Hello there, welcome to today's lesson.

Fantastic to see you.

My name is Mr. Barnsley, and I'm really glad you've joined me as we continue to explore the Eduqas Poetry Anthology together.

Today, we are gonna be looking at a new poem, we're gonna be looking at Emily Dickinson's "As Imperceptively as Grief." Do make sure you've got a copy of the poem or your copy of the anthology in front of you, and let's get ready to go.

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

By the end of the lesson, you are gonna be able to explain how Dickinson uses metaphor in her poetry.

So there are four keywords, two of them, you'll understand how important they are, because they're in the title of the poem.

They are imperceptible and grief.

And the other two, melancholy and serenity, are gonna help us to discuss this poem.

So let's dive in and make sure we understand what each of these words mean.

So if something is imperceptible, it means that it's unable to be noticed or detected by the senses.

It's something that's happening so gradually, you don't even notice it's there or things are changing.

Grief is the feeling of deep sorrow or sadness that we might associate with loss, particularly the loss of a loved one.

Melancholy is also a feeling of sadness or gloominess, so it might describe how someone is feeling.

Whereas serenity is a state of calmness, peace, and tranquillity.

All right, if you need to take a moment just to make a note of what each of those words mean before we move on, but keep an eye out for them, we want to use them in our own discussions and writing today.

Okay, so today we're gonna be reading Emily Dickinson's "As Imperceptibly as Grief," and we're gonna break our learning down into two learning cycles today.

Firstly, we're gonna look at our initial responses to the poem as we read it.

And then we'll dive a little bit deeper, and see if we can think of this poem as a metaphor.

See if there's any deeper or hidden meanings within there.

All right, so we'll get started by thinking about our initial responses to the poem.

So to start, I want to throw this over to you, we're gonna have a bit of a discussion.

What comes to mind when you think of the word grief? Grief being one of our keywords.

Why don't you pause the video and if you've got a partner, you can discuss this with them.

But don't worry if you're working by yourself, you can just think through this independently.

All right, over to you, pause the video, have a think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Welcome back, some really interesting and sensitive discussions there.

Well done for treating this topic with the sensitivity that it deserves.

So, some things that I heard some of you saying were loss, okay? We saw that that was part of our definition of our keyword, and it can be often the loss of a loved one.

It could be the loss of a relationship perhaps as well.

So I heard lots of people saying death and this obviously links very closely to loss, because we might associate it with the death of a family member or a loved one, someone we care for.

And therefore we might associate that with a feeling of sadness.

And very often I heard this word, where I really liked it, people saying it can be very overwhelming, which means that grief can be all-consuming.

And if you're in the process of grieving, it can feel like that's all you can think about.

And actually, this leads to other emotions, and I heard some of you talking about some of those, such as anger.

Some people can often feel very anger at the unjust nature of losing someone or something that they care about.

And well done if you said denial, I heard a couple of people say this.

And I thought this was really interesting because you sometimes see, when people are in a state of grieving, that actually these overwhelming feelings of sadness and anger can get too much.

And occasionally, people can really try and push those feelings aside, they try and deny the grief they are suffering.

Well done if you said something to similar to any of these things you can see on screen.

And, of course, you might have had other ideas as well.

Okay, what I want us to do then is make a prediction about what this poem might be about, based on the title.

And to help you, I have given you a few questions that you can think through.

So first of all, I want you to think about this idea of grief.

And do you think it can ever be imperceptible? Imperceptible means that you don't really notice it, you don't notice, you don't see it or feel it.

It's so gradual, that you don't even notice that any change is happening.

Is that a word that we feel like we can associate with grief? Also, you might have picked up that this feels like it's a language device, particularly through the use of as.

What language device might Dickinson be using here? And therefore, do you think this poem is necessarily gonna be about the loss of a loved one? Why don't you pause the video, and think about some of these questions that are on the screen.

If you've got a partner, you can talk through with them, share your ideas.

And if you're working by yourself, then you can just think through this independently.

All right, pause the video, have a little bit of a think.

Make some predictions about the title is poem, and press play when you're ready to move on.

I heard some really interesting ideas there.

And some of you, lots of you, were in complete disagreement that grief could ever be imperceptible.

A feeling that's so overwhelming, how could you not notice it? But I was very impressed with those of you said this is a simile.

So what if Dickinson isn't actually speaking about grief itself, but is in fact comparing something else to grief? That is a possibility, well done if you said something similar.

All right, it's now time for us to read the poem.

So you're gonna want to make sure you've got your copy of the poem, your copy of the anthology in front of you.

