Gr 12-English Home Language-Study Guide Literature 2

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ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE STUDY GUIDE: LITERATURE Grade 12

English Home Language Study guide: Literature

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Grade 12

Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

CONTENTS

PREFACE..............................................................................................................................................................................6 STUDY TIPS AND METHODS....................................................................................................................................7 YEAR PLAN........................................................................................................................................................................8 LESSON ELEMENTS....................................................................................................................................................10 GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS........................................................................................................................11 UNIT 1: WEEK 1 – POETRY....................................................................................................................................50 Lesson 1: ‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ (John Donne)........................................................50 Activity 1.........................................................................................................................................................50 Activity 2 ........................................................................................................................................................51 Activity 3.........................................................................................................................................................55 Lesson 2: ‘The Collar’ (George Herbert).......................................................................................................56 Activity 4.........................................................................................................................................................56 Activity 5.........................................................................................................................................................57 Activity 6.........................................................................................................................................................58 UNIT 1: WEEK 2 – POETRY....................................................................................................................................62 Lesson 3: ‘The Author to Her Book’ (Ann Bradstreet)..........................................................................62 Activity 7.........................................................................................................................................................66 Lesson 4: ‘In an Artist’s Studio’ (Christina Rosetti)................................................................................66 Activity 8.........................................................................................................................................................72 Lesson 5: ‘The Darkling Thrush’ (Thomas Hardy)..................................................................................72 Activity 9.........................................................................................................................................................78 UNIT 1: WEEK 3 – POETRY....................................................................................................................................78 Lesson 6: ‘The Weary Blues’ (Langston Hughes)......................................................................................78 UNIT 1: Introduction to the novel.....................................................................................................................82 UNIT 1: WEEK 3 – NOVEL.......................................................................................................................................86 Lesson 7: Diamond Boy: Prologue and Chapters 1 – 2 (pp. 6 – 16)................................................86 Activity 10.......................................................................................................................................................91 Activity 11.......................................................................................................................................................91 Lesson 8: Diamond Boy: Chapters 2 – 3 (pp. 16 – 29)............................................................................91 Activity 12.......................................................................................................................................................95 UNIT 1: WEEK 4 – NOVEL.......................................................................................................................................95 Lesson 9: Diamond Boy: Chapters 4 – 6 (pp. 30 – 45)............................................................................95 Activity 13....................................................................................................................................................102 Lesson 10: Diamond Boy: Chapter 7 and diary entry for Part One (pp. 45 – 56) ............... 102 Activity 14....................................................................................................................................................106 Lesson 11: Diamond Boy: Chapters 8 – 9 (pp. 58 – 65) ..................................................................... 107 Activity 15....................................................................................................................................................110

