Lesson 1 - Iris Clayton – The Black Rat

These three lessons will guide you through an orientation to the poem, its form and the context of the battle.

After this you will annotate the poem and think deeply about the perspective conveyed by the poet and your own interpretation of the poem.

This first lesson is an orientation to the poem. You will use the thinking routines ‘See, Think, Wonder’ and I used to think…Now I think…, in order to help you understand the historical context of the poem.

During this lesson sequence you will:

• reflect on prior learning

• read or listen to the poem for pleasure and meaning

• think about context and complete a thinking routine.

To open your student booklet in Microsoft Word(docx 2.8MB), 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.

Task 1

1. Think back to the two poems you studied in previous lessons.

   • ‘Casabianca’ by Felicia Dorothea Hemans

2. Reflect on what you understood about the perspectives of war that each poem presented.

3. Spend a few minutes using the questions to prompt your thinking.

   • Which battle/war was the poem written about?

   • How did the poet and/or persona feel about the battle/war?

   • What is your perspective about this battle/war after studying the poem?

   • What other insights did you realise?

4. Answer the questions in your English book or use table 1 in the downloadable student booklet.

Activity 2a – Listening for meaning

1. In this activity you will watch and listen to a reading of the poem. You may like to listen to it more than once.

'The Black Rat' by Iris Clayton.

He lived in a tin hut with a hard dirt floor.

He had bags sewn together that was his door.

He was a Rat of Tobruk until forty five,

He was one of the few that came back alive.

Battered and scarred he fought for this land,

And on his return they all shook his hand.

The price of fighting for the freedom of man

Did not make any difference to this Blackman.

He returned to the outback, no mates did he find.

If he had a beer he was jailed and then fined.

He sold all his medals he once proudly wore:

They were of no use to him any more.

Confused and alone he wandered around,

Looking for work though none could be found.

The Anzac marches he badly neglected,

Would show to his comrades how he was rejected.

He fought for this land so he could be free.

Yet he could not vote after his desert melee.

And those years in the desert they really took their toll,

He went there quite young and he came home so old.

This once tall man came from a proud Black tribe,

Died all alone – no one at his side.

Task 1

After you have listened to the information on the context of the poem answer each of the questions stating what you see, what you notice and what you wonder. Use the sentence stems to guide your thinking.

• I see...

• I think...

• I wonder...

Task 2

After thinking about the battle and the persona of the poem it might help to have some information about the poet Iris Clayton. Listen to the following and complete this thinking routine:

• I used to think…

• Now I think…