If you haven't, now is the time to pause your video and get yourself organised.

Okay, no more warnings.

We should all be ready to go.

All right, I am gonna read the poem to you.

However, I am gonna turn the camera off because I want you to be focusing on the writing.

I want your eyes to be on the poem, your eyes to be on the page, okay? Are we ready? Everyone looking at the poem, let's read this.

"As imperceptibly as grief, the summer lapsed away, too imperceptible at last to seem like perfidy.

A quietness distilled as twilight long begun, or nature spending with herself, sequestered afternoon, the dusk drew earlier in, the morning foraged on.

A courteous, yet harrowing grace as guests that would be gone.

And thus, without a wing or a service of a keel, our summer made her light escape into the beautiful." Okay, welcome back.

Some excellent following along there.

What I want you to do is have a think about, what is the speaker grieving? What does it seem like the speaker is grieving? Why don't you pause the video, have a think, and press play when you think you have an answer.

I wonder if you said something similar to this, that it almost appears as if the speaker is grieving this transition period from the summer into the autumn.

They speak of longer nights and the summer.

By the end of the poem, the summer is escaping.

So it feels, on the surface, like this is about the grieving of the seasons, the grieving of a fading summer.

So did you think this had the tone you imagined for a poem that had the word grief in the title? Was this the tone that you were expecting? Why don't you pause the video, have a little think, and then press play when you're ready to share some ideas.

Yeah, interestingly, I heard, I thought quite a few people would've said something similar to this.

That actually, the poem seems quite unexpectedly gentle in tone, even perhaps a little bit hopeful by the end with that into the beautiful.

And this feels quite opposed to the overwhelming sadness that we might have been expecting in a poem with the word grief in the title.

So, quite interesting here, maybe not things that we were completely expecting.

All right, let's check how we're getting on then.

Which of the following would you not use to describe the tone of the poem? Is it the word reflective, the word distraught, or the word hopeful? Why don't you pause the video, have a think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Yes, interestingly, I hope you picked B.

Now, if I just looked at the title, this might have been the word that I was expecting to describe the tone.

I'd be expecting a poem that had a really distraught tone, extreme sadness.

But in fact, having now read the poem, the words reflective and hopeful were ones that seem much more reflective of the poem that we've just read.

Well done if you've got the answer correct there.

All right, we're really thinking about our initial responses to the poem and Laura, one of our Oak pupils, has shared hers.

She says, "The speaker's grief at the transition of summit into autumn is very gentle.

It's not reflective of the overwhelming grief one may associate with death." What I want you to think about is, which quotations could Laura use to justify her interpretation? So you're gonna do this as a discussion.

If you've got a partner, you can discuss with them.

But don't worry if you're working by yourself, you can just think through either independently, in your head, or you can even make some notes, think about what you would say as part of a discussion.

But think about what quotations, or which quotations Laura might use to justify her interpretation.

So you're gonna need to select the quotations that Laura might use, but you're also gonna have to explain the effects of those quotations, and link it back to what you think Dickinson is trying to say.

So we're not just picking quotations here.

We're starting to do some analysis as well, thinking about why these quotations are so useful in supporting this idea that this doesn't feel like a poem that is about overwhelming grief.

But instead, is something quite gentle.

All right, pause the video.

Either discuss with your partner, or work through this independently, and press play when you are ready to do some reflections on the discussions that you've had, over to you.

Welcome back, I heard some really interesting discussions then, well done.

So one of our Oak pupils, Jun, also took part in this discussion.

So let's have a look at what he said, and then let's see if it meets all of the success criteria.

So Jun says, "There seems to be a sense of serenity in the speaker's grief at the loss of summer.

Dickinson writes that a quietness distilled, creating an almost peaceful image of autumn's arrival.

The soothing verb distilled, implies a purity to the silence, creating a more reflective, rather than melancholic, tone to the poem.

Perhaps Dickinson's aim is to reflect the speaker's acceptance of the passing of time, rather than the fearing of it.

Hmm.

Very interesting, Jun.

Let's see how he did against our success criteria.

Did he use quotation? Yes, he did, a quietness distilled.

And he zooms in on the verb distilled.

Explains the impact.

Yes, he did.

He talks about the peaceful image of autumn, and the tone it created.

And does he link it back to the writer's intention? Yes, he does.

So he starts to think about, okay, well, what is Dickinson perhaps trying to say through her poem? And perhaps here, she's trying to say, actually we should accept that time passes.

We should accept that summer moves into autumn.