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

UNIT 1: WEEK 5 – NOVEL.................................................................................................................................... 110 Lesson 12: Diamond Boy: Chapters 9 – 10 (pp. 65 – 77) ................................................................... 110 Activity 16....................................................................................................................................................114 Lesson 13: Diamond Boy: Chapters 11 – 12 (pp. 77 – 91) ................................................................ 114 Activity 17....................................................................................................................................................117 Lesson 14: Diamond Boy: Chapters 13 – 14 (pp. 91 – 102) ............................................................. 117 Activity 18....................................................................................................................................................120 UNIT 1: WEEK 6 – NOVEL.................................................................................................................................... 121 Lesson 15: Diamond Boy: Chapter 15 and diary entry (pp. 102 – 112) ................................... 121 Activity 19....................................................................................................................................................124 Lesson 16: Diamond Boy: Chapter 16 (pp. 114 – 122) ...................................................................... 125 Activity 20....................................................................................................................................................127 Lesson 17: Diamond Boy: Chapter 17 (pp. 122 – 132) ...................................................................... 128 Activity 21....................................................................................................................................................131 UNIT 1: WEEK 7 – NOVEL.................................................................................................................................... 131 Lesson 18: Diamond Boy: Chapters 18 – 19 (pp. 132 – 143) .......................................................... 131 Activity 22....................................................................................................................................................134 Lesson 19: Diamond Boy: Chapter 20 (pp. 143 – 151) ...................................................................... 134 Activity 23....................................................................................................................................................137 Lesson 20: Diamond Boy: Chapter 21 – end of Part 3 (pp. 151 – 156) ..................................... 138 Activity 24....................................................................................................................................................140 UNIT 1: WEEK 8 – NOVEL.................................................................................................................................... 141 Lesson 21: Diamond Boy: Chapters 22 – 23 (pp. 158 – 173) .......................................................... 141 Activity 25....................................................................................................................................................145 Lesson 22: Diamond Boy: Chapters 24 – 25 (pp. 173 – 182) .......................................................... 145 Activity 26....................................................................................................................................................147 Lesson 23: Diamond Boy: Chapters 26 – 27 (pp. 182 – 193) .......................................................... 148 Activity 27....................................................................................................................................................150 UNIT 1: WEEK 9 – NOVEL.................................................................................................................................... 150 Lesson 24: Diamond Boy: Chapter 28 – end of Part 4 (pp. 193 – 202) ..................................... 150 Activity 28....................................................................................................................................................153 Lesson 25: Diamond Boy: Chapters 29 – 30 (pp. 204 – 217) .......................................................... 153 Activity 29....................................................................................................................................................157 Lesson 26: Diamond Boy: Chapters 31 – 32 (pp. 217 – 226) .......................................................... 157 Activity 30....................................................................................................................................................159 UNIT 1: WEEK 10 – NOVEL................................................................................................................................. 159 Lesson 27: Diamond Boy: Chapter 33 – end of the novel (pp. 226 – 239) .............................. 159 Activity 31....................................................................................................................................................162

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

UNIT 2: WEEK 1 – POETRY................................................................................................................................. 164 Lesson 28: ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ (Adrienne Rich)........................................................................... 164 Activity 32....................................................................................................................................................168 Lesson 29: ‘A Far Cry from Africa’ (Derek Walcott)............................................................................. 169 Activity 33....................................................................................................................................................174 UNIT 2: WEEK 2 – POETRY................................................................................................................................. 175 Lesson 30: ‘The child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga’ (Ingrid Jonker)............. 175 Lesson 31: ‘Childhood in Heidelberg’ (Andries Oliphant)............................................................... 179 Activity 34....................................................................................................................................................182 UNIT 2: INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY.......................................................................................................183 UNIT 2: WEEK 3 – DRAMA.................................................................................................................................. 185 Lesson 32: Pygmalion: Act 1.............................................................................................................................. 185 Lesson 33: Pygmalion: Act 2.............................................................................................................................. 185 UNIT 2: WEEK 4 – DRAMA.................................................................................................................................. 186 Lesson 34: Pygmalion: Act 3.............................................................................................................................. 186 Lesson 35: Pygmalion: Act 4.............................................................................................................................. 186 UNIT 2: WEEK 5 – DRAMA.................................................................................................................................. 187 Lesson 36: Pygmalion: Act 5.............................................................................................................................. 187 UNIT 3: WEEK 1 – POETRY................................................................................................................................. 188 Lesson 37: ‘Weather Eye’ (Isobel Dixon).................................................................................................... 188 Activity 35....................................................................................................................................................193 UNIT 3: WEEK 2 – POETRY................................................................................................................................. 193 Lesson 38: ‘To my father who died’ (Dawn Garisch)........................................................................... 193 Activity 36....................................................................................................................................................198 REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................................................. 199

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

PREFACE PRESCRIBED BOOKS Poetry: Poems from all Over compiled by Rusum Kozain. Oxford University Press.

Novel: Diamond Boy by Michael Williams.

Drama: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. You may watch the 1964 movie, My Fair Lady, an adaptation of the play. However, you are studying the play not the movie, and watching the movie is not a substitute for reading the text.

INTRODUCTION Welcome to your literature curriculum. The poetry is varied and challenging, with poems across the spectrum, dating from the 17th-century to more modern pieces. The novel Diamond Boy is very up-to-date and topical with many important themes to reflect upon, while the drama Pygmalion is humorous and entertaining.

ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENTS During July-, Preliminary- and Final examinations, you will write Paper 2 on literature. These papers will, respectively, consist of the following sections: Section A: Poetry • Prescribed (Answer two of four questions/poems) • Unseen (Compulsory) Section B: Novel (Diamond Boy) • Contextual questions OR • Literary essay

(20) (10)

(25) (25)

Section C: Drama (Pygmalion) • Contextual questions OR • Literary essay

(25) (25) GRAND TOTAL: 80

Study both the notes and the questions carefully and read general websites on poetry, drama, and the novel to enrich your understanding of all three sections. In the November examination, you will have to answer one literature essay question from section B or C AND contextual questions from section B or C.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

STUDY TIPS AND METHODS In preparing for your literature tests and exams you must make sure you are familiar with the texts. You can never read your prescribed poems, novel and drama too many times. When answering questions, make sure you understand the words used when questions are formulated.

Question word

What is expected of you when you answer the question

Analyse

Find the main ideas and explain how they are linked.

Apply

Use your knowledge and reasoning to give a good suggestion or answer to the question.

Comment on the effectiveness of …

Say why a point or image (e.g. metaphor, alliteration) has an impact and give reasons/examples to justify your opinion.

Compare or contrast Say how things are like each other or how they are different.

Define

Give the formal meaning/definition of a concept.

Describe

Say what happened in a logical order.

Evaluate

Explain why you say something is good or bad.

Explain

Use your own words to describe something or say why something happened.

List

Use one word or phrase only, items presented one beneath the other; may be numbered.

Illustrate

Explain using examples from the text.

Justify

Give valid reasons why you have interpreted something in a specific way or why the writer has done something in a particular way.

Relate

Indicate the connection between things or explain how things happened.

Substantiate

Support your opinion with clear references to, or quotations from, the text. (Do not quote unless you are instructed to do so.)

Summarise

State the main features of an argument, leaving out all unnecessary detail or examples.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

YEAR PLAN TERM

Week 1

DATE STARTED

LESSON LESSON 1: ‘A Valediction: Forbidding mourning’ LESSON 2: ‘The collar’ LESSON 3: ‘The Author to Her Book’

Week 2

LESSON 4: ‘In an Artist’s Studio’ LESSON 5: ‘The Darkling Thrush’ LESSON 6: ‘The Weary Blues’

Week 3:

LESSON 7: Diamond Boy: Prologue and Chapters 1 – 2 LESSON 8: Diamond Boy: Chapters 2 – 3 LESSON 9: Diamond Boy: Chapters 4 – 6

Week 4

LESSON 10: Diamond Boy: Chapter 7 and diary entry for Part One LESSON 11: Diamond Boy: Chapters 8 – 9 LESSON 12: Diamond Boy: Chapters 9 – 10

Week 5

LESSON 13: Diamond Boy: Chapters 11 – 12 LESSON 14: Diamond Boy: Chapters 13 – 14 LESSON 15: Diamond Boy: Chapter 15 and diary entry

Week 6

LESSON 16: Diamond Boy: Chapter 16 LESSON 17: Diamond Boy: Chapter 17 LESSON 18: Diamond Boy: Chapters 18 – 19

Week 7

LESSON 19: Diamond Boy: Chapter 20 LESSON 20: Diamond Boy: Chapter 21 – end of Part 3

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DATE COMPLETED

Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

LESSON 21: Diamond Boy: Chapters 22 – 23 Week 8

LESSON 22: Diamond Boy: Chapters 24 – 25 LESSON 23: Diamond Boy: Chapters 26 – 27 LESSON 24: Diamond Boy: Chapter 28 – end of Part 4

Week 9

LESSON 25: Diamond Boy: Chapters 29 – 30 LESSON 26: Diamond Boy: Chapters 31 – 32

Week 10

LESSON 27: Diamond Boy: Chapter 33 – end of the novel

TERM 2 LESSON 28: ‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ Week 1 LESSON 29: ‘A Far Cry from Africa’

Week 2

LESSON 30: ‘The child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga’ LESSON 31: ‘Childhood in Heidelberg’ LESSON 32: Pygmalion: Act 1

Week 3 LESSON 33: Pygmalion: Act 2 LESSON 34: Pygmalion: Act 3 Week 4 LESSON 35: Pygmalion: Act 4 Week 5

LESSON 36: Pygmalion: Act 5

TERM 3

Week 1

LESSON 37: ‘Weather Eye’

Week 2

LESSON 38: ‘To my father who died’

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

LESSON ELEMENTS

Vocabulary The meaning of new words to fully understand the text/content.

