V4B 28-1-2025 90 min Poetry 5 ways

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Please sit with your group!

You need: reader, laptop, pen, notebook

Welcome! 

Learning Goals

At the end of today's lesson, you will....

• have refreshed your knowledge of poetic elements
• have read and analyzed a poem
• have written a poem using 2 poetic elements

Today's Lesson

1. Aspects of poetry (10 mins)
2. Reading & analyzing a poem (25 mins)
3. Short break (5 mins)
4. Write your own poem (20 mins)
5. Exercise from the reader (5 mins)
6. (Watch a video, 10 mins)
7.  Round off together  (Next time we will check the test)

Aspects of poetry

Answer the following questions without looking them up

Submit your answers as a group

Think of an example:
1. hyperbole
2. oxymoron
3. alliteration
4. personification
5. cliché

What is a metaphor?
+ example

This rhetorical device is used when a covert comparison is made between two different things or ideas. 

What is irony?

We are now going to listen to a recording of the poem

"Five ways to kill a man"

(2:30 mins)

'cumbersome' = slow, complicated, inefficient

'dispensing with' = to stop using / get rid of something

poetryarchive.org

What do you think / how do you feel after hearing "Five Ways to Kill a Man"?

To do with your group:

- Read the poem on p. 6 and do task 2

- Also answer the following questions:

- How are the 5 ways ordered?

- Explain the fifth way mentioned to kill a man

- Find the metaphor in the poem

- Describe the irony in the poem

KEEP LAPTOPS CLOSED

Answering the questions (as a group)

Don't forget to take notes in your reader (individually)!!!

How are the 5 ways ordered?

Horrors of the past in order:

a) Chronological, showing 'progress' through time

b) With each method of killing described by the poet, the numbers of murdered men are increasing. From a single man’s crucifixion, we come to one-on-one combat in medieval warfare. In gas warfare, the number increases to entire squadrons, and finally, in atomic bombing, entire cities are wiped out at the push of a switch. Man is becoming steadily more and more ruthless.

Crucifixion, medieval warfare (or even jousting), gas warfare, and atomic bombing are all shocking heights to which man has gone in the past, in his attempts to kill others who he feels are different from himself. 

What is the 5th way to kill a man?

The 5th way

In the 20th century, after the World Wars, poverty, malnutrition, and joblessness killed many people while others just watched them die. Man has made the world such a bad place to live in that his world itself is turning upon him and killing him. Thus, living in the 20th century ensures an easy death. This is the 5th and least complicated method of killing, 

according to the poet.

Task 2:

1. Crucifixion

2. Medieval warfare

3. Gas warfare

4. Atomic bombing

5. Living in the post WWII era. The world is in such a bad state that ultimately, no one can survive 

Find the metaphor in the poem

In this poem, the poet uses the device of metaphor in the 3rd line of the 2nd stanza when he compares the armor of a soldier with a cage made of metal that is holding him captive and not letting him escape so that he is forced to fight for the sake of his superiors only.

What is the irony in the poem?

What do you think is the hidden message in this poem?

Conclusion about the poem:

• Not too many poems have been written on the subject of ruthless murder. 
• The prevalent tone of this poem is one of irony. 
• Readers often feel guilty and sad to be a part of the human race, knowing that their fellow men have committed such heinous crimes. 
• The hidden message is: man must change his ways.  The world has been turned into a horrible place through man’s own actions, and now man is paying the price himself.

Haiku examples

Writing a poem

- Step 1: if you like, work with a classmate (5 mins)

- Step 2: work on your own, in silence (5 mins)

- On a separate piece of paper

- Laptops closed

- I will ask some students to read their poem in class

Write a poem using repetition:

- Go back to 'Five ways to kill a man'

- Choose 1 noun from the poem (any noun)

- Make a list of adjectives that you associate with the noun

(it doesn't have to be the same context)

- Think of a feeling you connect with the words you have come up with 

Write a poem:

- Use the same noun throughout the poem

- Try to use many different adjectives

- Use alliteration once

- If you finish quickly, add a line drawing

- and/or make a 'neat' copy (ask me for paper)

Write a poem

First line:              noun

Second line:       noun

Third line:             adjective  noun

Fourth line:          adjective  noun

Fifth line:               adjective  adjective  adjective  noun

Sixth line:              adjective  adjective  noun

Seventh line:       a sentence about the noun

Assignment page 13
Match each term with its definition

Well done! You...

... have refreshed your knowledge of poetic elements

.... have read and analyzed a poem

... have written a poem using 2 poetic elements

NEXT LESSON: BRING YOUR READER!! :)