Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

This is the fourth in your gothic poetry unit.

My name is Ms. Watson and I'm really looking forward to guiding your learning today as we look at "The Haunted Palace" in a great deal of detail.

Let's get started.

So by the end of this lesson, you will be able to analyse literary techniques in "The Haunted Palace." Here are the key words for today's learning.

They are persona, semantic field, bereaved, and nostalgic.

Definitions of the words are gonna come up on the screen.

Please take a moment to look at them.

As we go forward in today's learning, it's really important that you use these keywords when you are talking and writing about the poem.

So let's look at today's learning.

We're gonna start by looking at the persona of the poem.

Then we're gonna look at the semantic field of music, and we're gonna finish by looking at the use of simile.

Persona, semantic field, and simile are three of the linguistic devices used by Poe in "The Haunted Palace." So what is a persona? It's when the speaker of the poem is also a character in the poem.

And sometimes we are given clues about the persona, or we're given really quite a lot of information about the persona.

We can feel confident that the persona in "The Raven" seems to be a bereaved husband.

Other times though, the persona is more of a mystery.

For example, in "The Haunted Palace," we are told a lot about the king, and a lot about the palace, and a lot about the music, but very little about the speaker.

But what we can do in "The Haunted Palace" is look at quotations and make inferences to help us understand the persona.

So that's what we're going to do.

We're going to make inferences about the speaker from quotations.

Now, the first line of the poem is, "In the greenest of our valleys." And what could we infer about the speaker from that? That he feels the valley is his home because he uses the word our.

I think you could also say that he feels that the valley is special.

It's not just a green valley or a pleasant green valley.

It is the greenest.

He uses the superlative form of the adjective to show how important it is to him and how much he caress about this landscape.

We're gonna look at some other quotations from the the poem.

later on, the speaker says, "This, all this, was in the olden time long ago." And then he says, "Ah, let us mourn." So I'd like you to make inferences about the speaker from those quotations.

You can pause the video while you do that.

Hello and welcome back.

I'm so looking forward to hear what your ideas are.

So what did you think about the quote, "This, all this, was in the olden time long ago"? The speaker is quite old, yes, and that he feels nostalgic about the past.

To be nostalgic is to be fond of the past, but also it's a fondness that has a kind of hint of melancholy about it.

And about, "Ah, let us mourn," that he wants us to share his grief about the ruined palace.

He says us.

He uses the inclusive pronoun.

He wants to spread the grief so people realise how important it is.

All great ideas.

Thank you so much.

Let's have a quick check for understanding, which of the following words is a synonym for the word persona? Synonym means the same.

Is it A hero, B person, C speaker, or D protagonist? That's right, it's speaker.

Now is your opportunity to give your impressions of the persona in "The Haunted Palace" in a little bit more detail.

I'm gonna put up some sentence starters to support you with your writing.

Here they are.

The persona of "The Haunted Palace" seems nostalgic because he uses the words.

That's your opportunity to find appropriate quotations from the poem.

The reader can infer that the speaker is fond of the landscape because he says, and again, that's an opportunity for you to find appropriate quotations from the poem.

Remember to put quotations from the poem in speech marks.

You can pause the video while you do that.

Welcome back.

What did you write? I'm really looking forward to seeing what you wrote.

You could have written something like this, that the persona of "The Haunted Palace" seems nostalgic because he uses the olden times and talks to the palace admiringly.

Excellent, you're using the quotes, but also referring to another points in the poem where it's clear that the speaker really admires the palace and thinks it's wonderful to look at.

And you could have written, the reader can infer that the speaker is fond of the landscape because he says our valley, which implies that it is his home.

Really good response to the persona of "The Haunted Palace." Well done.

So let's revisit our lesson outline.

We've looked at the poem's persona.

Now we're gonna look at the semantic field of music.

So what is a semantic field? It's a literary technique frequently used by writers when they want to create atmosphere.

It's when a writer uses a number of words that all belong to one larger group of words throughout the text.

For example, goal, shoot, and pitch all belong to the larger group of football.

So we would say that the semantic field is football.

I'm gonna put up some quotations from "The Haunted Palace." To a lute's well-tuned law, whose sweet beauty was but to sing, voices of surpassing beauty, a discordant melody.

Now, they all belong in the semantic field of music.

I want you to have a think and jot down some ideas about what ideas and feelings you associate with music.

You can pause the video while you do that.

Really interesting thoughts there that we tend to associate music with happy celebratory occasions.

And actually, that is true of "The Haunted Palace." At the beginning, the music is celebratory.