Activity Core content and questions to test the learner’s knowledge.

Tips Information in addition to the content to guide the learner through the learning process.

For the curious Encouragement for the learner to do in-depth research about the content on his/her own.

Core content Reinforcement of core content; in-depth explanation of a specific section of the lesson.

Poetry

Novel

Drama

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS

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People have been telling stories since the beginning of time.

Cultures are built on stories, histories, myths, legends, fables and so on.

If we are to understand and participate in the culture to which we belong, we must first learn about the stories our culture has been built around. And while books aren’t the only stories out there, they are one of the most important. Literature teaches us about the world around us, about the histories and peoples of other times and places. It surely is more fun to read a novel about another time or place than to learn about it from a textbook.

What is the purpose of literature and why do we study it?

Literature builds your vocabulary and improves your reading and writing skills. The best way to become a better writer is to read more. Learners who read more often have an advantage when it comes to writing. Literature has so many purposes: to enlighten, to protest, to challenge, to educate, inform, comfort, confront, express and even to heal in some cultures. It is also a form of entertainment and allows us to use our imagination to visualise the story in our own mind.

Genre enre means a type of art, literature, or music characterised by a specific form, content, and G style. Literature has three main genres: poetry, drama, and prose (divided into fiction and nonfiction). All these genres have features and functions that distinguish them from one another.

It is important for you to know which genre you are reading to understand the message it conveys and to be able to analyse it. Make sure you know the correct terminology for each genre and use these terms when you write essays and answer questions.

Poetry

P

oetry follows a metre and rhythm in each line and syllable. There are epic, narrative, romantic, dramatic, and lyric poems. You have heard of and studied odes, sonnets, elegies, and ballads.

Often poetry uses figurative language, such as metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, and alliteration to create a heightened effect and this elevates the language the poet uses from normal speech to poetry.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Drama rama is performed in front of an audience. It is also called a play. Its written text contains D dialogues and stage directions. This genre has further categories such as comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy. William Shakespeare is known as the father of English drama.

His well-known plays include Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Greek playwrights were the pioneers in this field, such as Sophocles’ masterpiece Oedipus Rex and Antigone, while modern dramas include Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.

Prose

U

nlike poetry, prose focuses on characters and plot, rather than focusing on sounds. It includes short stories and novels, while fiction and non-fiction are its subgenres. Prose is further categorised into essays, speeches and interpretations.

Fiction fictional work may incorporate fantastical and imaginary ideas from everyday life.

A It comprises elements such as plot, exposition, foreshadowing, rising action, climax, falling

action, and resolution. Popular examples of literary fiction include Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Non-Fiction on-fiction could be creative like a personal essay, or factual, like a scientific paper. It may N also use figurative language, however, not unlike poetry, or fiction. Sometimes, non-fiction tells a story, like an autobiography, or conveys information to readers.

Other examples of non-fiction include biographies, diaries, memoirs, journals, fantasies, mysteries, and romances.

How to use the glossaries Some of the terms only appear once, because they have the same function in poetry, drama, and prose – so go through all three lists to find the one you are looking for.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

‘Beowulf’ is the oldest and longest epic poem in English. Written between 700 and 750 AD, it tells the story of the brave warrior and his battles with the monster, Grendel and a dragon guarding a hoard of treasure.

GLOSSARY OF POETRY TERMS Alliteration

The repetition of identical consonant sounds, most often at the beginning of words: ‘the flying furry fox’ or ‘steaming soup’.

Alliteration is used to reinforce the meaning, to link related words or to provide tone and colour.

Allusion

A passing reference to a person, place, thing, or event.

