ever, our lesson outline starts off with gathering ideas.

So we're gonna consider how we can plan a response to the question today.

Our question, which you're gonna wanna write onto your notes, into your books or onto your line paper, is compare how Laskey and Robertson present the idea of transience in "Nobody" and "Donegal." We're gonna walk through how one of our Oak pupils, Sophia, would go about gathering ideas to this question.

You'll find the copies of the poems and the additional materials.

So please do have a look at them as we are going through.

The first thing that Sophia does by.

The first thing that Sophia does is to begin by reading Laskey's "Nobody," and highlighting words or images that are linked to that idea of transience.

That is the question or that is the key word in the question that she needs to be focusing on.

So if she starts off by just having a look at those opening lines, "If you can't bring yourself to build a snowman or even to unclench a snowball or two to fling at the pine tree trunk, at least and find some reason to take you out.

So immediately here, if she's thinking about transience, she may go for the words snowman and snowball.

These are things that don't last for a particularly long time.

They last for a finite period of time.

They're not there for particularly long.

So snowman and snowball definitely seem to fit within that idea of transience.

And then the poem continues.

"Of yourself: scrape a patch of grass clear for the birds maybe; prod at your shrubs so they shake off the weight, straighten up; or just stump about leaving prints of your boots, your breath steaming out.

Promise.

Don't let yourself in for this moment again.

The end of the afternoon, drawing the curtains on the glare of the garden, a whole day of snow nobody's trodden." Sophia is again, going to pick out the words that she would want to focus on.

But I'm just actually gonna ask you just to pause the video.

Can you find what words you would want to focus on in this particular part of the poem? She looked at snowball and snowman, in the previous section, because she was focusing on the word that's transience, that key word of transience,.

What other words in this part of the poem, linked transience? Pause the video, see if you can find any for yourself.

And when you've done so, hit play.

Some really nice ideas there, everyone.

Sophia went for the term prod, straighten up, stump about, snow nobody's trodden.

So there's a couple of things that we could say here, but that idea of "snow nobody's trodden" again, gets into that sense of, again, this transience because there is a lack of permanence, isn't there? There's that potential that almost isn't being met if nobody has trodden in it.

Nobody has made that joyful first leap.

Now, what would you have picked out from that part? Would you have picked the same words and images? Have a look again at that final part of the poem.

Pause the video, select which parts you would've gone for, and what can you explain why you would've done that.

Once you've done that, hit play.

Some really good ideas there from everyone.

Alex had a look at this and he thought actually, he would've looked at that moment, "the end of the afternoon," as he thought that this quotation relates to the ending of the light and the day.

I think that's actually a really nice pick out from Alex.

I think it's a really interesting option to go for because absolutely, there is a sadness and there is a transience experience to the end of the day, isn't there? There's that sense that another day has passed and maybe there's a sense of melancholy there.

So I really like Alex's idea.

Sophia returned to the phrases that she had picked out earlier, and she knew that she had to consider the connotations of each of those phrases.

When she's thinking about connotations, she's thinking about ideas or thoughts which are linked to those initial words.

So initially, she looks at snowman and snowball.

She says, "Well, snow, it's temporary, it melts.

It's gone within a day." She's absolutely right there.

If there's anything that you like that Sophia's got there, you may want to add it to your own copies of the poem.

She then had a look at those words, prod, straighten up, stump.

And she said, "Well, actually these are ideas of movement.

There's progression, there's an active nature to them." And there is, isn't there? What I would maybe say about prod and stump particularly, is that to me they seem quite finite examples of verbs of movement.

Though they are definitely suggesting there is movement, they're not particularly elongated.

They just seem to be quite short, sharp actions, almost lacking fluency really.

And then finally, in that final part of the poem, "the end of the afternoon," the "snow nobody's trodden." Well, as Alex was saying, "the end of the afternoon" has that end of light, the end of day, the transience of time.

Whilst the "snow nobody's trodden" is again that idea of not taking advantage of opportunities when available.

So this idea that opportunities are transience, they don't last forever.

There's a potential, but we have to make good on it.

If there's anything that you really like from the slide, pause the video now, take the notes and when you're ready, hit play.

What I love about working with you all is that that you're really interested in thinking about your own ideas, and I know that several of you have gotten those ideas and being able to stretch beyond them.

That's absolutely fantastic.

It's lovely to see you building onto Sophia's initial ideas.

I want to challenge you here.

What current connotations would you note for these two quotations? Apart from what's already been gotten, what else could you potentially say? Can you link it to anything else in the poem? Once you've had that discussion with the person next to you, or maybe just jotted down your own ideas, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

What I really liked is is that people were thinking again about that sense of transience, and the idea that actually time is going to leave us.

And that's maybe even suggested just slightly earlier in the stanza, where it says for this moment, again, this idea that there is a recurrence to this moment.