We shouldn't be sad about the loss of summer, but just accept this is a natural way of life, a part of life.

Okay, interesting.

Well done, Jun.

Okay, what I'd like you to do then is just think, did my discussion meet this success criteria? All right, pause the video, have a quick reflection, and then press play when you're ready to move on.

Okay, welcome back.

So we've read the poem, and we start to get some initial interpretations.

Now, I want us to dive a little bit deeper and see if we can start to explore some potential deeper meaning here.

And we're gonna do that by starting to think of the poem as a metaphor.

But first, I want you to know a few facts about Emily Dickinson.

So, first of all, she had a really deep spiritual belief about the power of nature.

She also went to a church school, and was very preoccupied about the meaning of life.

And she wrote most of her poetry against the backdrop of the American Civil War.

So a time when there was lots of fighting, lots of conflict, and lots of death.

Knowing all of this, do you think Dickinson's poem is simply about the transition between summer and autumn? Or could this poem actually be about grief? What do you think? Pause the video, have a bit of a discussion, and press play when you're ready to continue.

Yeah, some really interesting discussions there.

Lots of you saying, well, actually, if this is someone who was very preoccupied about the meaning of life and they were writing at a time when they were surrounded by death, maybe this is actually a poem about grief, just not how we'd expect a poem about grief to be.

And I would agree, I do think we can read this as a metaphor for grief, as a metaphor for the lifecycle, as a metaphor for the passing of time.

So, let's have a think then.

Why might Dickinson use this image of a fading summer to represent the grieving process? Let's look at these images of a summer turning into autumn.

How could that represent the grieving, the process of grief, the process of loss? All right, pause the video.

If you've got a partner, you may discuss with them.

Otherwise, just work through this yourself, think about this independently.

All right, pause the video over to you.

And press play when you are ready to reflect on some of the things that you might have discussed.

All right, some really interesting ideas there.

Well done to those of you who were trying to pick out some really specific similarities between that transition between summer and autumn and the grieving process.

Here are some things that you might have said.

So you might have said something along the lines of, that whilst the transition from summer to autumn is a literal passage of time, time has to pass for us to move from summer to autumn, it actually can be a metaphor to represent actually the human life cycle.

If we think of the leaves kind of as buds in the spring, to blooming in the summer, to their gradual browning, to falling off the tree, that is a circle of life.

And can represent the circle of life that humans go for, from born to ageing to death.

And you could say that actually, it could also represent the passage of time that's often needed during that grieving process.

So by comparing grief to a fading summer, Dickinson could be arguing that grief brings darkness.

If we think of that summer, if we think of the longer nights, if we think of the shorter days, then there is an argument by comparing the two, that we could be saying that grief brings this real sense of darkness.

And I heard some really nice ideas about all of these processes being imperceptible, that keyword being hard to notice.

You know, the summer changing from the autumn is imperceptible.

We don't wake up one morning, look out the window and go, oh, autumn's here, all the leaves are brown, they're falling off the trees, okay? It's something that happens very, very gradually over days and weeks and months at the end of summer.

But likewise, ageing is a process that doesn't happen overnight, but so is grieving.

Now, we thought about, could grief be something that's imperceptible? How do you notice it's not there? But what if we turn this on its head and say, the process of grieving is imperceptible? Moving on from grief, overcoming grief is imperceptible.

Maybe you don't wake up one day, suddenly no longer grieving, but day by day by day, there's a very imperceptible process where things get easier and easier and easier.

Really interesting if you said something similar to this.

And I think Jun summarises it best, that actually, one of the main takeaways we can take from this poem is it's being really aware about the passing of time.

Time creeps upon us, whether it's summer into autumn, whether it's just the ageing process, or whether it's the grief that follows the loss of a loved one.

Time kind of moves very slowly, very gradually, but it can creep upon us.

Some really fantastic ideas linking this image of the fading summer to these much bigger ideas about the passage of time and grief.

Let's consider then, let's start to tie this into the poem by looking at both the opening and closing lines.

The opening line is, "As imperceptibly as grief, the summer lapsed away." And the closing line is, "Our summer made her light escape into the beautiful." Okay, we talked about expecting a poem about grief, expecting a poem about losing someone to feel really overwhelmingly negative, but that wasn't necessarily our interpretation, our first response to it when we read it.

What do we think Dickinson is trying to say about the passing of time through that opening and closing line? Why don't you just pause the video for a moment, and have a quick think to yourself? Pause the video and have a quick think, and then press play when you are ready to hear some possible responses.