Typically, writers allude to something they suppose the reader will already know about.

The concept may be real or imaginary, referring to anything from fiction, to folklore, to historical events.

His nose gets longer whenever he talks.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Anaphora

Words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. This is done for emphasis and typically adds rhythm to a passage.

In William Blake’s ‘London’, he uses anaphora: ‘In every cry of every Man, In every infant’s cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear’

Antithesis

Two terms, phrases or ideas that contrast or have opposite meanings: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …’

Apostrophe

A speaker directly addresses someone (or something) that is not present or cannot respond. The entity being addressed can be absent, dead, or imaginary, but it can also be an inanimate object (stars or the ocean), an abstract idea (love or fate), or a being (such as a muse or god).

For example, John Keats begins his ‘Ode to a Grecian Urn’ by addressing the Urn: ‘Thou still unravished bride of quietness’ and directs the whole poem to the Urn and the figures represented on it.

Assonance

The repetition of identical vowel sounds in different words close to one another.

The example is from Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Raven’: ‘Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore — While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.’

Ballad

The ballad is typically arranged in quatrains and usually the second- and fourth lines rhyme (although this is not a rule).

Ballads tell a story and began as folk songs and continue to be used today in modern music.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

‘A ballad of John Silver’ (John Masefield) ‘We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull, And we flew the pretty colours of the cross-bones and the skull; We’d a big black Jolly Roger flapping grimly at the fore, And we sailed the Spanish Water in the happy days of yore.

We’d a long brass gun amidships, like a well-conducted ship, We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip; It’s a point which tells against us, and a fact to be deplored, But we chased the goodly merchant-men and laid their ships aboard.’

Did you notice the allusion?

John Silver, the crossbones an d the skull, the Jolly Roger – all these elem ents allude to the story of Tr easure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

You will get be tter at allusion the more you read. This will help you to reco gnise subtle details and refe rences to othe r works.

Blank verse

Iambic pentameter that doesn’t rhyme. Blank verse is like normal speech but creates a musical effect. It tends to capture the attention of the readers and the listeners, which is its aim.

‘Tintern Abbey’ (William Wordsworth) ‘Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a soft inland murmur. —Once again Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, That on a wild secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect The landscape with the quiet of the sky.’

Cliché

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Refers to an expression that has been overused to the extent that it loses its original meaning or novelty: abandon ship, the grass is always greener, silence is golden.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Couplet

Consists of two lines with the same metre or rhyme that are equal in length. In the case of the latter, you would refer to it as a rhyming/heroic couplet, which is very common in poetry and has the rhyme scheme: aa, bb, cc and so on.

Diction

Diction refers to the poet’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures and the order of the words in a poem.

Poetic diction usually refers to the poet not adhering to the rules and conventions of standard written and spoken language when it comes to sentence structure, word order, the use of very old or newly coined words.

When reading a poem, consider the different meanings the words may have and how their arrangement in the poem adds to or changes those meanings. Diction reflects the writer’s vision and steers the reader’s thoughts. Poets choose words for a specific effect, e.g. a coat isn’t torn; it is tattered. Remember that each word in a poem, play or novel has a purpose.

Enjambment

A line with no end punctuation but running over to the next line.

Four of the first eight lines of Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 116’ are enjambed: ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love That alters when it alteration finds Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! It is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken …’

Foot

A group of two or more syllables, one of which is stressed. The most common feet in poetry contain either a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (trochee) or an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (iamb): Thĕ cúr | fĕw tólls | thĕ knéll | ŏf pár | tĭng dáy. | The iambic pentameter is the most natural and common type of metre in English and elevates speech to poetry.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Hyperbole

Overstatement/exaggeration for serious, ironic or comic effect: ‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street.’

The tall tale of the American West is a form used mainly for comic effect. For example, Paul Bunyan, the huge lumberjack who eats 50 pancakes in one minute and dug the Grand Canyon with his axe.

Idiom

An idiom is a saying, phrase, or fixed expression that has a figurative meaning different from its literal meaning: ‘Fog’ (Carl Sandburg) The fog comes on little cat feet.

It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.

