Exploring perspectives in poetry and songs - Year 7

Exploring perspectives in
Poetry and Songs
WARM-UP

• Rhythm: The emphases or stress in poems.
Rhythm usually consists of one heavily accented
syllable and one or more lightly accented syllable.
Rhythm Patterns

• alliteration is the repetition of a particular
sound or syllables of a series of words or
phrases.
Alice’s aunt ate apples and acorns around
August.
Becky’s beagle barked and bayed, becoming
bothersome for Billy.

• Similes: An expression that compares one thing to
another and generally has the words 'like' or 'as.' It
may be used to help readers better identify with
characteristics of objects or circumstances.
• As quick as lightening
• As busy as a bee
• Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what
you're going to get.
• As blind as a bat

• Metaphor: When a word or phrase is used
one way to mean another and a comparison
is expressed without the use of a
comparative term like "as," "like," or "than."
• My sister likes to go to bed early, but I’m a
night owl.
• You’re such a chicken.
• Life is a roller coaster of emotions.

• Personification means using human qualities
or actions to describe an object or an animal.
The word “personification” actually contains
the word “person,” and to personify an object
means to describe it as if it were a person.
Example:
• Instead of saying that the sun is shining, we might say
that the sun is smiling down at us.
• Instead of describing a flag as moving in the wind, we
could say that the flag is dancing.

• Rhyme: The occurrence of the same or
similar sounds at the end of two or more
words.
Other Rhyming Patterns
AA BB CC
AB BC AB BC
AB AC BC AB

• Onomatopoeia: A figure of speech in
which words are used to imitate sounds.
• Example - buzz, clippety-clop, cock-a-
doodle-do.
BOOM!
BANG!
GASP!
SPLASH!

Lesson 1 –
Exploring perspectives in Poetry and Songs
Lesson Focus:
Australian Bush Ballads
Learning Objectives
Students will understand:
• Understand the relationship between text
structures and language features and the
intended audience and purpose.
• Understand how to evaluate the effects of
ballads in achieving their purpose.
Students will do:
• Identify the structure of a ballad.
• Identify examples of language devices and
explain their effect.
• Read poems and song lyrics to identify main
ideas, concepts, and points of view.
• Compare two ballads – effectiveness of choice of
language, emotion and opinion of the audience

Ballad: A poem that tells a story similar to a
folk tale. • is a narrative poem, often in short, four-line stanzas.
• may include dramatic and lyrical elements, and
traditionally dealt with the pagan
supernatural, tragic love and historical or legendary
events.
• is characterised by simplicity of language or plain
language, repetition of phrases, simple rhyming
schemes and refrains.
• often have a tone of regret or melancholy, which is
often underlined by the use of a
refrain.
• often include direct speech.
• tells a simple story in verse.
• has a beginning, middle and end
(orientation, complication, resolution).
I DO

•include language that focuses on actions and dialogue.
•include language that indirectly conveys information
about the characters, relationships, events, time period
and setting (i.e. so the audience has to infer meanings)
•are often written in third or first person
•usually have a rhyming pattern of either abac, aabb or
abcb
•have a regular beat (metrical) structure
•are often written in complete sentences
•include language that is selected to convey a particular
mood or evoke an emotional response.

• Structure: Identify the Following –
1. Identify the rhyming Patterns
(use a blue, green and yellow pencil)
2. Highlight where repetition has been used.
3. Put an ( ) near the Orientation,
complication and resolution.
4. Identify who you think the targeted audience is
and what was the purpose of the poem is?
Write your answer in you English book.
WE DO

The Man from Ironbark – Banjo Paterson and The Bush Rangers – Edward Harrington
1. Read both Ballads – independently
2. Who is the intended audience of each poem? And how does the language make the
audience feel?
3. Identify the rhyming pattern, orientation, complication and resolution of both
poems.
4. SHARE RESPONSES
YOU DO

Lesson 2 –
Exploring perspectives in Poetry and Songs
Lesson Focus:
Exploring Australian Bush Poetry
Learning Objectives
• Develop knowledge of how language devices can
create meaning and effect in poetry
• Understand how to evaluate the effect in poetry.
Students will do:
• Explain how the context of a poem impacts on its
topic and message.
• Identify examples of language devices and
explain their effect.

The Man From
Ironbark
Clancy from the
Overflow
The
Bushrangers
Feathers and Fur
Drought Year
The Bush girl The Man from Snowy
River

A.B ‘Banjo’ Paterson
Henry Lawson
Judith Wright
Jill McDougal
Henry Kenndel
David Campbell

• Australian Bush Poetry or Verse is defined by the Australian Bush Poets
Association as "poetry having good rhyme and meter, written about Australia,
Australians and the Australian way of life."
• Bush Verse has been written in stock camps, on droving trips, in pubs and no
doubt, the ubiquitous Australian "dunny".
• The language is often colourful, reflecting the vernacular of the bush and laced
with many words which may appear like a foreign language to overseas readers.
• Australian Bush Verse has been written since settlement of Australia. Whilst
there are many well known purveyors of the art, such as "Banjo" Paterson,
Henry Lawson