They're honouring the king, and it's very joyous music, and then it becomes ugly towards the end.

With this discordant melody.

Let's have a quick check for understanding.

What is the best definition of semantic field? These are the options.

Is it A, a group of speakers on the same topic, B, a group of sentences on the same topic, C, a group of images on the same topic, And D, a group of words on the same topic? That's right, it's D.

Well done.

So now we're gonna analyse this quotation, "to a lute's well-tuned law." A lute is an instrument a bit like a guitar.

And the best way I think to go about analysing quotations is to ask questions.

So what about this question? What might the phrase well-tuned suggest? Good, that the music is beautiful and exactly right.

But what might the word law suggest? Does it suggest something different? It does.

It sounds strict as if there are many rules.

So can you see that what I did was I took the phrase apart.

I looked at well-tuned separately to law to come up with an interpretation that seems to be suggesting that the music is wonderful, but also very rigorous and possibly authoritarian.

It's over to you now.

This is a quotation from later on in the poem.

"Sweet duty was to sing," and it's referring to all the people in the palace whose sweet duty was to sing about the king.

So write down the quotation and then look at the words separately.

Remember to ask yourself questions.

Best way of analysing is ask questions of yourself and then answer them.

You can pause the video while you do that.

So welcome back.

Good question.

What might the word sweet suggest? What might the word duty suggest? I'm really interested to hear your answers.

That everything is delightful and almost perfect.

Sweet, exactly.

And what might the word duty suggest? That they are forced to sing.

And that, as you pointed out so well, links with the word law in the previous quotation.

So what we are seeing is two separate images, two separate descriptions of the life of the palace in the semantic field of music that both seem to be suggesting that this is a wonderful place, but also a very strict place.

That's excellent work.

Well done.

So we've looked at the poem's persona.

We've looked at the semantic field of music.

We're now going to look at how Poe uses simile towards the end of the poem.

What is as simile? The literary technique where two things are compared using like or as.

So I'm gonna put up three quotations and I want you to tell me which one is the simile? Is it the glory that blushed and bloomed, is it like a ghastly rapid river, or is it a troop of echoes? Have a think.

That's right, it's like a ghastly rapid river.

He uses the word like in it.

The glory that blushed and ballooned is also an example of figurative language.

It's comparing glory to a flower that blooms in the summer.

And a troop of echoes is also an example of figurative language, where echoes are being compared to a troop, like an army, but only the middle one, like a ghastly rapid river, is a simile.

And Poe uses this simile at the end of the poem.

He writes, "While like a ghastly rapid river, through the pale door, a hideous throng rush out forever." So here, when all the things have gone wrong in the palace, when it has been assailed, when it has been damaged, what do you think is being suggested by the simile of ghastly rapid river? You can pause the video while you collect your thoughts.

I really like this answer.

The way it suggests that the hideous things move quickly and will wash the palace and the people away.

They might end up drowning in the horror.

Really good answer.

Well done.

Now let's have a quick check for understanding.

Which of the following best explains the river simile? Is it A, rivers are dangerous to people and buildings, B, all good things have been washed away at the end, C, the king's powerful reign has come to an end, or D, it is important to leave the past behind? Have a think.

Absolutely, that is the best explanation of the the river simile, the idea of everything being pushed away.

The other things are true, but they don't necessarily explain the nature of the imagery being used in the simile.

Now is your opportunity to show your understanding of Poe's use of simile in a little bit more detail.

I'm gonna put up some sentence fragments, and I want you to turn them into a complex sentence.

Here are the sentence fragments, although we are not told, suggest that the end was sudden and frightening, why the king's reign ended, the simile, like a ghastly rapid river.

I'd like you to take those sentence fragments and combine them to make a complex sentence.

The sentence should start with a subordinating conjunction, and don't forget to use commas and a full stop.

You can pause the video while you do this.

How did you do? This is how the sentence should have read.

Although we are not told why the king's reign ended, comma, the simile, like a ghastly rapid river, comma, suggests that the end was sudden and frightening.

Brilliant.

Well done.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Thank you so much for your hard work.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you next time when we're going to be working on how we might compare two poems. Before we go, let's just look at this summary of the learning you have done today.

When a poet uses a character as the speaker of the poem, they are adopting a persona.

Poe uses a persona to create a nostalgic mood towards the past.

He also uses a semantic field to chart the decline of power and beauty.

And Poe uses as simile to depict the destruction of the palace.

Goodbye for now.

See you next lesson.