The idiom referred to in this poem is ‘nothing ever lasts’. In the poem, the city appears to be normal as usual activities are taking place. However fog comes silently like a cat and everything changes. There is no visibility and most of the work comes to a halt. Even the poet has to sit and wait for the fog to go away.

Finally after waiting for sometime, it moves on. Again change happens and so the poem depicts that nothing lasts forever.

Internal rhyme (middle rhyme)

Rhyme within a line of poetry, i.e. the middle words and the end words rhyme with one another: ‘Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping …’

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Irony

Surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts.

Verbal irony: words are used to suggest the opposite of their usual meaning.

‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.’ Animal Farm (George Orwell) Irony of situation: an event occurs that directly contradicts expectations.

From The Crucible (Arthur Miller) DANFORTH [reaches out and holds her face, then]: Look at me! To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery? [In a crisis of indecision, she cannot speak.] Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher?

ELIZABETH [faintly]: No, sir.

DANFORTH: Remove her!

PROCTOR: Elizabeth, tell the truth!

DANFORTH: She has spoken. Remove her!

PROCTOR [crying out]: Elizabeth, I have confessed it!

ELIZABETH: Oh, God! [The door closes behind her.]

REMEMBER There is a differe nce between iron y and sarcasm.

Do not confuse the two when yo u analyse a poem or write an essa y. Verbal irony co mmunicates the opposite of wha t is said, while sa rcasm is a form of irony that is directed at a pe rson, with the intent to criticis e or mock.

Metaphor

It compares two things that are not alike but do have something in common.

Unlike a simile, where two things are compared directly using like or as, a metaphor’s comparison is more indirect, usually made by stating something is something else.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

‘Dreams’ (Langston Hughes) Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.

Metre

The number of feet in a line of verse, e.g. iambic pentameter.

The metre is determined by the pattern of stronger and weaker stresses on the syllables in the words in a line of verse.

Metonymy

Metonymy replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated.

Do not confuse metonymy with synecdoche!

Although they may seem the same, they are not. Synecdoche refers to a thing by the name of one of its parts/a part of something represents the whole, e.g. ‘new wheels’ refers to a new car and is a synecdoche, as a part of a car – the ‘wheel’ – represents the whole car.

In metonymy, the word we use to describe another thing is closely linked to that thing but is not a part of it, e.g. ‘the crown’ is used to refer to a king and his authority and ‘Hollywood’ can be used for the film industry. It is not a part of the thing it represents.

From Robert Frost’s ‘Out, Out–’ ‘The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh, As he swung toward them holding up the hand Half in appeal, but half as if to keep The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—’ Frost uses metonymy to describe blood spilling. Blood can spill, life cannot, but we know that blood is associated with life.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Octave

The first eight lines of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet. It can be any stanza in a poem that has eight lines and follows a rhymed or unrhymed metre. The most common rhyme scheme for an octave is abbaabba.

‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. (a) I love thee to the depth and breadth and height (b) My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight (b) For the ends of being and ideal grace. (a) I love thee to the level of every day’s (a) Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. (b) I love thee freely, as men strive for right; (b) I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.’ (a)

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound of a thing: buzz, hiss, chirp, rattle, bang, etc. For example, ‘slushy sand’, ‘quick, sharp scratch’, ‘tap at the pane’.

‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ (Robert Browning) ‘There was a rustling, that seem’d like a bustling Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling, Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering, Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering, And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering …’

Oxymoron

Two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect, e.g. bittersweet, civil war, deafening silence.

‘I Find no Peace’ (Sir Thomas Wyatt) ‘I find no peace, and all my war is done.

I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.

I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise …’

Paradox

A statement which may seem absurd or contradictory, but turns out to be interpretable in a way that makes sense or sheds light on the truth.

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This is the beginning of the end.

‘What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young.’ – George Bernard Shaw ‘I can resist anything but temptation.’ – Oscar Wilde In John Donne’s sonnet ‘Death, Be Not Proud’: One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. do not confuse a paradox with an oxymoron!

• A paradox is a statement/group of sentences/entire phrases/ quotes that contradict what we know while delivering an inherent truth.

• An oxymoron is a combination of two words that contradict each other (a contradiction in terms). It’s a dramatic figure of speech.

Personification

Giving human characteristics to nonhuman things or abstractions.

‘The Whole Mess ... Almost’ (Gregory Corso) I ran up six flights of stairs to my small furnished room opened the window and began throwing out those things most important in life First to go, Truth, squealing like a fink: ‘Don’t! I’ll tell awful things about you!’

‘Oh yeah? Well, I’ve nothing to hide ... OUT!’ I picked up Faith Hope Charity all three clinging together: ‘Without us you’ll surely die!’

‘With you I’m going nuts! Goodbye!’

The only thing left in the room was Death hiding beneath the kitchen sink: ‘I’m not real!’ It cried ‘I’m just a rumor spread by life ...’

Laughing I threw it out, kitchen sink and all and suddenly realized Humor was all that was left— All I could do with Humor was to say: ‘Out the window with the window!’

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Petrarchan sonnet

A sonnet with 14 lines of rhyming iambic pentameter that divides into an octave (8) and a sestet (6).

There is a ‘volta’ or ‘turning’ of the subject matter/thought/ argument between the octave and the sestet.

Pun

A pun is a play on words for humorous effect. It uses a word that suggests two or more meanings, or similar sounding words (homophones) that have different meanings. Puns can also make you think differently about a subject, particularly if it introduces ambiguity or changes the original meaning of the text.

Calvin: Hey Hobbes, want to see an antelope?

Hobbes: An antelope?

Calvin: Come on! [goes to an anthill] See, she’s climbing down the ladder to her boyfriend’s car. [beat] You’re not laughing.

Hobbes: It’s not funny.

Refrain

A phrase/line/part of a line/group of lines repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza. Refrains are used in many ballads to make a point, establish central themes and create structure. You also remember repeated words more easily.

‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ (Dylan Thomas) ‘Do not go gentle into that good night, (1) Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (2) Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. (1) Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ (2)

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Rhyme scheme

The pattern of rhyme that comes at the end of each verse or line.

In other words, it is the structure of end words of a verse or line that a poet needs to create when writing a poem.

William Blake’s ‘A Poison Tree’ ‘I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears Night and morning with my tears, And I sunned it with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles.’

Sestet

A six-line stanza or unit of poetry.

Shakespearean sonnet

A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter: three quatrains and a couplet rhyming abab cdcd efef gg

Simile

A direct comparison between two different things using like or as.

‘What happens to a dream deferred?’ asks Langston Hughes in ‘Harlem’: ‘Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore— And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?’

Stanza

A division of four or more lines with a fixed length, metre or rhyme scheme. It is like a paragraph in prose. Stanzas include connected thoughts and are set off on a page by a space.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Symbolism

Giving objects a certain meaning that is different from their original meaning or function. This could be a physical object that now refers to something abstract.

Do not confuse a symbol with a metaphor!

Metaphors compare two different things by stating that one thing is the other (e.g. your hair is a golden treasure). This doesn’t happen in symbolism, where the relationship between a symbol and what it represents is not stated explicitly and one thing is not said to be the other thing.

Instead, a symbol stands for or represents something else.

‘Crossing Alone the Nighted Ferry’ (A.E. Housman) ‘Crossing alone the nighted ferry With the one coin for fee, Whom, on the wharf of Lethe waiting, Count you to find? Not me.

The brisk fond lackey to fetch and carry, The true, sick-hearted slave, Expect him not in the just city And free land of the grave.’

The ferry symbolises death. The speaker is alone on the ferry which aligns with thoughts of death and dying.

This is also an ALLUSION to Greek mythology. You had to pay a coin to Charon, the ferryman, to take you across the river Styx to Hades. Charon’s job was to carry the souls of the newly deceased to the land of the dead.

Tone

The tone of a poem is the poet’s attitude towards the subject or the audience. How a poet approaches the central theme/subject of the poem is the tone. Tone can be formal, informal, serious, comic, sarcastic, sad or cheerful.

