Lesson video

Hello everyone, thank you very much for joining me.

I'm Mr Blackburn.

Today, we're going to go on a trip to America.

As we explore California and ideas around climate change expressed in a poem called "California Dreaming." But before we begin, you'll need to make sure that you have a pen and paper.

You'll need to make sure that you've turned off any notifications or anything, which might destruct you.

And if you can, you'll need to try to find somewhere quiet to work.

And once you've done all that, let's begin.

And here's what we're going to be doing today.

We'll start by reading the poem.

Before we go on to consider the imagery of the poem and what it might suggest to us.

Then we'll look at ideas around the structure of the poem and try and decide whether some of the structural features which have been included are important.

Then at the end, there'll be a roundup of all of the knowledge which you've gained in this lesson.

What do you already know about California? Probably more than you think.

Now, I think you probably already know places in California, whether you realise it or not.

San Francisco, you can see it on the screen here with the Golden Gate Bridge, is one of the cities in California.

And I think after New York and Washington DC, it's probably one of the most well known cities in all of America.

If you've heard of places like Los Angeles or Beverly Hills or Hollywood, they are all places in California.

California was also the place where the first ever Disneyland was built.

So I'm almost certain that you would have heard of California, whether you realise you have or not.

California as a state is suffering from a water shortage.

That is there's not enough water for all of the people that live there.

They have to get water from other States.

Why might that be? California is obviously a very rich state.

How could they possibly run out of water? Well, along with things like Hollywood in the film industry, California has a lot of farming, farming of things like almonds and fruit, which take a lot of water to grow.

There's also been a massive influx of people wanting to live in California.

That means there's more demand for water for everyday things such as washing and drinking and cooking with, but also for the upkeep of people's houses.

Imagine how much water it takes to water your garden.

Imagine how much more water it would take to water your garden if you lived in a mansion.

So all of this water is in demand and California doesn't have enough of it.

It's not being responsible in the way that it handles water.

And there are lots of people around the world who are very critical of countries like the US and the way that it handles water, because in lots of other countries, they face droughts year round.

There's not enough water for all of the people living in some countries.

So California is heading that way as well.

It's got a water shortage at the moment, but what would happen if there was a drought, if there was no water to spare at all? Would people in California be able to cope? Or do you think that they might not be able to cope with such a radical change in their way of life? That's really what this poem is about.

And now that we know all of that, I think it's time to read the poem.

Almonds and vines and lawns, drink up the last of shallow short term water.

Then suck on the black depths with a draw mightier than the moon's and suck.

In sudden places, the ground puckers and caves.

Far westward, China smokes.

Nobody sees the rains fall until they have.

Tableland mesas crack.

In the mountains, the snowpack thins, meltwater now brown reluctant drops.

Cities gasp in the sun's stare.

Faucets cough and families turn inwards.

There must be somebody to blame.

Better ourselves than no one.

We brag of damage done, but whether we could truly dry all rain, bake all earth, science does not know.

The wastefulness was all ours, but this foetid heat could be a planetary impersonal adjustment, like an ice age.

So it might well be wise to keep always facepaint and ash about us.

When the last clouds wagon-train off loincloth and invocation will be the one hope for last woman and last man discovering she's pregnant.

What a great poem with a great message.

Now, some of it might seem a bit tricky and that's all right.

We're going to go through it in more detail in just a bit.

But I think it's important to think about what Mackinnon, the poet tells us.

Firstly, he criticises the way that we're wasting our natural resources.

So water is a natural resource.

And Mackinnon says that rather than using it to make sure that everybody can survive, to make sure that everybody can drink and wash and cook, we're wasting it on things like vines to grow grapes on or to water our lawns to make sure they're green or to grow almonds for almond things.

Almond milk maybe.

Now all of these things require an awful lot of water.

Could that water be better used? Mackinnon thinks yes.

And here's an illustration of a wonderful looking lawn in California.

California is a really hot part of the world.

So it must take an awful lot of water to keep the grass looking that green Mackinnon also suggests that we're ignoring climate change.

We can see that it's happening in other places, but that's okay.

It's somewhere else.

It's not where we are.

Why should we worry? He talks about the snow melting.

