8x2 - Lesson 4 - Agrarian vs. Industrial

Read and watch the full version of Slough by Betjeman: Homework posted below.



Slough

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

For your homework you are to practice writing a P.E.E. paragraph to answer the question:

Is Daffodils by Wordsworth an agrarian idyll or a poem about industrialism?

or

How does Betjeman feel about modern Britain?

Look under the poem (below) for further help.




Daffodils by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.


Remember:

Step 1 - Point: Write a full sentence that answers the question:

Write: 'The poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth is ... '

Step 2 - Evidence: How do you know the answer? Find a part of the poem which back up your 'point'. Remember to use "quotation marks".

Step 3 - Explain (1): What does the quotation show? Write: 'This shows...' and use interesting vocabulary (you can look in a Thesaurus, or press Shift+F7 in Word)

Step 4 - Explain (2): Pick two key words and explain them further - what do they show? What do they make you think of? Write: 'The word "..." shows...'


POST YOUR P.E.E. AS A COMMENT ON THE BLOG BY FRIDAY 21st JAN.


p.s. - a treat: