Programme 9 - Activities

* Writing can be powerful due to anything from structure of the poem to the vocabulary used. It does not necessarily mean strong language or words. Discuss this in a small group, illustrating your points with examples from the poem.

* Imagine you are the interviewee in the poem. Describe your experience of the interview. What might you have said about it to your friends? How did the panel respond to your answers?

* The poem was written in 1819. What do we know about its historical context? What was happening at the same time in terms of history and the other arts: music, painting, architecture, fashion and other forms of literature?

* What is the tone of the poem? Is it, for example, playful, sad, nostalgic, celebratory or ironic? Is it perhaps saying more than one thing? Is it ambiguous in any way? Discuss these points as a group.

GARY SNYDER (1930–present)
Front Lines / As the crickets' soft autumn hum

* Draw a pictorial representation of this poem to use as a poster. Add words / straplines (catchy phrases that are easily remembered) that you think will capture people's attention.

* What are the 'Beat' poets? What do they believe in? Find examples of other Beat poets and the kind of poetry they write. (See also Ferlinghetti, Arrows of Desire III Programme 12)

TONY HARRISON (1937–present)
Illuminations (1980)

* What is the form of the poem? Is it drawing upon an established tradition? Does it, for example, use a strict verse form in terms of metre and rhyme? Is its language formal or colloquial?

* 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 9, draw up and complete a grid like the one below.