Poetry From Other Cultures

Lesson 1
 Title: What is Culture?

Learning Objectives
What is culture and how can it influence you?
What is my own culture and influence?
 What is a culture?

Look at the following images and try to

say which culture this represents. How
do you know this?
How do you define a culture?

• Home town?
• Parents? 2 minutes
• Friends? Can you add any
• Food & drink? more categories?
• Hobbies? Record them as a
list.
• Religion?
• Celebrations?
 Task

1. Now rank the categories from most

influential and least influential. You should
compare this with the person next to you.
Provide a sentence explaining your choices.

2. Create a culture page suited to you. You

should include details of all the categories that
influence the person you are today.
 Culture Mind Map

Create your own poetry mind-map.

 Plenary – further thinking

• How might a person’s culture influence

them in their life?
• How might a culture influence the writing
of a poem?
• Can you think of any poetry you have read
that discusses culture?
Poetry from Other Cultures

Lesson 2
 Title: My Culture Poem

Learning Objective:
– What is my culture?
– Can I create a poem to describe my
culture?
 My Culture

– Write a short paragraph explaining what

influences your culture.
 TASK: Write your own culture poem

If you are not sure how to begin, try writing an

acrostic!

Mum’s Sunday roast, cooking in the oven,

Yearly celebrations of Christmas and Easter.
C
U
L
T
U
R
E
Poetry from Other Cultures

Lesson 3
Title: Japanese Haiku Poetry

Learning Objective:
What is a Haiku?
Can I create my own Haiku poem?
So… what do we know about Japan?
Where did Haiku come from?
Master Basho
 Who was Master Basho?

• Master Basho
invented the Haiku.

• He loved nature and

spent most of his life
wandering through the
countryside teaching
poetry in villages.
What do these words have in
common?
Invisibility.
Responsibility.
Memorabilia.
Incapacitated.
Theoretically.
 What do these words have in
common?
Invisibility.
Responsibility.
Memorabilia.
Incapacitated.
Theoretically.

They all have SIX syllables. What

is a syllable?
 Syllables = a part of a word
pronounced as a unit (a beat)
Haiku has TWO syllables: “high” and “coo”.

“Miss Meredith” has FOUR syllables: Miss Mer-ed-

ith

How many syllables does your name have?

Have your partner check.
 Haiku

• A type of poetry from Japan.

• It is pronounced “High Coo”.
• It is made of three lines that usually don’t
rhyme.
• They tend to refer to nature, animals,
surroundings at a particular moment in time – a
snapshot of nature.
 The form of a Haiku
Simple haiku have three lines.
The FIRST and LAST lines of a haiku have
five syllables. The middle line has seven.
 Remember!

Haiku =
5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllables
Is this a haiku? Count the syllables.

Green and speckled legs, syllables: __

Hops on lily pads syllables: __
Splash in cool water. syllables: __

What is this haiku describing?

Solve these Haiku with your partner! What is
your evidence? Are they all haiku?
In a pouch I grow, I live in a pond
On a southern continent – We are all tiny babies
Strange creatures I know. But soon we all will grow

I chill in a tree My home is a log

Sleep eighteen hours a day Where the rainforest is at
Hanging upside down My colour changes

Pink and yellow beak White and black all over

I like to stand on one foot On a so cold continent
I am pretty tall I live peaceful and warm
 Remember!

Haiku =
5 syllables
7 syllables
5 syllables
TASK: Write a traditional Haiku about one of
the images OR something you love/ hate.

Success Criteria
Your haiku should…
• Capture a snapshot of nature.
• Follow the traditional haiku form (syllables= 5, 7, 5)
• Have no more than three lines.
• Use some of the adjectives from your list.

Finished?
Exchange with a partner, check that they meet the success
criteria and offer TWO STARS and a WISH feedback.
Done that? Write another haiku with a different focus.
Poetry from Other Cultures

Lesson 4
 Title: Australian Poetry

Learning Objective:
What is Australian Culture?
How can it be represented through poetry?
Australian
Culture
Do the following images match
your own ideas?
 Research

Find biographical information on A. B.

‘Banjo’ Paterson.

– When did he live?

– Where did he live?
– What was his life and upbringing like?
– What inspired his poetry?

