How To Analyse A Poem | Analysing Simon Armitage's 'Mother Any Distance...'
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2021
- Intro to Poetry Video: • An Intro To Poetry: Ho...
Other Poetry Videos: • Poetry
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It’s like she knew I started studying literature at university this year😩
Same it's rough so far. I'm realizing I'm not as much of a lit snob as I thought
Lol literally same! And my first module is poetry and poetics so this’ll be perfect :)))))
im also studying literature and ironically I dont like poetry... mostly. but rachel makes it interesting, I like watching these videos. also I learn better when I listen and when I have to read a poem it feels like hell to me...
I literally just started my A level literature course today so this video is perfect timing
What I noticed about space walk and kite is that in both cases, losing or breaking your tether is a bad thing. A kite will get carried away by the wind and lost, and an astronaut off their tether has hours to live at best - if they're lucky they have radio contact and get to say goodbye and leave a final note to their relations.
A satellite wrenched from orbit is going to burn up or be lost in the cold, endless black.
In all three cases, it seems to me that self-directed motion is lost. The kite is at the mercy of the winds, while the astronaut and satellite are at the mercy of gravity and inertia. I don't think either author was trying to paint such a bleak picture of growing up, but perhaps there's an underlying fear there?
Interesting point! In armatages poem, I think fear would be underlying, as he describes the process of growing up as an arduous adventure full of the unknowns. But I think in his case the metaphor also implies an acknowledgement of the importance of his relationship to his mum. It indicates that he is cognisant of how important she is in his life - she is his lifeline, his anchor. He would feel lost without her.
In the second poem, the violence of the metaphor indicates a stronger level of fear of losing your whole world - a satellite without something to orbit is just another rock floating around in space. In her case, she is the mother fearing the loss of her child - her child's gravitational pull is *her* lifeline. Rather than pulling away from her lifeline, as armatage did in his poem, she worries that it is being taken away from her, and she fears the consequences of that.
I think another thing worthy to note is that with kite normally someone is holding it down, back. Someone is holding tight to the kite, not letting it fly with the wind, keeping it down and not letting it go to where it wishes. The kite also is showing him wanting to flee and again not being able to. The kite can also be seen in a way to the importance of their relationship, viewed in a more positive light the person holding the kite could be stopping the kite from blowing away, from being lost or stuck in a tree, from flying away from its home in the holders hand.
Then with the anchor, in a positive light it is keeping you attached, keeping you safe and still, keeping you from being pushed with the waves and tides. It also represents holding you down, stopping you from moving and advancing in life and in growth. It shows the anchor being stubborn in not letting you go, the anchor being heavy, heavy enough to keep you and heavy enough on your shoulders. You need the anchor yet at the same time, is it the best thing for you? Should you go and explore more of the ocean, or should you let yourself be pulled to see where you end up?
Literally screamed "YES" when I saw this notification. I've always wanted to get into poetry but I've never been able to learn how to read the nuance in them. Thanks so much!
No way, Rachel! This is going to be so helpful for my GCSE'S because we're doing 14(?) poems. Thank you!💗
Depending on your exam board, this one may be particularly helpful :)
Are you doing the Love and Relationships or the Power and Conflict cluster?
@@jesstaylor1914 Love and relationships.
Yes, same. Are you going into Year 10 or 11?
@@jesstaylor1914 I just moved into year 11! :)
I'm from Germany, so it was really interesting for me to see how you structure your essays differently from what we are taught in Germany.
Also I've finished school a year ago and I realized I missed analysing literature, so I've been trying to get into it again, so this came at a great time. Thanks! :)
BITXH WHERE WERE YOU DURING MY IGCSES AND IB EXAMS 😭😭😭😭 THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED
Poetry always intimidated me. This video really helped me feel differently. I interpreted The first poem as a piece about a codependent mother and child. She doesn’t want to let go. She needs to be needed. (The poem said she came over to him. Maybe it’s not him asking for help. Maybe it’s her offering it.)
And I compared fall to anchor, with fly to kite. Maybe she’s holding him back. And if he stays with her he will always be in the house. In her reach. But if he flies like a kite and lets go he will feel freedom. A kite has a string that is connected with the beholder. Flying beyond those limits requires cutting the string loose.
The breaking point where something has to give is like saying either she lets go or he lets go. But she’s an anchor. She’s unmoving. So he has no choice but to climb higher. Even though he’s two floors high, she’s “still” pinching and not letting go. After seeing this, then he reaches for the hatch. He reaches for an opportunity. For an escape.