DO NOT CONFUSE TONE AND MOOD! The mood of a literary piece is how the poet/author makes the reader feel. The feeling or atmosphere the writer creates for the reader is called the tone.

TONE = Poet’s attitude towards the subject/theme using language, word choice, phrasing and sentence structures.

MOOD = How the poem makes you feel.

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Typography

Typography involves font style, appearance, and structure, which aims to draw out certain emotions and convey specific messages.

Typography brings the text to life. In literature, typography has a specific purpose, so when analysing a poem and the typography is distinctive, think why the poet has used this specific layout, what is the message or meaning they are trying to convey. We also call this type of poetry concrete or visual poetry.

George Herbert’s ‘Easter Wings’ (1633), printed sideways on facing pages so the lines would call to mind angels flying with outstretched wings.

Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Mouse’s Tale’, published in 1865 in his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Understatement

Writers/poets use understatement to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is, and it usually draws a reaction from the reader. It can also be used for humour.

‘I have to have this operation. It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.’ (Holden Caulfield in The Catcher In The Rye, by J. D. Salinger) ‘Well, that’s cast rather a gloom over the evening, hasn’t it?’ (Dinner guest, after a visit from the Grim Reaper, in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life)

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Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and many poems. He is the greatest English writer in history and invented words such as ‘bedazzled’ and ‘fashionable’.

GLOSSARY OF drama TERMS Act

An act is a way to divide a play and each act consists of a group of scenes that form part of the story.

Antagonist

A character or force against which another character struggles.

They are the cause of the conflict in a play and are usually defeated to bring the action to a close.

There are different types of antagonists for example: • The villain: A character who has evil or selfish intentions and wants to stop or hinder the protagonist.

• The non-human antagonist: A story/play can have an antagonist that isn’t a human at all. In fact, antagonists don’t even have to be alive. For example, in ‘disaster films’ the natural disaster (earthquake, monster wave, asteroid hurtling to earth) is the primary antagonist.

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Study Guide G12 ~ English Home Language: Literature

Aside

Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, but not ‘heard’ by the other characters on stage during a play.

Arthur Miller, in The Crucible, uses an aside through the last words of Elizabeth towards the conclusion of the play, when she says: ‘He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him.’

DO NOT CONFUSE AN ASIDE WITH A Soliloquy!

Kenneth Brannagh performs a soliloquy in Macbeth

Character

Both asides and soliloquies are dramatic devices. The similarity between them is that a single character speaks directly to themselves, or to the audience, and no other character can hear their comments.

However, an aside is a shorter comment, while a soliloquy is a longer speech.

An aside reveals hidden secrets or judgements, the soliloquy reveals motives, inner thoughts, or internal struggles going on in the mind of the character.

MACBETH: Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight, or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw.

[MACBETH draws out his dagger] Any person/animal/figure in a literary work. Dramatic characters may be major, minor, static (unchanging) or dynamic (capable of change).

Caesar from Planet of the Apes Characters do not have to be people and many plays and movies mix various characters to tell the story.

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Climax/Crisis

The turning point of the action in the plot of a play and the point of greatest tension in the work. The moment when the conflict comes to a head and the character must make a decision.

The climax in Romeo and Juliet comes when Romeo kills Tybalt and is banished.

BENVOLIO: Romeo, away, be gone!

The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain.

Stand not amazed, the Prince will doom thee death If thou art taken. Hence be gone, away!

ROMEO: O, I am fortune’s fool!

BENVOLIO: Why dost thou stay?

[Exit Romeo.]

Comedy

The purpose of comedy is to amuse the audience. Audiences know that no great disaster will happen, and the action turns out happily for the main characters.

Maxine Peake as ‘Titania’ and Matt Lucas as ‘Bottom’ in the BBC production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Conflict

The conflict in a play can be external (between characters) or internal (within a character) and is usually resolved by the end of the play.

Complication

This happens when the conflict in the play intensifies.

It introduces a new conflict or intensifies the existing one.

Denouement/ Resolution

‘Dénouer’ in French means to ‘unknot’. The denouement is the outcome of the main dramatic complication. Usually, the denouement happens AFTER the climax.

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