To Autumn

What?

• We focus on image, theme, language, rhythm, rhyme and anything else that strikes you as important in what many consider to be THE LAST POEM I EVER WROTE
• We do this over the course of two lessons, and conclude our studies on me FOR NOW

Task One:

• Grab a partner and join me outside. (You may not have noticed, but I am dangerously obssessed with quite interested in nature.)
• Use a suitable recording device (mobile phone?) to take some photos which you feel signify signs that Autumn is with us
• You will need to post these photos (your three favourite), writing between one and two lines of poetry for each one that you feel fits MY STYLE.
• Obviously the line of poetry you write should in some way be connected to the picture
• If you can use a rhythm and meter that I use in my poetry, you are a LEGEND
• Make sure you save your work - if you do not have time to post it all today, you can do so on Friday
• DO NOT read my poem on Autumn yet. That would be cheating...

Task Two:

• Read To Autumn
• What similarities can you find in my use of language and your own? Select one or two examples from my poem that connect to your lines of poetry in some way.
• Give a brief - two or three sentences is enough - explanation of the similarities.
• Upload it all to you blog.

END task:

• To finish your blog I expect you to read the following page on To Autumn, my final masterpiece. 
• Use the ideas therein, as well as your own, to answer the questions below. You should write a short paragraph (five or six lines) for each.
• REMEMBER YOU MUST WRITE IN YOUR OWN WORDS:1) How does To Autumn differ from the other poems you have studied?
  
  2) I mentioned in a letter to my old pal Reynolds that the stubble fields in Autumn looked "warm" to me. How do I communicate  a sense of warmth in my poem?
  
  3) How do I use language to reflect the passage of time and a sense of an ever-changing world in this poem?
  
  EXTRA - ONLY IF YOU FEEL BRAVE...
  4) Can you identify the "default" rhythm I create in To Autumn? Can you then find one instance where I change the rhythm to support or extend the meaning of the line(s)??

• Finally, ladies and gents, you should upload everything up to and including Ode on a Grecian Urn, including work you have missed from before to your blog and have it ready for first inspection Friday May16th
• Your blog should be complete ready for final inspection by Friday, May 30th.  Remember, this is your record of your growing understanding of my world-view and poems. Make it AWESOME.