Imagery creates a picture in your mind
• Imagery in poetry is created through personification, simile,
metaphor and detailed description.
Why would a poet use it?
• Transport the reader (time or place)
• Action in the poem
• Emotions in the poem

That time of drought the embered air
burned to the roots of timber and grass.
The crackling lime-scrub would not bear
and Mooni Creek was sand that year.
The dingo's cry was strange to hear.
I heard the dingoes cry
in the scrub on the Thirty-mile Dry.
I saw the wedgetail take his fill
perching on the seething skull.
I saw the eel wither where he curled
in the last blood-drop of a spent world.
I heard the bone whisper in the hide
of the big red horse that lay where he died.
Prop that horse up, make him stand,
hoofs turned down in the bitter sand
make him stand at the gate of the Thirty-mile
Dry.
Turn this way and you will die-
and strange and loud was the dingoes' cry.
By Judith Wright

Poem Summary
Lines 1-4:
These lines depict the drought-benighted landscape. "Embered" and "burned" vividly
describe the hot, dry air. The word "bear" in line three can be read in at least two ways:
1) the lime-scrub cannot bear the heat or 2) the lime-scrub cannot bear fruit. "Lime"
suggests a certain tartness, which contributes well to the dry scene, and the "Mooni" of
dried-up Mooni Creek brings to mind a picture of a waterless moon, a desert landscape
where every year is a drought year.
Line 5:
The "dingoes' cry" gives the drought conditions a sense of mystery. Since most
Americans have probably never heard a dingo's "cry," an American's likely response is,
therefore, to think of a coyote, wolf, or dog's cry instead of a dingo's. Similar in character
or not, America's canines can be said to have a strange cry, almost like human wailing.
Perhaps then, the association of an Australian dog with...

Nature and Its Meanings
Wright is a conservationist as well as a poet. A drought, therefore, might seem a
strange subject for an environmentalist intent on giving nature a positive image.
Perhaps then, the drought in "Drought Year" is primarily anthropogenic (human-
caused), like the Dust Bowl disaster in Thirties America.
This would show nature as victimized by human action, something a conservationist
might want to stress. There is, however, no evidence for this. Wright's drought seems
solely due to lack of rain.
Perhaps Wright meant to reinvigorate nature with awesome power so as to make
humans cower, to stop people from swaggering because they dominate the earth.
Readers would therefore be meant to identify with the poem's victims: horse, eel,
and "seething skull."
Still another theory why a conservationist would risk giving nature a negative image is
that Wright might have felt she was too romantic about nature. Thus, she decided to
depict...

Andy’s gone with Cattle
– By Henry Lawson

1. Does the poem use Imagery? If so identify
where it has been used?
2. What message is the poet trying to get
across to the reader?

Lesson 3 –
Song as Texts
Lesson Focus:
Examining songs of protest
Learning Objectives
• develop knowledge of how to evaluate main
ideas and points of view in texts.
• understand how to evaluate a text in terms of its
social and aesthetic value using appropriate
metalanguage.
Students will do:
• identify the message and point of view in the
song lyrics.
• evaluate the social and aesthetic value of the
song lyrics.

What is a SONG OF PROTEST?
A protest song is a song which is associated with
a movement for social change and hence part of
the broader category of topical songs (or songs
connected to current events). It may be folk,
classical, or commercial in genre. Songs of
protests are songs that expresses disapproval,
generally about a political issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjzCDNOBicw

Listen and read and comprehend lyrics of Australian protest
songs
Listen to and read and comprehend the lyrics of songs that
provide a protest commentary about issues in Australia.
• identify the emotions or opinions of the audience?
• Identify the message of the song?
As a Class:
Highlight – Descriptive language

Song Meanings behind the Protest Song
Solid Rock  ‘solid rock’; ‘sacred ground’; ‘promised land’, ‘heart of darkness’
 ‘living on borrowed time’; ‘saw the white sails in the sun’
Meaning
• It’s a cry of rage, of anger against injustice. Just listening to it conveys a sense of all
that has been lost, a traditional way of life that had lasted for thousands of years,
gone forever in a little over a century – and all the reasons why it happened (which
basically amounts to: white people didn’t see black people as real people). As a
true reflection of our nation’s history – as opposed to the increasingly bullshit
words of our actual national anthem – it’s hard to beat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16bFBzx7I_0

songs
In Pairs:

The Dead
Heart
 ‘the true country’; ‘the dead heart’
Meaning
• The song was written for Aboriginals to help draw attention to the
fact that white man took aboriginal children from their families and
their traditional way of life and Midnight Oil believed authorities
wanted to try and westernise them and destroy their culture. White
man also took land from the aboriginal people to benefit themselves
and make money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejorQVy3m8E

songs
Independent:

Beds are
Burning
 ‘the time has come’; ‘beds are burning’; ‘to pay the rent’
Meaning
• Political song about giving native Australian lands back to the
Pintupi, who were among the very last people to come in from the
desert.

