Digging

Today we read the last poem that we’re going to: “Digging” by Seamus Heaney. This contrasts the lives of the poet’s father and grandfather with his own: they were men who earned their living by hard physical work with a spade, while he is an academic and poet who makes money by writing. We noticed the structure of the poem. It begins and ends similarly, and in between there’s the verse about his father digging up potatoes and his grandfather digging peat (turf, as he calls it).

It’s in free verse - apart from the little bit of rhyme at the beginning. If you mention this, you need to think of why Heaney might have done it. Maybe it’s to give the effect of growing enthusiasm: he starts more conventionally and then gets carried away?

You might want to write about the very vivid use of various senses: smell, sound, touch.

The main image is that of the pen as a gun – something powerful or even dangerous (in the wrong hands?). We remember the proverb “The pen is mightier than the sword” – in other words writing is powerful and can change things. The last line - “I’ll dig with it” - has connotations of digging things up, having a dig… making the world a different place by writing about it.

This could be used for a question about the world of work, nostalgia, a surprising ending, family…

We then watched the second half of the “View from a Bridge” film, which despite its crackles, unconvincing accents and old-fashioned hairstyles I thought was quite evocative. I liked the very close-up camera shots as the film went on; they gave a real feeling of the claustrophobia of being crammed together in a small flat with all that tension. I also liked the way Eddie ran after the immigration van, yelling at Marco, and then turned to see all his neighbours lined up against him.

Homework: 2008 Close Reading, passage 1, about the countryside; and a literature essay, your choice.

Next week is the last class till April 21 and then it’s all getting very close…

Where was the popcorn?

Today we watched the first act of the rather – very – ancient, scratchy film of “A View from the Bridge”. As you will remember, it started very differently from the play but soon morphed into a fairly accurate, word-for-word version of it. If any of you can bring yourselves to comment, I’d be interested to know whether you want to watch the second half at any point. Failing that, you could just tell me, of course, or email.

Should you be enthusiastic enough to want your own copy, you could get it from http://stores.blowoutdvd1.com/-strse-23/A-View-From-The/Detail.bok

(I was quite sad to think of the actress who played Catherine – I imagine that she thought this was her big break and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in anything else. However, I’m not much of a film buff so maybe she had a starry career that I’m just not aware of.)

Then we looked at the rather unpleasant “A Study of Reading Habits” by Philip Larkin, in case a question came up on two poems by the same poet. We considered the similarities with “Poetry of Departures” (eg colloquial language, use of rhyme/rhythm, cynical attitude, change of attitude between beginning and end, references to reading) and the differences (eg different “voices”, PD features an adult while SRH features the change from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, SRH much more colloquial, dated language).

SRH could also, of course, be used by itself, as a poem expressing dissatisfaction, unpleasant emotions, a personality…. etc

Then we read “You’re” by Sylvia Plath, a much more positive poem about a mother’s love for her unborn baby. It’s structured as a list of images describing the baby, all very sweet and loving and a bit unusual- comical at times. It could be used for a question on a poem which is happy/positive/image-filled/requiring thought/featuring a relationship – etc. Or it could be used to contrast with a gloomy/negative poem such as “Anthem for Doomed Youth” or SRH.

Homework – 2007 Close Reading, passage 1, about Glasgow University library.

Next week: Personal Study. One hour (plus extra time if relevant); bring in text and up to 2 A4 sides of notes, but not whole essay. Notes to be submitted with essay. For those who have the unit, class starts at 7.30 pm.

In brief...

A short blog this week – life is getting away from me.

Tonight we went over the second 2005 Close Reading on comets and asteroids, reading the marking instructions and considering what we could learn from them.


We then studied the poem “Cynddyllan on a Tractor” by RS Thomas about Cynddyllan (pronounced Cun-thullan) the Welsh farmer, on his very first tractor.

We decided that this would be suitable for a question on (among other things) the world of work, modern life, technology, contrast, colloquial language, imagery, a person….

We finished reading “A View from the Bridge”, with magnificent final performances from the actors, and discussed the technical terms. I handed out notes (please ask me for these if you weren’t there).

Homework – please write a critical essay on either “Cynddllan on a Tractor” or “Hotel Room 12th Floor”, using one (or more!) of 2005 question 12 or 14, or 2006 question 12.

Remember that for poetry essays, you must quote a lot – the essays are always going to ask you to discuss the poetic techniques, which you can hardly discuss without quoting. The usual way to deal with poetry essays is to go through the poem more or less line by line – NOT by doing what the SQA calls a “guided tour” (of everything about the poem with nothing made relevant to the question) BUT by picking out things relevant to the question and making this relevance quite obvious.

NEXT WEEK - ESSAY REASSESSMENT (REFLECTIVE/ARGUMENTATIVE/PERSUASIVE ) - CLASS STARTS 7.30 FOR THOSE WHO'VE ALREADY PASSED.

Remember your tent pegs

This evening we looked at James’s “Patchwork Planet” critical essay about how the ending of a novel was prepared for earlier on. We admired the way in which he actually discussed how various earlier bits led on to the end. This compared to some of the other essays, which tended sometimes to contain information which might have been shown to lead on to the end – but never quite did.

