Unseen Poetry Analysis, Assignments of Poetry

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Unseen Poetry Analysis

‘Why Do You Stay Up So Late?´

Objective: Write a thoughtful analysis of the poem

4 th^ ESO English Literature

Unseen Poetry

‘Why do you stay up so late?’ How does the poet’s writing make his thoughts and feelings so vivid for you?

You might consider:

• •how the poet describes his son’s experiences at the rockpoolhow the poet describes his son’s experiences at the rockpool
• how he explains to his son his experience of writing
• how he connects the nature of the two experiences.

1. READ AND ANNOTATE THE POEM! 20 minutes
2. Write an Essay plan

• To begin, the thoughts and feelings are so vivid

because of the scene created in stanza one. The poet

tells his son, introducing by saying “if you really want to

know:” and emphasising how this story will be

important, so that our attention is immediatelyimportant, so that our attention is immediately

hooked. The speaker evokes the image of a day “lost”

at a rockpool. He speaks about “stones... stolen” and

“secret colour”, which immediately triggers the

reader’s imagination as we are allowed to enter the

fantasy world of the poet’s son collecting stones in a

rockpool, pretending that the stones are jewels.

• The use of the child’s imagination is an

effective technique. All readers have memories of being a child so it is something that we relate to. The idea that the day wasthat we relate to. The idea that the day was “lost” by the child collecting stones is an effective analogy that works to explain the father’s poetry writing; tasks that seem like a waste of time can be the most beneficial.

• In stanza 2 the poet uses alliteration when he says “I collect

the dull things of the day”, the sound effect highlights the

drudgery and monotonousness of daily events and tasks,

until a poet can find inspiration and transform them. He

continues to say that he has “no pool to help me tell” but

has to look and scrutinise the things that happen until

something “makes a mirror in my eyes”. The idea here is

that something causes a spark of imagination. The

metaphor using ideas of reflective surfaces ties in with themetaphor using ideas of reflective surfaces ties in with the

“jewels” which shine and illuminate for the child (and the

pool in which he finds them); this later connects with the

“tear to make it bright”. The metaphor of the tear explains

how the water can make the poet’s vision clearer. Maybe

this is caused by emotion that is connected with the things

that the poet sees.

• In the final line of the poem, the poet sums up for the child: “This is why I stay up through the night. The line acts as a conclusion. The father has used the analogy of his son’s experiences at the rockpool to explain his own experiences of writing. The poet communicates this using imagery and soundwriting. The poet communicates this using imagery and sound effects to create a vivid portrait of the poetic process.