Well, if we're in California, then we don't have to worry about that.

We can ignore it, but what happens if we ignore it for too long? Well, it's going to become irreversible, isn't it? And if we don't do anything about it, life as we know will cease to exist.

We won't be able to lead the same kind of lifestyle that we used to because these natural resources just wouldn't be around.

There's also the sentence in the poem that time is running out.

We've been ignoring this problem for a very long time and our time to do anything about it is quickly running out.

So this is a warning to people who are reading the poem, that we can't continue to ignore it.

And it's imploring us to do something about the problem of climate change.

If not, he says, "We're heading towards living in something "akin to the stone age again, "without all of these wonderful modern technologies "that we have because lots of these modern technologies "are relying on things like water." And the last section of Mackinnon's poem, where he talks about loincloths and invocations are a suggestion that we're going to live perhaps a less civilised form of life.

Unless we start to do something about climate change soon.

Now we're going to look at imagery later on in the poem and we'll draw some of these ideas further out.

But first I think now is a good time to pause for a quiz.

I love a quiz.

True or false.

This poem is about climate change.

Three, two, one.

That's obviously true.

Everything Mackinnon tells us is about the perils of climate change.

Question number two, the poet is not worried about the impact of climate change.

Three, two, one, that's false.

He's very obviously worried about the impacts of climate change.

And that's what the whole poem is about.

Question number three, the poet thinks we're ignoring the signs of climate change because they're happening elsewhere.

Three, two one, that's true.

He talks about snow melting and we didn't have to worry about that yet.

The poet says it's easier to blame other people than to blame ourselves for the problem and to actually do anything to fix it.

Three, two, one, that's true.

He thinks it's easier to blame people in other countries or other parts of our own country than it is to actually do anything about climate change ourselves.

The poem warns us that if we do nothing, we'll end up living in something like the stone age again, is that true or false? Three, two, one, that's true.

He says, we'll end up living probably in a less kind of civilised manner unless we do something about climate change soon.

Excellent work, I hope you got all of those questions right, don't worry if you didn't.

Now we're going to look at imagery in the poem.

So let's start by reminding ourselves what imagery is.

Imagery is a type of figurative language and all that means is it's a type of language.

A poet would use to express their emotions.

And it's different to the kind of language that you and I would use in conversation.

Imagery makes you use all five of your senses.

So for example, the clouds were lit up by sunset makes us imagine fluffy clouds, bright orange skies, but it also reminds me of a warm summer evening as we're out watching the sunset, perhaps there's a gentle breeze.

Equally, the thunder was so loud, his ears were ringing, makes me imagine standing out in a storm.

We've been battered by rain.

It's cold outside as well as being able to hear the thunder.

So imagery can affect all five of our senses.

Now here's a picture of a lovely looking dog.

Look how excited he looks.

If you were going to use your senses to describe that picture, how would you do it? You might want to pause the video for just a second to write some ideas down.

I think first of all, we can talk about the colours that we see.

So we can see the pure white fur of the dog.

We can see the emerald green of the grass and the trees in the background.

What can we hear? Well, I think maybe we'll be able to hear the dog barking or yapping in excitement, perhaps it really wants to run somewhere and it's telling us.

Maybe we can hear the leaves on the trees rustling in the background.

And I think this picture also activates our sense of feeling or touch because you can imagine stroking the dog and how soft and deep its fur must be.

So this is a really good example of how an image can activate more than just our sense of sight.

And the poet does this in his poem as well.

So where do we see examples of imagery? Well, I think this is a good first example, almonds and vines and lawns.

They're normal everyday things to us, but they require a tremendous amount of water.

But when we imagine them, we don't imagine them looking brown and shrivelled and dying.

We imagine them looking lush and green.

So there's this imagery in our minds of somewhere, which is fertile and lush and it looks very appealing.

The next example of imagery, where's the next couplet actually? Because those almonds and vines and lawns, what are they doing, while they're drinking up the last of the shallow short-term water.

And it makes us imagining that these vast lawns literally gulping down water as if no amount will ever be enough.

It's thirst is insatiable.

And the next stanza is the proper term for a verse in poetry, a group of lines.