We then looked at my version of this question and I reiterated the tent peg metaphor. It may seem like overdoing it, but a marker at this level likes to have the relevance to the question of what you’re saying made obvious. Remember that, as far as the marker is concerned, you’re 16 or 17. They’re not expecting subtlety. They want clear, relevant points in that SECT sort of way. If your tent shows signs of flying away on an enthusiastic gale, to land in some distant field, far from the question, then pin it down by adding sentences such as: “This leads on to the ending when…”.

We then discussed Norman MacCaig’s poem “Hotel Room, 12th Floor”, full of imagery which is reasonably easy to discuss in the exam. The main, extended, metaphor is that of darkness as the enemy, seen specifically as a band of Red Indians riding into town and being shot at – ineffectually – by the light. Darkness is shown to bring violence to New York, despite the trappings of civilisation: helicopters, tall buildings, tv, radio, light. As he says, “And no stockades/ can keep the midnight out”. We may imagine that we’re civilised, but we’re never far away from violence, or potential violence – it’s there in human nature.

Then we read on in “View”, finishing Act 1 and just beginning Act 2. We saw Alfieri in the dual role of narrator (reminding us of the fact that he’s telling us a story) and lawyer (advising Eddie). The two roles merge seamlessly together – he turns from the audience and is apparently mid-conversation with Eddie, who has come to consult him. Eddie wants the law to help him against Rodolpho who, he says, is “not right” – he’s implying that Rodolpho is gay. Alfieri has to tell him that even if he were, marrying Catherine would not be illegal. The only illegal thing is that the cousins are illegal immigrants and Eddie says, “I wouldn’t do nothin’ about that…”. Then Alfieri gently suggests that sometimes “there is too much love for the daughter, there is too much love for the niece”. Eddie reacts “furiously”.

Alfieri tells the audience that he “could see every step coming, step after step… I knew where he was going to end”.Then, at dinner, Catherine is clearly very excited by Rodolpho’s stories of sailing to Africa and picking oranges off the trees in Italy.

Eddie is much less impressed. He points out that American girls aren’t as “free” as Rodolpho thinks; Rodolpho protests that he has “respect” for Catherine. She and Rodolpho dance to “Paper Doll”, though he, “in deference to Eddie” (stage direction) at first demurs. She, however, is “flushed with revolt” and dances with him.

We looked at the Mills Brothers' version of "Paper Doll" - which I think is the one that Catherine and Rodolpho have bought as a record. It's at

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n2m8VZBfRYo&feature=PlayList&p=AA3233A397B67272&playnext=1&index=13

Beatrice tries to divert his attention by talking about the cousins’ fishing expeditions, but Eddie’s worst fears are confirmed by hearing that Rodolpho is a good cook: “He sings. He cooks. He could make dresses…”. He suggests that Rodolpho would be better suited to working in a dress shop than as a longshoreman. This is not meant as a compliment.

He suggests teaching Rodolpho to box and starts to do so. He punches Rodolpho lightly and makes him stagger, alarming the others. Marco then demonstrates his superior strength by challenging Eddie to lift a chair by one leg, with one hand. Eddie can’t do it but Marco can, and the act ends with Marco holding the chair high with a “smile of triumph, and Eddie’s grin vanishes as he absorbs this look”. Here we see Marco warning Eddie off his brother.

We just started Act 2 – where Catherine and Rodolpho are in the flat alone and he says he wouldn’t marry her if they had to go to Italy because they’d starve there – but that he wouldn’t “carry on my back the rest of my life a woman I didn’t love just to be an American”. We decided that he is sincere; he does love her.

Homework - 2005 Close Reading, passage 2.

If I didn't speak to you this week about your Personal Study, then I will next week. Or email me if you want advice: pdonaldson@stevenson.ac.uk

I'm sorry there are no lines between some of my paragraphs. I put them in but Blogger removes them. It annoys me. Bad Blogger.

Who's the paper doll?

Today we spent much of the time doing the essay assessment. If you missed this, or if you don’t quite pass, do be ready for the reassessment on 3 February.

All we otherwise did was to continue reading and discussing “A View from the Bridge”. We got to the top of page 45 in the Penguin edition – where Beatrice has been having a talk with Catherine.

We reminded ourselves of the emphasis, in this play about Italians, on the themes of justice and honour.

We also observed that Alfieri, the lawyer who’s also a narrator, makes a clear link between the way that people end up behaving in this play and the way they used to behave in Ancient Rome

and Greece.

Most of the time we “settle for half”, he says – unlike in the days of Al Capone, the gangster. But just occasionally – we don’t.

And that’s when things “run their bloody course”. He makes it clear that this play isn’t going to end well: it’s as if it’s already happened and he’s just showing it to us.

We notice Eddie’s extreme protectiveness of his niece Catherine – normal fatherly feelings or a bit over the top? – and the slight tension between Eddie and his wife Beatrice. Beatrice’s cousins arrive and Eddie gets stressed when Rodolpho sings. Is this because he’s nervous about the noise, or is Eddie anxious that Catherine seems to be interested in Rodolpho? But then, would any man want his almost-daughter to get involved with an illegal immigrant?