Extension Question: How does the poets

life affect his poem?
 ‘The Man From Snowy River’

Listen to one of A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson’s most

famous poems The Man from Snowy River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgWCQh
K0xrc
The Man from Snowy River
‘ Banjo’ Paterson
“There was movement at the station, for the word had passed around That
the colt from old Regret had got away,
And had joined the wild bush horses - he was worth a thousand pound, So all
the cracks had gathered to the fray.
All the tried and noted riders from the stations near and far
Had mustered at the homestead overnight,
For the bushmen love hard riding where the wild bush horses are,
And the stock horse snuffs the battle with delight.

There was Harrison, who made his pile when

Pardon won the cup, The old man with his hair as white as snow;
But few could ride beside him when his blood was fairly up –
He would go wherever horse and man could go.
And Clancy of the Overflow came down to lend a hand,
No better horseman ever held the reins;
For never horse could throw him while the saddle girths would stand, He
learnt to ride while droving on the plains.
Continued…
And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast,
He was something like a racehorse undersized,
With a touch of Timor pony - three parts thoroughbred at least –
And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry - just the sort that won't say die –
There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.

But still so slight and weedy, one would doubt his power to stay,
And the old man said, "That horse will never do
For a long a tiring gallop - lad, you'd better stop away,
Those hills are far too rough for such as you.“
So he waited sad and wistful - only Clancy stood his friend –
"I think we ought to let him come," he said;
"I warrant he'll be with us when he's wanted at the end,
For both his horse and he are mountain bred.

He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko's side,

Where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough,
Where a horse's hoofs strike firelight from the flint stones every
stride,
The man that holds his own is good enough.
And the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home,
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen."
 This poem is a ballad

Ballad: A poem with a strong rhythm which

tells a story.

TASK: Storyboard the poem.

1. Find 8 key quotes and highlight them on

your copy of the poem.
2. Copy these onto the storyboard template.
3. Draw an image to represent each image.
 Plenary

Does the poets Australia match your own

ideas about Australian culture?
Poetry from Other Cultures

Lesson 5
 Title: Reggae Culture

Learning Objectives:
What is Reggae culture?
What does Reggae have to do with poetry?
 Dialect

Words linked to where you live

or your social group.
 Dialect Dictionary

Complete the grid and create your own

dialect dictionary!

Extension
Task: How
does dialect
link to culture?
 Read the Poem

The poem Half Caste by John Agard in

written in his Carribean dialect. Why?
 ‘Half-Caste’ by John Agard
Glossary

Caste - an old word meaning the racial

group someone was born into.
Half – caste - Meant someone of mixed race,
but implied rejection, and is now seen as an
insulting term. Comes from the Latin word
meaning “pure, cut off, segregated”.
John Caste sit down at dah piano
an mix a black key
Agard wid a white key
- Half
Excuse me is a half-caste symphony? Explain yuself
standing on one leg wha yu mean
I’m half-caste. Ah listening to yu wid de keen
half of mih ear
Explain yuself Ah looking at yu wid de keen
wha yu mean half of mih eye
when yu say half-caste an when I’m introduced to yu
yu mean when Picasso I’m sure you’ll understand
mix red an green why I offer yu half-a-hand
is a half-caste canvas? an when I sleep at night
explain yuself I close half-a-eye
wha yu mean consequently when I dream
when yu say half-caste I dream half-a-dream
yu mean when light an shadow an when moon begin to glow
mix in de sky I half-caste human being
is a half-caste weather? cast half-a-shadow
well in dat case but yu must come back tomorrow
england weather wid de whole of yu eye
nearly always half-caste an de whole of yu ear
in fact some o dem cloud an de whole of yu mind.
half-caste till dem overcast
so spiteful dem don’t want de sun pass an I will tell yu
ah rass? de other half
explain yuself of my story.
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean tchaikovsky
 Tasks

1. Label the image of John Agard with words that you

think describe his culture.

2. Write a 40 word paragraph explaining what you think

the poem is about. Use the sentence starter below.

I think the poem is about Agard’s anger about the term

half-caste, he is saying that…

3. Draw an image to represent the poem and label it.

 I think the poem is about Agard’s angry about the
term half-caste, he is saying that … it is we who only
have half an eye, half an ear and half a mind, because
we haven't thought fully about what 'half-caste'
means.
Poetry from Other Cultures

Lesson 6
 Title: Benjamin Zephaniah

Learning Objectives:
Who is Benjamin Zephaniah?
How does he use his culture to influence his
poetry?
 STARTER

What sort of people write poetry?

Describe a stereotypical poet.