Your interpretation was more optimistic and wholesome than mine. This was the first time I did something like this, thank you for the amazing lesson
I think your interpretation is FANTASTIC ❤️
currently studying for my leaving cert ( irish version of gcses/a levels ) and was honestly dreading the amount of poetry i had to study!! but your videos have been really helpful in explaining it in a way that makes sense and also showing how fun poetry is! your enthusiasm is so inspirational :] thank you!!!
Rachel is like my private tutor now. I'm so thankful for her content and that it is for free. it's incredibly helpful ♥♥♥
Oh man I can’t wait. I honestly do miss literature class since we had such an awesome teacher. I’m so excited about getting a bit into it again. Also I have a poetry book that is just begging for me to analyze some of it’s poems.
I have a class at uni about poetry this semester and I am SO worried about failing bc I've never been good at analysing poems. Thank you so much for this video, it's gonna help a lot!
Your videos always cheer me up when I am having a bad day.
I hope you know how amazing you are and how much you help people with your videos.
Seeing someone so open about their mental health and how they deal with it like you make us feel less alone ❤
This is going to be so helpful!!! We have an exam next week about poetry analysis, so it's perfect timing! I'm really excited, thank you so much for the video!❤️
Good luck in your exam!! 👍
@@silviaov633 thanks!🤞❤️ This video helped me so much!!
These are literally the poems I’m doing for my GCSEs, so helpful. Thanks Rachel!
I'm so glad, thank you! :)
Honestly, thanks for all your content, I watch every video.
I live in France and this year I’m studying English literature, civilization etc..
You have no idea how thankful I am that you made this video !
This is going to be so useful! I have been getting more into poetry lately, and I have been having trouble analyzing it. Thank you, Rachel! Love all your content!
As someone who has studied anything and everything science related, I've always had a tough time grasping the ideas of any poetry I've ever read... There is definitely a level of abstract thought that you can use in science to think about physical concepts differently, but poetry seems to tap into a deeper level of thought that I haven't been able to really understand. This has definitely helped give me a foundation to work off of and develop my own ways of thinking about poetry. Thank you for the wonderful insight!
Yay the timing on this is perfect, I just started taking AP Lit! Thanks Rachel!
Holy fuck. Just the first read of the armitage poem and I’m crying…. Thank you for choosing this poem as it’s my first time hearing it.
Omg i absolutely love this video, it's bringing me back to how much i loved my literature classes. Im pretty sad I finished the subject but this really brings me back
Yay!!! I do love poetry and I have always wondered how to write good poetry for myself.
Glad you are doing good Rachel and can't wait to watch this!!!
Hi Rachel, I really hope you make more of these kinds of videos in the future. These educational "how to" guides I believe may not get very many initial views, but I feel have a high potential of growing over the years as people continue to take poetry classes.
OMG I'm so excited just about to get into poetry
Commenting for the algorithm, love you Rachel! I'm sure this video will be very helpful for people ❤
Oh man this is gonna be so useful for my school work 💗
I wish she did this as a podcast
Literally just when I need this!!! Thank you
AHHHHHH the tie dye cat shirt from the clothing/fashion/style video!!
I love this shirt! I also love the screenshot I took of you holding the shirt next to you and beaming ear to ear. An icon, a scholar, a queen 💕💕
yessss i'm hyped for this one
Looking forward to this one ! - long time subscriber but haven’t watched in a while - this one sounds great !
Thanks! Happy to have you back :)
I feel like you would make such an incredible English teacher!! I always enjoy your videos 💓
Never to early to star preparing for my introduction to english literature finale :) thanks Rachel ❤️
• intro 00:00 - 3:10
-> Simon Armitage's Mother Any Distance
• what are the poems about? 3:11 - 3:46
• how to read and analyse a poem 3:47 - 23:50
( 1. read the poem... a lot 3:53
2. summarise/paraphrase the poem 5:11
3. highlight poetic techniques 7:07
4. figure out their purpose 14:06)
• why his mother? about the author 21:28
• exam questions 23:45
(1. Compare how poets present growing up in 'Mother, any distance' and in one other poem (Cecil Day Lewi's Walking Away)... 27:14)
-> Cecil Day-Lewi's Walking Away (in comparison) 32:21
• outro 40:46
I watched your other 'poem video' yesterday for my upcoming English paper. This video couldn't have come at a better timing.
I will credit you when I (hopefully!) smash the paper 💅💅and not my absentee English teacher🤖
Thanks Rachel you really helped me a lot! xx
Love this! Keep this content coming 🥰
Sounds great!
Great video. I love that you gave practical examples of what to pick out and consider when analyzing a poem.
this is going to be so helpful for classes this year
Yess!! I really love your videos Rachel :D
Middle school is a long time ago for me, but I can't remember me having to do such in depth analysis of poems in my Dutch classes at 16. They were glad if we just finished reading a book!
As a side note, the PEEL method reminds me a lot of how scientific papers are structured: point - introduction, evidence - results, explain - conclusion, link - discussion (though the last two are usually mixed). Cool method!
I love this video because it's so calming to watch somone else analyze poetry, but also very helpful because my creative writing and intro to lit courses are kicking my ass right now. (Can you even call Gertrude Stein poetry??)
did my eng lit gcse this summer. I did many practice essays on walking away so this brings back memories.
I just really love your spirit. It makes me happy 🙂
I literally got an assignment today regarding analysing a poem~
TYSM QUEEN OMGGGGG IM SO GRATEFUL
This is such a fantastic video, thank you so much! Now I wanna go to my uni library and study some poetry while I wait for lectures to start!
i’m at uni for english lit and i felt clueless last year due to being online, so this felt stabilising and anchoring. thanks Rach!
Great video!
This will probably help me with my literature course
Enjoyed your reading and
poems that engaged me throughout. I, too, am a poet specializing in Japanese forms: haiku, tanka, haibun, kyoka, senryu. I hope you don’t mind me sharing a tanka and my haiku tribute poem to Matshuo Bashō’s frog with short but in depth commentary by the late AHA founder and poet Jane Reichhold who considered my haiku among her 10 favorite haiku of all time! What an honor.
Here’s the Bashō poem with Jane Reichhold’s insightful commentary:
Bashō’s frog
four hundred years
of ripples
At first the idea of picking only 10 of my favorite haiku seemed a rather daunting task. How could I review all the haiku I have read in my life and decide that there were only 10 that were outstanding? Then realized I was already getting a steady stream of excellent haiku day by day through the AHA
forum.
The puns and write-offs based on Basho's most famous haiku are so
numerous I would have said that nothing new could be said with this
method, but here Al Fogel proved me wrong. Perhaps part of my delight in this haiku lies in the fact that I agree with him. Here he is saying one thing
about realism-ripples are on a pond after a frog jumps in, but because it refers back to Basho and his famous haiku, he is also saying something about the haiku and authors who have followed him. We, and our work, are just ripples while Basho holds the honor of inventing the idea of the
sound of a frog leaping is the sound of water
As haiku spreads around the world, making ripples in more and larger ponds, its ripples are wider-including us all. But his last word reminds us that we are ripples and our lives ephemeral. It will be the frogs that will remain.
~~
And my tanka:
returning home
from a Jackson Pollock
exhibition
I smear my face with paint
and turn into art
~~
-All love in isolation
from Miami Beach,
Florida,
Al
I just love you & am glad you exist ☺️
That is all. Thank you for being you 💕
Oh man, I really want to post this in the school Discord for the college freshmen I'm TAing for in an honors lit class. This is such a good explanation!
thank you :) i will send this to my sister! she enjoyed a poetry book u recommend and that id got her!
I love it !! For sure want more. I'm a vet student but love poetry, unfortunately never got a chance to study literature or poetry in Uni. Thank you so much for this 🙏🏻
I got into two Universities, one for English and another for Business. I've been researching poetry for a while now and this really helped. Thank you! If possible please make a video on stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.
thank you dear, Im really looking forward to hear about your parents.
omg the way this came in the most perfect time i love your channel sm and I wish to take your opinion one day of my writing tysm for all this wonderful content
😃 whaaaat!? Live poetry analysis with you!!! I’m so sad I’m late
Now that I have time- I e come back to watch the whole video. This was so so helpful! I cannot wait to pick apart the next poem I read. I love all your content but the poetry ones are my favorite 🤩
This reminds me so much of the poem analysing exercises we did in my final year of highschool, here in Greece. I had such difficulty recognising even the central theme of the poem. I was so lost😂. I really admire people who can analyse a poem with such proficiency, wow!
This is so super helpful, I’ve recently gotten into poetry and I am just in love with it.
