Lesson 3 - Understanding perspective

In this lesson you will continue your annotation of the poem ‘Casabianca’ by Felicia Dorothea Hemans.

At the end of the annotation task you will have the opportunity to explain your perspective of the content of the poem.

You will also reflect on the similarities and differences between your perspective and the poet’s perspective.

During this lesson you will:

• explain how these language features affect the meaning of the poem

• explore how language form and features can be used to communicate perspectives of war.

To open your student booklet in Microsoft Word(docx 107KB), select the icon. It will download automatically.

To open your student booklet in Google Docs, select the icon then select 'Use Template' to create a copy for yourself.

You are going to continue annotating the poem using a guided structure. This process will help you to identify the form, features and structure of the text.

• Complete the annotation of the remaining stanzas using the downloadable student booklet.

Or

• Complete the activities using the questions and the interactives for the remaining stanzas.

Task 2 - Stanza 4

He called aloud – ‘Say, father, say

If yet my task is done?’

He knew not that the chieftain lay

Unconscious of his son.

1. The boy calls out to his father, what is the boy asking his father and what is the effect of this direct speech for you as a reader?

2. Why does the poet refer to his father as ‘the chieftain’?

3. How does line 16 ease the tension in the poem?

Task 5 - Stanza 7

And shouted but once more aloud,

‘My father! must I stay?’

While o’er him fast, through sail and shroud,

The wreathing fires made way.

1. The boy calls out again, why does it seem more desperate this time?

2. Think about the word choice of ‘shroud’ in line 27 in this context. If a shroud is both

   • a thing that envelops and obscures something

   • a length of cloth or an enveloping garment in which a dead person is wrapped for burial.

Explain what you think the poet is referring to here and what it adds to your understanding.

3. Consider the word choice of ‘wreathing’ in this context.

If a wreath is a garland/circle of flowers often presented at funerals or memorials, explain how the fire might be described here as wreathing?

Task 7 - Stanza 9

There came a burst of thunder sound –

The boy – oh! where was he?

Ask of the winds that far around

With fragments strewed the sea!

1. At this point in the poem all hope seems lost, how does the onomatopoeia add to this feeling?

2. Here the wind is personified, it is exclaiming and asking a question. Explain what the reader now understands.

3. Consider the word ‘strewed’ in this context. What has been strewed and by whom?

Task 8 - Stanza 10

With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,

That well had borne their part,

But the noblest thing which perished there,

Was that young faithful heart.

1. In line 37, the parts of the ship are used to represent something ‘that well had borne their part’, what do you think this means?

2. What is the effect of the emotive language ‘noblest thing’ and ‘young faithful’ when describing the boy?

Task

Use the sentence starters to track your reaction to the description of the boy throughout the poem by describing your attitude toward the boy for each of the following sections in the poem.