The next stanza has this imagery, sucking on the black depths with a draw mightier than the moon's.

And this reinforces that the demand for water because of things like almonds and vines and lawns is unbelievably strong.

No water could escape from those lawns and those vines, they have the same power as the moon does.

So the moon creates the tides of the sea.

It's gravity is such that it can affect the way the water runs on the world.

And the lawns and the vines and the almonds in the poem are having the same effect, at least in the poets imagination.

Now, which of these best describes the feelings which the imagery makes us experience.

Is it option one, that the imagery creates the feeling that parts of the earth are guzzling water? Is it option two, that the imagery creates the feeling that the world is all right? Is it option three, the imagery creates the feeling that water is selfish? Or option four, the imagery creates the feeling that California is a desert? Three, two, one.

You should have said, it creates the feeling that parts of the earth guzzling water.

So the imagery makes the earth sound greedy.

In the mountains, the snowpack thins, meltwater now brown reluctant drops.

Cities gasp in the sun's stare.

Faucets cough and families turn inwards.

Now I've given you this picture of what the poet might mean by snowpack.

So it's the snow, which is on top of mountains and is there year round.

And it's generally been quite predictable, but in the poem, it's beginning to thin and the water that would form rivers as that snow slowly melted throughout the year is now just reluctant drops.

And he tells us this water is brown.

So it's dirty and it's picking up pollution on its way down.

And it's certainly not something we'd want to drink.

So the water becomes dirty and almost non-existent.

And this imagery should make us panic about how quickly things are changing.

We shouldn't be complacent about this happening.

I think the second stanza here makes us imagine the world is becoming too hot.

Cities gasp in the sun's stare.

So if you've ever been outside on a particularly hot day, you'll know just how much you want to drink your water.

And faucets, what we would call taps are coughing because they can't produce enough water.

There's not enough water in the system for them to give us the water we're demanding.

So the cities and the taps in this stanza are struggling, just like we will, if we don't do anything about climate change.

When the last clouds wagon-train off, loincloth and invocation will be the one hope for last woman and last man discovering she's pregnant.

Well, I think the first two lines of this are particularly interesting when the last clouds wagon-train off, because the use of the word last is really important.

It makes us imagine there's no water left.

And the image that creates is of an arid and inhospitable desert.

Nothing is growing.

Nothing can live in this kind of environment.

And this is what we'll be left with.

if we carry on using our natural resources, the way we are.

The waggon train creates the idea that we're watching helplessly as those clouds disappear.

We're not stopping them.

We're not on that train.

We're just watching it leave.

Loincloth and invocation is a very interesting piece of religious imagery.

Because we imagine that people will see turning to religion as their only hope after years of having done nothing about climate change.

We've had the ability, we have the ability to do things to offset climate change.

But the poet says that actually we'll resort to things like religion, to sort our problems out rather than doing anything about it ourselves.

And of course, by the time we get to that point, it will all be too linked.

We'll have damaged the world irreparably and our way of life will have to change.

So how does the imagery change throughout the poem? I want you to read these boxes and then decide what order they should go in.

We're introduced to melting ice caps and the cracking ground.

A shocking truth is revealed to us as we're shown the image of the clouds, retreating and the descriptions of lush lawns and vines create an image about well cared for environments, which box belongs at the beginning of the poem, which box belongs at the end of the poem and which box belongs in the middle of the poem.

Pause the video for a minute, sought the order out and come back to see if you're right.

And here's the order you should have got.

The beginning of the poem shows us descriptions of lush lawns and vines.

The middle of the poem shows us melting ice caps and cracking grounds.

And the end of the poem has a shocking truth to us.

As we're shown the image of the clouds retreating and us standing there unable to do anything about it.

The poem is filled with amazing imagery that really makes us think about the effect we're having on the planet.

But the structure of the poem can reveal things to us as well.

Now you might be thinking, what is the structure of a poem? All it means is the way that a poem is laid out on the page.

And when we're thinking about structure, we can think about things such as stanzas.

So a stanza is a group of lines you might call a averse.

But it's correct term is stanza.

We can think about the stanzas and whether they are of the same or different lengths.

Because the length of a stanza might suggest something to us.

We can think about whether things have been repeated throughout the poem and why that might be.