That idea of (indistinct) again, so something that happens more than once, but again, it's a short amount of time, isn't it? It's not an hour, it's not, you know, a day, it's this moment.

So it really emphasises that there is something special about that present.

After gathering the ideas about the words and the images, Sophia then considered what structural elements might relate to transience.

She again, came back to this stanza of promise.

Here, she was really interested in the use of the full stop after promise, and the colon after again.

She made notes on how she thought they relate to transience.

So here, she was looking at actually how there's that clear enjambment.

So we have that run on line, "Don't let yourself in for this moment again." "The end of the afternoon," the "drawing curtains on the glare of the garden." "A whole day of snow nobody's trodden." All of this is enjambment.

We have the ideas of continuation, moving forward, progression, because there is no stop at the end of those lines of poetry.

But we've also got the fact that we have these caesuras.

The fact that actually the promise is immediately punctuated by a full stop, the colon at the end of "don't let yourself in for this moment again." There's a suggestion there that actually we need to pause and reflect on our own lives.

So we have these quite contrasting ideas communicated by the structure of the poem.

So a really interesting way that the poet has structured this work.

Pause the video now and if there's anything you need, take a note of it and then we'll keep moving.

Really well done, everyone.

Really pleased with the way that you're taking notes, and some excellent development of that idea again.

So let's just have a quick check for our understanding here.

I want you to select true or false for the statement above.

"Arguably, the structural devices in Laskey's 'Nobody' all point to a sense of continuation." Pause the video, select true or false, and when you're ready, hit play.

Well done everyone.

We can say that this is false, but can we explain why? Is it because we might interpret the caesuras in Laskey's "Nobody" as creating a moment for the reader to pause and reflect? Or is it because we might interpret the enjambment in Laskey's "Nobody" as creating a moment for the reader to pause and reflect? Pause the video again, select A or B, and when you're ready, hit play.

And well done again, everyone.

It is option A.

The caesuras is a thing that create that moment for pause and reflection, because obviously caesuras, they interrupt the line flow, and that's the thing that causes that moment of reflection.

I now want you to find your copy of "Donegal" by Robin Robertson in the additional materials.

Again, I'm gonna ask you to read the poem.

And I want you to use Sophia's method to gather your own notes for that poem.

I want you to highlight which words or images relate to transience, and what are the connotations of those words? And what structural features do you think relate to transience? Once you've done so, hit play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

Some really interesting connotations being explored there.

And I'm so pleased with the way that you are annotating that poem.

We're gonna take some feedback, and hopefully, Izzy's work on the next slide is gonna be able to stretch our ideas even further.

If only Izzy could learn from all of you.

So Izzy was having a look at this, and she picked out the words beach, throwing and plough.

I want you to have a look at what she's picking out and see if there's anything that you would say about this.

Anything that you would add to your own notes, whether you think stretch your own notes.

So for the word beach, she was thinking about.

Actually, well that gives that sense of transience because it's never the same twice.

Because beaches change every day, right? That sounds strange, but if you think about it, the water, the waves bring in sand, take away the sand, the tide is never the same.

Even the idea of actually how the water runs along the beach, it creates different patterns every day.

So that's a really interesting idea to be going for.

And then we've got those verbs throw and plough, which are active movement.

There's a sense of effort there.

What we've also got is the enjambment at three different points in the poem.

This again, suggests that continuation, doesn't it? So we've got this sense that actually things are running along together.

That sense of time moves from one moment to another without pausing, without that moment of stopping.

So we just need to be able to deal with that.

Pause the video, take any notes you need, and once you're ready, hit play.

Some really interesting ideas there, everyone.

So pleased with the way that you've taken those notes and expanded them yourselves.

We're now going to move on.

We then have this moment of "on the last day of summer" and "he could not follow." Again, "the last day of summer" is a really interesting moment, isn't it? Because it's that almost that threshold.

It suggests a change of season coming, the transience of time.

And the fact that he could not follow again, maybe suggests that the relationship between the father and daughter has changed.

What we're now going to do is we're going to organise the ideas of both poems. So because we've now gathered our ideas, we need to consider how we might organise them.

When we're writing an extended response to a question, we need to make sure that we construct an argument that is coherent and logical.

But how might we organise our ideas in a coherent and logical way? Pause the video, talk to the person next to you, or maybe jot down some ideas.

Or if you're working in a class, you may want to discuss it with the people around you.

How could we organise our ideas in a coherent and logical way for a comparative poetry unseen question? Once you've done so, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

So Alex pointed out, "We could order them by theme." So as well as being coherent and logical, I think there are other advantages by organising by theme.

Can you provide any of those ideas? Pause the video now.

Consider what advantages there are to consider by organising by theme.

And once you've done so, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

So as Alex points out, "It could help us to see where there are similarities and differences between the poems, as well as making sure that our argument doesn't become repetitive." And I think that that is so central to this.

Just because something is logical and coherent we don't want it just to be a really circular argument.

