Programme 7 - Activities

You can read the poems (below). The suggested activities, devised by qualified teachers, follow the poems.

Marke but this flea, and marke in this,
How little that which thoe deny'st me is;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea, our two bloods mingled bee;
Thou knows't that this cannot be said
A sinne, nor shame, nor losse of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoyes before it wooe,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than wee would doe.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where wee almost, yea more than maryed are,
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,
And cloisterd in these living walls of Jet.
Though use make you apt to kill mee,
Let not to that, selfe murder added bee,
And sacrilege, three sinnes in killing three.

Cruell and sodaine, hast thou since
Purpled thy naile, in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty bee,
Except in that drop which it suckt from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and saist that thou
Finds't not thy selfe, nor mee the weaker now;
'Tis true, then learne how false, feares bee;
Just so much honor, when thou yeeld'st to mee,
Will wast, as this flea's death tooke life from thee.

1 Make a list of all the words that would be spelt differently today and write the contemporary spelling next to them.

2 Imagine an interview with John Donne. Write a list of questions that you would like to ask him about this poem.

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The girl dying in New Jersey
barely glances at the foreign words
but she likes the stamp.
It is a kind of pale blue
she hasn't seen much of.
The lawyer who brought the letter
talks of a famous scientist
who found the magic ingredient
that made the clockfaces she painted
shine in the dark. He doesn't say
that each lick of the brush
took a little more radium
into her bones, that in
sixteen hundred years
if anything remained of her
it would still be half as radioactive
as the girl is now,
thumbing through the atlas
she asked her sister to borrow.
He explains that Marie Curie
is anaemic too, but the girl
isn't listening.

She's found France;
it's not so big. The lawyer shrugs:
She says to eat plenty of raw calves' liver.

1 There are several emotive lines in the poem. For example, ‘The girl dying in New Jersey‘. Look for others in the poem, pick them out using a highlighter pen and talk with your group about the impact of their meaning.

2 Here is a simple but unfinished prose version of the poem. Try to complete it to tell the whole story...

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Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighbouring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have naming of parts.

1 Reed's poem has two voices, the NCO, who is barking out orders and the soldier who is thinking about other things. Draw a caricature of the two characters, one with a speech bubble and the other with a thought bubble. Read through the poem, highlighting in different colours which parts of the verse fit into the speech bubble and which belong in the thought bubble.

2 How does the poem relate to the other poems featured in the series, which deal with the broadly similar subject matter of war?

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Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim (1865)

A sight in camp in the daybreak gray and dim,
As from my tent I emerge so early sleepless,
As slow I walk in the cool fresh air the path near the hospital tent,
Three forms I see on stretchers lying, brought out there untended
lying,
Over each the blanket spread, ample brownish woollen blanket,
Gray and heavy blanket, folded, covering all.

Curious I halt and silent stand,
Then with light fingers I from the face of the nearest the first just lift the blanket;

Who are you elderly man so gaunt and grim, with well-gray'd hair, and flesh all sunken about the eyes?
Who are you my dear comrade?

Then to the second I step - and who are you my child and darling?
Who are you sweet boy with cheeks yet blooming?

Then to the third - a face nor child nor old, very calm, as of beautiful yellow-white ivory;
Young man I think I know you - I think this face is the face
of the Christ himself,
Dead and divine and brother of all, and here again he lies.

1  What is the form of this poem? Is it drawing upon an established tradition? Does it, for example, use a strict verse form in terms of metre and rhyme?

General activity
Several of the poems have a common theme or subject or some shared feature of approach, style or structure - for example, poems spoken by a character as monologues or themes such as nature, love, family and relationships, past and present, interesting characters, growing up... Having considered all the poems in Programme 7, make notes about themes, styles and key images.

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