New
New
Year 10
AQA

Analysing ideas of voice and identity in Berry's 'Homing'

I can explain how Berry uses onomatopoeia, phonetic dialect, and anaphora in order to consider ideas of voice and identity.

New
New
Year 10
AQA

Analysing ideas of voice and identity in Berry's 'Homing'

I can explain how Berry uses onomatopoeia, phonetic dialect, and anaphora in order to consider ideas of voice and identity.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Berry may have personified the accent in order to show the emotional connection between voice and individual.
  2. Berry uses vivid sound imagery such as onomatopoeia and cacophony within the poem.
  3. Berry’s juxtaposition of the regular stanzas yet the irregular rhyme may represent the struggle of the accent to escape.
  4. Arguably, the anaphora emphasises the speaker’s desire to form a connection and shared identity with the speaker.

Keywords

  • Dialect - a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group

  • Onomatopoeia - words that imitate the natural sound associated with their meaning

  • Guttural - being or marked by utterance that is strange, unpleasant, or disagreeable

  • Cacophonous - involving or producing a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds

  • Anaphora - repetition of words or phrases in the first part of successive clauses

Common misconception

Students sometimes think that poets always try to make their poems sound pleasing.

Poets may use harsh or disagreeable sounds within their poetry in order to emphasise meaning.

As well as evaluating the Oak character ideas in Task B, you could also ask the students to peer assess their own ideas.
Teacher tip

Equipment

You will need access to a copy of the AQA World and Lives anthology for this lesson.

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of sensitive content

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
The qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterise a person is their...
Correct Answer: identity
Q2.
Personification is giving human __________ to non-human objects or things.
emotions
Correct answer: characteristics
feelings
Q3.
Words that imitate the natural sound associated with their meaning is an example of...
Correct answer: onomatopoeia
assonance
a semantic field
Q4.
A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group is the...
Correct Answer: dialect
Q5.
Irregularity in a poem could suggest...
conformity
Correct answer: non-conformity
a sense of order
Q6.
Repetition of words or phrases in the first part of successive clauses is...
enjambment
Correct answer: anaphora
analepsis

6 Questions

Q1.
In Berry's 'Homing', what does she personify?
Correct answer: the accent
the factory
the relative's house
Q2.
"Guttural" means...
Correct answer: a disagreeable sound
a pleasing sound
an impressive sound
Q3.
A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds is called a __________ sound.
Correct answer: cacophonous
euphonic
melodic
Q4.
Which technique does Berry use to emphasise the connection between words and place in 'Homing'?
Correct answer: onomatopoeia
enjambment
caesura
hyperbole
Q5.
Throughout 'Homing', Berry likely uses words from the regional dialect to...
show its superiority
Correct answer: foreground them
place them in the background
Q6.
What is significant about the way Berry uses anaphora in 'Homing'?
it is in every stanza
Correct answer: it changes position in the stanza
it always appear as the first line of the stanza