This is Rodolpho's song. Listen to it. Why did Arthur Miller choose it? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uZAy-GW1fek&feature=PlayList&p=39A4F48CA7E8B9F7&index=19

Eddie tells Catherine to go and take off her high heeled shoes. Why, do you think? How does she react?

Alfieri is then used, partly like the Chorus in Greek tragedy to comment on events and partly to move the action on several weeks to when Catherine and Rodolpho are going out together. Eddie is hanging around waiting for them to come back from the cinema and discusses with Beatrice his apparent worries about Rodolpho as a suitor and possibly husband for Catherine:

Rodolpho sings a lot in public.
He’s blond.

Beatrice changes the subject: Eddie and she haven’t been sleeping together for three months – what’s the reason for this? He evades the question: he’s not been feeling good.

When Catherine and Rodolpho return, Eddie sends Rodolpho away and tells Catherine that Rodolpho just wants to marry her to become an American citizen. (Might this be true?) Catherine is very upset and denies it: Rodolpho loves her, she says.

We can see love emerging as another theme: love between two young people, between husband and wife, between parent (and Eddie and Beatrice have taken the roles of Catherine’s parents) and child.

Once Eddie goes, Beatrice gives Catherine a little lecture: she must behave more circumspectly around Eddie now she’s grown up. She’s a woman – she should behave like one. Catherine is uneasy at the implication behind Beatrice’s words.

Homework - finish Close Reading 2005, passage 1, about comets and asteroids.

Tent pegs and Personal Study

This evening I gave you the tent analogy. As you write a critical (literature) essay, you’re answering the question (obviously) and you need to remember to do so by SECTing or something along these lines. But do also keep remembering to pin the essay down to the question. It’s a good idea to use the words of the question from time to time, to make it clear to the examiner that you’re doing so.

The tent? You might like to think of your essay as a tent that keeps trying to blow away (this is like when you waffle off the subject).

Read over what you write after each paragraph, and pin it down to the question by brief comments to MAKE it relevant, eg “Here we see another example of conflict… This shows vivid creation of character…. This shows a turning point…” – depending on what the question is, of course. Use the words of the question, or variations of them, as tent pegs! And these “pegs” can be added afterwards if you forget to put them in at the time - as long as you can squeeze them in to the space.

(You have no idea how hard it is to find pictures of tents flying away. For some strange reason, most people don't seem to stop to take photos of this. Presumably they're busy chasing the tent.)

Remember that you may know why you wrote something, but the marker isn’t a mind reader. Be very definite about making the relevance of what you’ve written very obvious to the dimmest examiner.

You have a new literature (“critical”) essay for homework:

Consider carefully the ending of a novel you know well.

Discuss in what ways the author has prepared for the ending in the earlier part of the novel.


You could write this essay by concentrating on the structure of the novel – the two station scenes – and how the theme of trust is seen very differently in each of them. You would obviously have to deal with some of the bits in between as you did this, but you would try to pick out the bits that are relevant to both, ie you’d need to discuss the characterisation of Barnaby and Sophia and some related matters.

You might also want to bring in other themes, eg change/families/etc.

You might like to bring in some symbols, eg the Twinform and the importance of money.

You would need, I think, to deal briefly with the Renascence School, so that you could bring in the earlier mention of the sonnet (“When in disgrace”) and then the importance of the sonnet on the last page. This could also be seen as part of the structure – preparing the reader to understand his sudden realisation that he may love Martine.

Remember to SECT! Critical essays should be about 700 words.

We then went over the 2005 passage 1 Close Reading and students wrote the answers to some of these in class while I discussed people’s Personal Study choices with them. If you haven’t yet read your book, this it’s now MORE than urgent that you do so!!!

We then read pages 1-25 of "A View from the Bridge" and noticed the themes of justice and honour; also the fact that the narrator/lawyer, Alfieri, notes the connection between the way things turn out in this play and the way people behaved back in the times of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

Most people just seemed to get to question 2 or 3 in the Close Reading, so if you were off, maybe you could do these questions for next week? and also read the bits of the play that you missed.

No parties or other important life events should be scheduled in the next few weeks. Your spare time should be dedicated to English!

This is how NOT to study.

CRUCIALLY - I FORGOT TO REMIND YOU THAT NEXT WEEK IS THE ESSAY ASSESSMENT (WHICH YOU ALL KNOW ANYWAY) - ARGUMENTATIVE OR REFLECTIVE OR PERSUASIVE.

THIS MEANS THAT IF YOU ALREADY HAVE THE ASSESSMENTS, YOU DON'T NEED TO COME TILL 7.30. IF YOU'RE DOING THE ASSESSMENT, YOU NEED TO BRING ALONG A MARKED DRAFT - MARKED BY ME - AND THE ASSESSMENT CONSISTS OF REDRAFTING IT - WITH THE ESSAY IN FRONT OF YOU. If you don't have a draft with you, you can't do the assessment.

If you need to contact me about this, please email.

(Now I'll find out who doesn't read the blog...).