Stereotype: a widely
held but fixed and
oversimplified image or
idea of a particular type of
person or thing.
 Benjamin Zephaniah

• Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, in an area called

Handsworth which he called the "Jamaican capital of Europe".
• He is the son of a postman and a Jamaican nurse.
• He is dyslexic, he attended an approved school but left aged
13 unable to read or write.
• He is now a successful poet – has turned down and OBE, was
included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers
in 2008, in 2011, Zephaniah accepted a yearlong position as
poet in residence at Keats House in Hampstead, London.
• Zphaniah has said that his mission is to fight the dead image
of poetry in academia, and to "take [it] everywhere" to people
who do not read books so he turned poetry readings into
concert-like performances.
 Dis Poetry

Read the poem

Zephaniah uses dialect words and

informal language.
 Your task is to
re-write this
letter using
informal
terminology.
Mr. S m ith,
Dear ls’ You could use
M i t c h el
f o rm yo u o f ‘text’ or
w r i t i ng to i n
l e s s o n t oday.
I am u r in my ‘Internet’ talk,
al l i n g b e h a v i o
t h e c l a s sroom
app a i r a c ross or simply make
He threw
a c h
c ee d i n g ly rude the text more
t e d s o m e ex o u l d be
and s h o u h e s h
a t m e . I feel l l be
suitable for a
l e t i ve s i s . I t w i
exp h ed fo r th teenage
e r e l y pu n i s
a s t er , b ut I
sev t h e headm audience. Try
h b y o him,
dealt wit s pe a k t and use some
e y o u w i ll also
hop of the
techniques
d re g a rd s,
K in that
W o o dh o use
Ms Zephaniah and
Agard use in
their poetry.
 Task

Pick 5 lines from the poem and rewrite them in

formal language.

Extension Questions:
1. How does this change the poem?
2. Is it as effective? Why?
Poetry from Other Cultures

Lesson 7
Title: Black American History

Learning Objectives:
How is Black American History explored in the
poem?
 I have a dream…

"I Have a Dream" is a public speech by American

activist Martin Luther King, Jr. It was delivered by
King on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 28, 1963,
in which he called for an end to racism in the United
States. The speech, delivered to over 250,000 civil
rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil
Rights Movement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/martin-luther-ki
ng-describes-the-workings-of-segregation-in-the-souther
n-usa/5587.html
 I have a dream…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V57lotnKGF8
 Langston Hughes

Read the three poems and summarize each one in

just 10 words.

The poem ‘Dreams’ is about…

The poem ‘I, Too’ is about
The poem ‘Harlem’ is about…
 Your response…

Answer the following question:

Which poem do you think paints the best image

of the dreams that Black people had for
equality? Why?

Remember there is no right or wrong answer.

 King V Hughes

Which man’s writings more clearly reflect the

dreams of Black people throughout the first half
of the 20 th century? Why?
Culture Poems

Lesson 8
 Title: Dream Poems

Learning Objectives:
– What did Black American’s dream and fight for
in the 1960s?
– Can I create my own dream poem?
 Jacob Lawrence

Lawrence is an artist. In his series

‘Migration’, he presents Black Americans
hoping for a better life in the North of
America.

Many Americans migrated to the more liberal

northern states where segregation was not
promoted.

http://www.phillipscollection.org/migration_series/index.cf
m
 Your response…

Answer the following question:

Which poem do you think paints the best image

of the dreams that Black people had for
equality? Why?

Remember there is no right or wrong answer.

 What do you dream about?

Copy and complete the following:

– In the future I want to be…

– I would like to live…
– I would like to achieve…
 Dreams…

Task:

Write your own poem about your dreams.

– The first verse should include ideas about

what you want to be (include 1 simile)

– The second verse should include ideas about

where you want to live (include 5 adjectives)

– The final verse should include ideas about

what you want to achieve (use alliteration)
Poetry from Other Cultures

Lesson 9
 Title: Homelands

Learning Objectives:
What would my ideal homeland be like?
What would your ideal homeland be like?

Complete the following sentences:

– The weather would…

– The landscape would…
– The way of life would be …
– The people would be…
– The problems that would NOT exist anymore would
include…
 I Want a Country

Read the poem ‘I Want a Country’

In pairs,
– Highlight the words which are repeated
– Circle the adjectives
– Underlines the nouns

Which verse is most effective? Why?

 I Want a Country

Creative Task

Now write your own poem with the title

‘I Want a Country’.

Use the same structure as the poem we have

just read.