We can also think about where punctuation has been placed and how it affects the way we read the poem because the poet would have done that on purpose.

So let's have a look here.

What is the structure of this poem? Well, "California Dreaming" by Lachian Mackinnon has 13 stanzas.

Each of those stanzas is three lines long.

Because every stanza is the same length.

We say that it has a regular structure.

What might a regular structure show us? Well, in literature, anything which is regular, usually suggest to us that something is predictable and certain to happen.

So the regular length and the regular structure of those stanzas tells us that something is certain to happen.

What might that be? What might the poet be using a regular structure to suggest is certain to happen in the poem? Well, here's what I think.

I think the poem is suggesting that there's destruction of the world is certain to happen.

Unless we do something about climate change.

The regular structure suggests that we are on the path to destruction, unless we do something.

Punctuation then, how can we talk about punctuation? Well, here's a good example.

At the end of the first stanza, there isn't any punctuation, meaning that when we read, we immediately run straight into the next stanza without stopping.

This is an idea called enjambment.

So almonds and vines and lawns drink up the last of shallow short-term water, then suck on the black depths with a draw mightier than the moon's.

There's not any point for us to take breath and the stanza doesn't stop.

And I think this enjambment reflects the way that climate change might be difficult to stop, but also the fact that we're not doing anything about it.

So just like climate change, which we're letting continue, unstopped by us, this stanza continues unstopped by punctuation.

And this is a way that structure can reflect the message of the poet, but there's also repetition here.

What does it make us think about? It's the use of the word suck the way that the almonds and the vines and the lawns are continually sucking water, and then it even has a sentence to itself, and suck.

Well, it tells us that the thirst for water, this valuable natural resource is unending and it will continue and it will continue and it will continue and even when we think it's stopped, it will start again.

The repetition shows that this demand is unstoppable and what happens if we can't stop using all of our natural resources in the wasteful way that we are at the moment, something terrible will happen.

That's what the poet's telling us.

All right, now, which of these do you think are features that we might look out for when we're thinking about the structure of a poem? Would we look for repetition? Would we look for regularity of stanzas? Would we look for punctuation? Or would we look for connotations of certain words? There might be more than one right answer.

Three, two, one, there were three right answers.

Hopefully you got all three of them.

Repetition, regularity of stanzas and punctuation, are all structural features we can look for when we analyse a poem.

Excellent work.

So we've read a poem and we've understood how it shows us the perils of climate change.

Now, I want you to prove to me what you know.

On your screen, there are three questions, and I've given you some sentence starters to help you.

I want you to answer them in full grammatically correct sentences.

The first question is what does Mackinnon criticise in his poem? And the sentence starter is in his poem, "California Dreaming," Mackinnon criticises.

Hopefully that one's reasonably obvious.

Question number two, how this Mackinnon's use of imagery change throughout the poem? And if you remember earlier on in the lesson, I did ask you to think about the order of the imagery, which we see.

So perhaps you might want to refer back to your needs there.

And the third question asks, what does Mackinnon's use of regular stanzas suggest, and I've used a lovely word in here, which I want you to make sure you use.

The use of regular stanzas suggests the inevitability of what? Okay, pause the video, answer these questions and come back when you're finished to check your answers.

Welcome back, I hope you didn't find that too challenging.

My answers then for question number one, in his poem, "California Dreaming," Mackinnon criticises the fact that we aren't doing enough to tackle climate change.

Question number two, use of imagery.

At the beginning of the poem, Mackinnon shows us lush green lawns, later the imagery changes as Mackinnon focuses on the melting ice caps.

Finally, we are showing the consequences of our inaction as people are reduced to living in stone age conditions.

And finally the use of regular stanzas suggests the inevitability of climate change.

Your answers might look slightly different and that's okay.

But if there's something in my answers you might want to borrow, then now is the time to do it.

Brilliant work today, everyone well done.

We've read an excellent poem about the perils of climate change and we've analysed its imagery and structure to understand what the poet might be warning us about.

The last thing I want you to do is make sure you take the quiz at the end of the lesson to prove to yourself and to me, how much you've learned this lesson.

Well done for everything you've done today, goodbye.