It loses interest for me as a examiner, but it also means that actually we're not developing our ideas as fully as we can.

So they're really limited in the end.

So what Sophia and Izzy did is that they gathered all of their ideas from Laskey in "Nobody's".

Sorry, Laskey's "Nobody" and Robertson's "Donegal." And they talked about how the snow was temporary.

There was that movement of throw, the enjambment suggested continuation.

There was the caesura of reflection, the end of the afternoon, the suggested time, and the snow nobody's trodden were the missed opportunity.

Those are all on the left hand side.

And that offers Laskey's "Nobody," which Sophia had a look at.

Izzy's note on Robertson's "Donegal" on the right hand side.

So you know, the mention of the beach, which is always changing.

The plough suggesting movement, the enjambment suggesting continuation.

The "last day of summer," suggesting a particular moment or a movement of time.

And "he could not follow" again, suggesting that the relationship with the daughter has changed.

But can we see any common themes between these notes? Can we see any ideas that are linking these two poems? Pause the video now, see if you can spot anything.

And once you've done so, hit play.

Well done, everyone, some really fantastic discussions there.

And I was so pleased to see the fact that all of you are bringing in your own ideas, really stretching beyond what's just on the slide.

Well done.

So Lucas, Alex, Laura and Izzy, all came up with some different suggestions.

Lucas said, "Well, I can see similarities in how they both consider the transience of time." Laura pointed out, "I can see similarities in how they both create continuation through enjambment." Izzy noticed that actually, there are similarities in the use of the words suggesting movement and progression.

Whilst Alex said, "Well, I can see similarities between snow and beach, and how nature is always changing." These are all fantastic ideas.

Pause the video now and if there's anything that you would like to take down from these, take them down.

But remember, we're focusing on theme here.

I like Laura's idea, but she is focusing quite a lot through method, which can be helpful, but we may want to organise into a wide thematic point.

Pause the video, take anything that you would like, and then when you're ready, hit play.

Okay.

So we've found some similarities in the themes.

Now we're going to use them to help organise our response.

How could we organise the similar themes into two paragraphs? Pause the video now, see how you could organise them.

And when you're ready, hit play.

Fantastic work there, everyone.

So Laura pointed out, "Well, I would create one paragraph on the transience of time and nature, and a second paragraph on how the poem creates ideas of movement, continuation and progression." I really like this, and I definitely think that there's something to be said about that transience of time and nature.

And there's so much to do with verbs of movement that I think in both poems, I think, that this could be a real winner.

So let's just have a quick check for understanding here.

I want you to select two of the three possible statements below, which are true? So is it A? There is a common theme of movement and cross base poems. B.

There is a common theme of transience of time across both poems. Or C, there is a common theme of missed opportunities across both poems. Pause the video, select two out of those three options, and when you're ready, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

We selected A and B because there are several words in both poems connected to movement, and there is so much to do with the transience of time in each.

What I'm now going to ask you to do is I would like you to focus on organising your ideas.

So practise putting this together.

So when we grouped the ideas by theme, we were left with three ideas that did not fit into either group.

So we have caesuras in Laskey's "Nobody," the "snow nobody's trodden," which is a missed opportunity in Laskey's work, and then "he could not follow," which suggests the relationship with the daughter has changed in "Donegal." How would you incorporate those ideas though into your response? What link could you create between them? Pause the video, see how you could do that.

And once you're ready, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

Let's take some feedback.

So Izzy produce some ideas here, and I want you to see how well they aligned with your ideas.

If there's anything that you really like, you may want to add it in a different colour pen, or if there's anything that actually you think could extend your thinking, you may want to just add to your own idea.

So Izzy said, "I would add an analysis of the caesuras in Laskey's "Nobody" into the paragraph about continuation in order to explore why Laskey creates moments of pause and Robertson does not.

I would then add a third paragraph to analyse the ending of both poems, and why Laskey focuses on the idea of missed opportunities, and why Robertson considers the father's changing relationship with his daughter in order to consider the message that both poets want the reader to take away in relation to transience." Pause the video now, see if there's anything that you would like to add to your own work.

Once you've done so, hit play.

Excellent work there, everyone.

So we've reached the end of today's lesson on planning a comparative response to unseen poetry.

Let's go through our summary.

So you might begin by gathering ideas, by highlighting words or images that relate to the theme of the question when looking at an unseen poetry comparative question.

You would then annotate the connotation of those words and images.

You might then want to consider how the structural elements relate to the theme of the question.

I think it's so important that you do that because the structural comments are so.

It's such an easy way of demonstrating to your examiner that you're a really high level candidate.

So structural comments are always something for you to be able to focus on.

Then you might organise your ideas by theme in order to find common themes across both poems. You've all worked incredibly hard today.

I've been so impressed with your work and I really appreciate your time and effort.

Thank you so much for joining me, and I hope to speak to you again very soon.

Bye for now.