5 Minutes – Story Telling Game
1. A long, long time ago …
2. They lived in a ….
3. They worked …
4. Then they …
5. They were sitting at home when suddenly …
6. They were so …
7. In order to save the day they ….
8. And then …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aywDT6yHMmo

Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil
Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
Verse
Verse
Chorus
Rhyme Pattern
and Rhythm

Focus questions: Before reading or listening.
What does the title make you think of?
What do you expect the song to be about?
When analysing music or poetry it is important to look historically, socially and
culturally into the context for the song and the impact of this on the lyrics.
• Archie Roach is an Indigenous singer/songwriter who lived on the
Framlingham Aboriginal mission in Victoria before being forcibly
removed from his family; he is one of the Stolen Generation.

Read Song: Whole Class

Focus questions: After Reading
Is the song arranged in verses? Do the verses have a regular length? Is the pattern
sustained throughout the song or does it change?
What features of rhythm and rhyme can you identify? Are the patterns regular or
irregular?
Is there a refrain/chorus? Is it regular or does it change?

Examine language features of the song
Read independently the song again and focus on the language features .
Identify examples of literary devices such as:
Imagery (Blue)
Simile (Red)
Metaphor (Yellow)
evocative language (green)
Repetition (purple)
Use a highlighter or coloured pencil

• Pace/tempo – The speed at which music is or ought to be played, often
indicated on written compositions by a descriptive or metronomic direction
to the performer.
• Instrumentation – The study and practice of arranging music for
instruments, or the arrangement or orchestration resulting from such
practice.
• Vocal style - style of vocal music from another. Among the many different
vocal styles, there are: sacred, Classical, Romantic, choral, operatic, jazz
and pop.
• Mood - A state of mind or emotion.

Focus questions:
How would you describe the dynamics of the music: is it loud or soft?
What vocal style is used? Does it vary throughout the song?
Does the music have a fast or slow tempo? Does it vary throughout the song?
How would you describe the song’s pitch? Does the music use mainly high or low
sounds?
What instruments do you hear? Does instrument use vary throughout the song?
How does the song make you feel? What mood is created? How? Does this atmosphere
affect the effectiveness of the song’s message?

The song uses only soft, rich vocals to introduce the first verse:
the message in the lyrics is the only focus and is emphasised for the listener
the choir builds to create a more optimistic sound to reflect the more positive message
that ‘the children came back’.
The tempo is slow and steady with a simple regular rhythm:
the focus is again on the message in the lyrics
the tempo gains momentum to reflect the more positive message that the children and the
singer returned.
The only instrumentation in the first verse is sustained single notes on a keyboard:
this creates a sorrowful backdrop to the message in the lyrics
the variety of instruments grows to include guitars and some percussion to reflect the more
positive final verses.

Write a personal response to the song - 100 words
Ask students to write a response to the song that:
• Identifies the social comment or message communicated through the
song?
• Explain how effectively the song’s structure, language features and
auditory elements influence the opinion and emotion of the audience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14IRDDnEPR4

What do you think the song is about?
Can you suggest the possible benefits of analysing the lyrics before listening to the
music?
When analysing music or poetry it is important to look historically, socially and
culturally into the context for the song and the impact of this on the lyrics.
• conveys sentiments about a nuclear end to the world
Original in German 1983; translated into English in 1984.
Cold War: America (the West) Russia (the East) were enemies; threatened each
other with nuclear weapons.
People feared the weapons would be released causing mass destruction.
Song written in Germany where East and West were separated by the Berlin Wall.

Examine language features of the song
Read independently the song again and focus on the language features .
Identify examples of literary devices such as:
Imagery (Blue)
Simile (Red)
Metaphor (Yellow)
evocative language (green)
Repetition (purple)
Use a Highlighter or Coloured Pencil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14IRDDnEPR4
Write a persuasive personal response to the song:
1. Identifies the social comment or message communicated through the
song?
2. Explains how effectively the song’s structure, language features and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmj7KlIut1w

What do you think the song is about?
Can you suggest the possible benefits of analysing the lyrics before listening to the
music?
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and
Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in
Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released
by Band Aid on 29 November 1984.

Write a persuasive personal response to the song:
1. Identifies the social comment or message communicated through the
song?
2. Explains how effectively the song’s structure, language features and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmj7KlIut1w

Name all the features in the
structure of a song?
- Verse, chorus, rhyming paten and
rhythm
Name all the Auditory features of a
song?
- Pace/tempo, Instrumentation,
Vocal style and Mood
Name all the poetic devices we have looked at over the last
three days?

White Board Slam
• This activity will increase your students’ vocabulary.
1. Start by writing a word on the board that contains four letters. You can start with
anything.
2. Then, challenge your students to come up and change only one letter of the word
to make a new word. If someone has an answer, have him or her come up and
make the change.
3. Then have another student come up and change the word again. See how many
different combinations your students can come up with by changing one letter at a
time with no word repeats.
• give them the opportunity to ask for a definition of any of the words that they may
not know throughout the activity.

White Board Slam - Words
Insecure
Ground
Decide
Bibliography
Anyone
Glance
Private

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