I wonder if you said that actually, the fact that the summer lapsed away really suggests that time is fleeting.

It often passes us by without us noticing.

Yet, interesting, the poem ends with this almost sense of acceptance.

Yes, the summer light does escape, it does escape at the end of the season, but it escapes into something beautiful.

And maybe that's a reminder that ageing, the passing of time, and even death, our own and that of others that we love, shouldn't be something that we fear.

We perhaps see it as an important and vital and inseparable part of life, and all the brilliant and beautiful things that life brings to us.

Really, really interesting interpretation of this poem.

It feels to be so much more than just about a summer turning into autumn.

Okay, let's check how we're doing.

True or false, the transition from summer to autumn could be a metaphor for ageing, for death, and grief? Pause the video, have a think, press play when you think you have an answer.

Well done if you said true, I think we could argue for any of these three things.

Let's justify it then, shall we? Is it, A, that all of these things are imperceptible? They happen gradually over time.

Or is it B, that all of these things happen very quickly, and that should actually leave the reader feeling very worried? What do you think? Pause the video, have a think.

Press play when you think you have the answer.

Yes, all of these processes are imperceptible.

We don't necessarily notice ageing, we don't notice ourselves getting closer and closer to death.

And even grief, whilst grief can feel really overwhelming, the process of coming through the other side might feel really, really imperceptible.

Well done if you've got this answer correct.

All right, over to our final task of today's lesson.

Jun has shared his interpretation of the poem on the screen.

He says, "Dickinson uses the transition from summer to autumn as a metaphor for grief.

As a result, her poem can be viewed as being reflective, encouraging the reader not to fear death, but to enjoy each moment in life." What I would like you to think about is to what extent you agree with Jun.

And I want you to write your response, making sure you do the following, and we practised all of this in our first task.

I want you to make sure that you use quotation, quotation that you feel is gonna really support your argument.

I want you to make sure you're explaining the effect of any of the quotations that you use.

But, of course, you should always be linking back to the writer's possible intention.

Okay, it's over to you now.

I know you can do this.

You really want to summarise what you've learned and understood about the poem so far.

All right, pause the video, give this a go, and press play when you're ready to continue.

All right, welcome back.

It was great to see you writing so confidently then.

And really well done to all of you who might have checked your spelling, punctuation, and grammar before you put your pen down, that was fantastic to see.

All right, Laura, one of our Oak pupils gave this a go.

Let's have a look at what she wrote, and let's compare it against the success criteria.

So Laura wrote, "Dickinson's reflective poem encourages the reader not to fear death or grief, but to see the beauty in it.

By using the metaphor of a fading summer, Dickinson presents life's meaningfulness as inseparable from its finite nature." You can't separate life's meaningfulness, its beauty, from the fact that all life comes to an end.

"The poem ends with the summer making her escape.

Here, the verb could symbolise the devastation of loss and the grief that this brings.

However, when followed by that final line, into the beautiful, the reader is instead left with a hopeful tone, reminding them that the cycle of life is wondrous." Let's have a look.

Does she use quotations? Yes, she does.

She looks at those lines from the end of the poem, escape and into the beautiful.

Does she explain the impact? Yes, we look at the impact of the use of metaphor.

We look at what the verb could symbolise, but actually, when it's paired with the rest of the line, you actually have a different interpretation.

So I really like that, looking at slightly different ways that we might interpret that word.

And does it think about Dickinson's intentions? Well, yes it does.

This idea that we should not fear death or grief, but see the beauty of it, and really reminding ourselves that the cycle of life is a wondrous, beautiful thing.

So, a really great job from Laura.

And now, over to you to check your own work against the success criteria.

Think about what you've done well, and think about what your targets for improvement might be.

What might you try and do better next time? All right, pause the video, have a think, and press play when you're ready to continue.

All right, super work today.

Really, really impressed with you all.

Before we say our goodbyes, I just want to do a quick summary of everything we've learned today, because you want to feel really confident about each of these things before you move on to our next lesson.

So we learned that Dickinson's poem, the speaker discusses the transition between someone and autumn.

We learned that the speaker says that this transition is imperceptible, like grief and ageing.

We learned that the poem can be read as a metaphor for the passing of time and for the grieving process, which can often be imperceptible.

There is a reflective yet hopeful tone, encouraging the reader to not fear the passing of time.

All right, fantastic work today.

Really glad that you joined me, and I hope you enjoyed the lesson as much as I did.

I hope to see you in one of our lessons in the future.

Have a great day.

See you all soon, goodbye.