Unseen

Poetry
Challenge
question: Why are
titles of poems
important?
TASK: On
your
whiteboards
, thoughtshower
different
ideas for

National anthem
A song or lament
Something that is recognised by others
Significant and important
Reasons behind them

The youth of today

Young people
Hope and a future
Optimistic
Prime of your life
Energy, vitality, etc

Anthem for Doomed Youth

Dread and death
To be doomed is to be in peril, fear
No escape or hope
Something that is inevitable and bad

Learning Objective: to explore language and meaning in an unseen poem

Morning Song
First

Impressions:

Do you think

it will be a

positive or
negative
Learningpoem?
Objective: to explore language and meaning in the poem
Morning Song

Learning Objective: to explore language and meaning in the poem

Morning Song

Learning Outcomes:

I will be able to explore how to approach a poem

for the first time and devise strategies for this part
of the poetry exam

I will be able to identify success criteria

I will be able to create a PEA response which

explores language/meaning in a poem.
Challenge: To link your PEA analysis to the
poets message/viewpoint

AO2: explain how language, structure and form contribute to

writers presentation of ideas, themes and settings

Morning Song by Sylvia

Plath There may not be a meaning

Diamond
Ranking

that can be expressed easily

There may be more

than one meaning
The meaning may emerge later

What you think something

means today may be different
to what you think next week

More information is
needed for the
meaning
to become clear

Different readers will

interpret the poem in
different ways
The meaning is embedded
in the words, sounds and structure

Learning Objective: to explore language and meaning in the poem

Morning Song

Morning Song
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother

Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own
slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath

Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Learning Objective: to explore

language and meaning in the
poem Morning Song

Reading a
Poem

READING 1

You have 10 seconds to scan this

poem and make note of one key idea
explored in the poem
- What is the poem about?
Write it on the post-it.

Morning Song
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother

Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own
slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath

Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Learning Objective: to explore

language and meaning in the
poem Morning Song

Reading a
Poem
READING 2
You have 10 seconds to scan this
poem and pick out NEON lines,
vivid words or phrases.
Write them on the post-it.

Morning Song
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother

Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own
slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath

Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Learning Objective: to explore

language and meaning in the
poem Morning Song

Reading a
Poem
READING 3
You have 10 seconds to scan this
poem and focus on:
Tone and mood
Write them on the post-it.

Learning Objective: to explore

language and meaning in the
poem Morning Song

Think, pair, share

Spend 30 seconds thinking about what the poem
is about, using your post-it note as a prompt
In your pairs, Person A has 30 seconds to share
their ideas (without interruption)
Now Person B has 30 seconds to share their
ideas (without interruption)

Share one idea from either you or your partner

with the class

Morning Song by Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother

Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath

Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

1. Where is the
connection to
morning?
2. Where is the
connection to
song?

3. What do you think

the meaning is?

Learning objective: to explore language and meaning in the poem

Morning Song

Learning Outcome: I will be able to

identify success criteria

B-grade
answer
The poet presents
the ways that
children are affected by war by
showing that it takes away their
innocence as it is told from the
perspective of a child.
Alliteration is used as the sirens
ripped open the warm silk of
sleep. This literally says that
the sirens woke them while they
were sleeping, however this also
represents that during their sleep
they can dream as they please
B/A-grade
your
which is thetargets:
freedom On
that
they
mini-whiteboard,
write down
once had.
what the A-grade answer has
done that everyone needs to
do in their answers.

2 minutes

PEA

A-grade
answer
The poet presents the
ways that
children are affected by war by
showing that it takes away their
innocence as it is told from the
perspective of a child. Alliteration is
used as the sirens ripped open the
warm silk of sleep. This literally says
that the sirens woke them while they
were sleeping, however this also
represents that during their sleep they
can dream as they please. By ripping
this away it shows that the war took
away all of their dreams and forced
them to live in a cold, cruel reality.
Before the war they lived happily in a
cocoon of childhood which was warm
andA*-grade
silky, buttargets:
now the reality
war is
What isofthe
described
extra through the metaphor of a
giant
playing bowls.
something
that is needed for

Learning Outcome: I will be able to

identify success criteria

B-grade
answer
The poet presents
the ways that
children are affected by war by
showing that it takes away
their innocence as it is told
from the perspective of a child.
Alliteration is used as the
sirens ripped open the warm
silk of sleep. This literally
says that the sirens woke them
while they were sleeping,
however this also represents that
during their sleep they can
C/B-grade
targets:
your is
dream as they
pleaseOn
which
miniwhiteboards,
the freedom
thatwrite
theydown
once
what
had. the A-grade answer has
done that everyone needs to
do in their answers.

2 minutes

PEA

A-grade
answer
The poet presents the
ways that
children are affected by war by
showing that it takes away their
innocence as it is told from the
perspective of a child. Alliteration is
used as the sirens ripped open the
warm silk of sleep. This literally
says that the sirens woke them while
they were sleeping, however this also
represents that during their sleep they
can dream as they please. Being
ripped open shows that the war
took away all of their dreams and
forced them to live in a cold, cruel
reality. Before the war they lived
happily in a cocoon of childhood which
wasA/A*-grade
warm andtargets:
silky, but
now
What
is the
reality
war is described through the
theof
extra
imagery
of a giant
bowl.
something
that is playing
needed for

LO: I will be able to identify success criteria

Success Criteria
On your mini-whiteboards, make a list
of things you will need to include when
writing your own PEA paragraph
(NB: You will need to keep these for
later so dont wipe them!)

LO: I will be able to create a PEA response.

Responding
in Writing

Choose the task that will challenge you

Self Check Time.

Part (a)How does the

What do you think the
mother feel about her
speaker feels about
baby?
becoming
a mother
Have you used quotations from
the poem
in your and
how does she present
response?
and
these
feelings
to the
HavePart
you (b)
addressed all aspects
of the
question?
How
the poet
reader?
Havedoes
you gone
intouse
detailed analysis/said
a lot
language
and other
about a little?
techniques
present
Do a quicktoproof
read to check that everything
theseyou
feelings?
have written so far makes sense.
Remember to use words and
phrases from the poem as Word bank:
responsibility
/ love
/ unsettling/
evidence to
back
up your parenting / attitude/ alienation/ strangeness/
appreciation/wonder/
ideas.
suggests / implies / highlights/emphasises/infer/ imagery / language

LO: I will be able to identify success criteria

Success Criteria
Using your success criteria on your
whiteboards from earlier, mark your
partners response and comment on:
WWW:
(What went well)
EBI:
(Even better if)

Learning Outcome: I will be able to explore

how to approach a poem for the first
time and devise strategies for the
poetry exam

Reflecting on
your learning.

Which of these activities from our

lesson
best helped you to meet the
Learning Objective: to explore language and meaning in the
objective?
poem Morning Song

Playing detective and looking closely at the title

Reading the poem to yourself three times
Discussing ideas with each other
Thinking about interpretations that other people have
come up with
- Writing about the poem