Mariana - Tennyson

• First impressions of the poem as a whole.

• What happens in the narrative?

• Write a couple of sentences summarising the narrative (the story of the poem).

• Expand the annotations on the poem to include other features that you discovered last week.

Exam-style question

• We will be focussing on the first question in the exam paper – on one poem and only analysing how they story is told.

• There are no marks for contextual details or for comparison with other texts.

• You will be attempting a question from the exam and have it marked.

Language, form and structure

• AO2 Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing the ways in which structure, form and language shape meanings in literary texts.

Analyse how Tennyson has built the text, including technical details, and how the story is developed from this.DO NOT TALK ABOUT CONTEXT.

What do we mean by form and structure?

How are these similar and yet different?

How are these similar and yet different?

How are these similar and yet different?

How are these similar and yet different?A Ballad Of François Villon, Prince Of All Ballad-MakersBird of the bitter bright grey golden morn Scarce risen upon the dusk of dolorous years, First of us all and sweetest singer born Whose far shrill note the world of new men hears Cleave the cold shuddering shade as twilight clears; When song new-born put off the old world's attire And felt its tune on her changed lips expire, Writ foremost on the roll of them that came Fresh girt for service of the latter lyre, Villon, our sad bad glad mad brother's name!

Alas the joy, the sorrow, and the scorn, That clothed thy life with hopes and sins and fears, And gave thee stones for bread and tares for corn And plume-plucked gaol-birds for thy starveling peers Till death clipt close their flight with shameful shears; Till shifts came short and loves were hard to hire, When lilt of song nor twitch of twangling wire Could buy thee bread or kisses; when light fame Spurned like a ball and haled through brake and briar, Villon, our sad bad glad mad brother's name!

Poor splendid wings so frayed and soiled and torn! Poor kind wild eyes so dashed with light quick tears! Poor perfect voice, most blithe when most forlorn, That rings athwart the sea whence no man steers Like joy-bells crossed with death-bells in our ears! What far delight has cooled the fierce desire That like some ravenous bird was strong to tire On that frail flesh and soul consumed with flame, But left more sweet than roses to respire, Villon, our sad bad glad mad brother's name?

Prince of sweet songs made out of tears and fire, A harlot was thy nurse, a God thy sire; Shame soiled thy song, and song assoiled thy shame. But from thy feet now death has washed the mire, Love reads out first at head of all our quire, Villon, our sad bad glad mad brother's name.

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Blessing The skin cracks like a pod.There is never enough water. Imagine the drip of it,The small splash, echoin a tin mug,the voice of a kindly god. Sometimes, the sudden rushof fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,silver crashes to the groundand the flow has founda roar of tongues. From the huts,a congregation: every man womanchild for streets aroundbutts in, with pots,brass, copper, aluminium,plastic buckets,frantic hands, and naked childrenscreaming in the liquid sun,their highlights polished to perfection,flashing light,as the blessing singsover their small bones. Imtiaz Dharker

SONNET 130My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips' red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

William Shakespeare

AO2 – first question you answer in the exam.

Write about the ways that Tennyson tells the story in Mariana.

• Introduce your answer by summarising the story of Mariana.

• Begin to analyse some (maybe 3) of the features of language that have been used. For example:– synonyms that show decay and stasis;– spondee – long vowels placed at the ends of lines to lengthen the sound;– the lack of voice – all we hear is the narrator and Mariana’s declaration;– the lack of verbs – and when they do appear – the negation of action;– the contrast between her stillness and the movement of time.

• Comment on the structure of the poem and how this tells the story. For example:– the use of the refrain;– epizeuxis – immediate repetition;– the collapsing rhyme pattern – the lines folding in around the central couplet;– the pace/rhythm/metre of the lines.

• Make a concluding comment analysing the form of the poem – the resulting overall style of the poem – and how this affects the way the story is told.

40 minutes – exam conditions

Use your own

annotations and ideas.