What do you think of “rhapsody on a windy night” Ts Elliot, I would love to see a break down of that poem or poems like that😊
Not studying literature but I am writing a scholarship entry that is a poem. I have never written a poem 😅. Hopefully this helps me see the thought process of other poets to improve my own work, thank you for the video!!! 💚
I like that the final stanza is longer, its like the measuring tape- extended over longer distance. Splitting it in 2 wouldn't have achieved the same effect
I'm in school right now but I can't wait to go home and watch this video!
Love this video! Would you consider doing a poetry analysis series? I've been trying to read poetry by sylvia plath and always look up analysis videos. Maybe it could be a monthly series?
i think the increasing emjambment throughout the first poem also reinforces the growing up theme. end-stopping feels more simplistic and childish, while the running lines suggest complexity, an interconnected worldview
I would love to see some of your AL essays. I'm about to start studying for my AL Lit exams soon and I feel like they would be very helpful 🙂 This video was great
Also, that shirt is awesome and you wear it well!
This is nice, watching to see if I remember stuff from my literature classes back in -05 and -07 (if I recall correctly). Dissecting poems can be kinda like doing cross-words sometimes, but of course way more rewarding.
One thing I'd note is that I think the freedom you talk about that you can find in more modern school assignments should also be supported by form and structure studies, even though those are somewhat stiffer. Metres and other formal things still constitute a toolbox for analysis (especially in classic literature), and you can't really guess yourself into it. I think that frames often can provide inspiration, not just smother it. Knowledge about structure and formalities might be what allows you to do these fleshed-out and more "free" analyses, so a little bit of everything could be suitable. Knowing the "rules" lets you know when a poet is being unorthodox for instance. I don't know if you'd agree. Might be that you'd say these formal things are sufficiently dealt with earlier in the courses. I don't know your curricula after all (I'm Swedish).
Anyway, thanks for stimulating my inner nerd a bit! You really know your stuff!
i just started year 11 with aqa english so this will be very helpful tysm
One more thing to point out about Simon armatages poem is that the last line leaves you with the image of a baby bird leaving the nest, ready to either fall or fly :)
Thank you for this. It's really helpful.
The line "I space-walk through the EMPTY bedrooms" made me think that the mother died.
Omg I wish you had posted this when I was in ap lit lol I struggled with analyzing poems so much
As a future English teacher, I love your videos that feature analyzing poetry and hope to use your videos to help teach my own students.
I've wanted to be a writer since I was young, but as I grew up I became more jaded and unbothered with things like "passions" 😂😂 But ever since I've found you, it's like I have an itch to go back and at least read/write something just remember how amazing it felt for us 😅🙈
Thank you for doing what you do, but mostly, Thank you for these videos of pure excitement and joy that perfectly display how exciting and curious I believe literature should be!
💕💕💕
I’m doing my equivalent of GCSEs this year (i think) and I’m currently off with covid so this is a nice way to still feel like I’m learning and not totally falling behind
Thanks so much for the video! I have preliminary examinations the day after tomorrow for Literature before I go for my A levels in November. This was a great refresher on what to expect plus your thought processes were super useful.
I'm also curious what's A level H2 Literature like in all your countries. I'm from Singapore, we can choose to pick 2 papers out of 3. My school does paper 1 and 3, we have 3 hours to write 3 separate essays for each paper.
I'm not even doing poetry studies I am just bad at understanding writing in general (idk if something's wrong with my reading comprehension or if I'm just dumb lmao) so this is gonna be a really helpful video thanks Rachel :)
Considering im in a completely different country, the poems and the way the questions formatted is completely different, but a how to guide for poem analysis is still pretty helpful☺
I swear I manifested this
Rachel could you do a video on your time at university? I'm starting next year
liking and commenting for engagement - I'll be back to watch this later
I wish I saw this when I was still in school lol
Where was this video when I was studying literature and poetry at school 5 years ago...
It is very interesting to me to compare the way you guys in the UK are examined about poetry versus us in Spain do, because it is so different, and I like your way better. In Spain, you got really technical with the poems, you had to take into account the syllables to describe the type of metric and rhyme and type of poem. Also, you memorized key elements of each author's style of writing and life. For example, I vividly remember our teachers explaining Lorca's poetry. He was a closeted young man who got shot for being gay, so his key themes were death and the dangerous secret of his homosexuality. Death was portrait in different references in his poems: the moon, a horse, water. If those were in the poem you were quizzed about and you didn't mention one, you lost score points. So like our question were so much more vague than yours (it was literally describe this poem) but they expected a concrete answer, also the same between each one of us, with no creative freedom at all. Plus, we never ended up talking about the actual topic of the poem (which the teachers themselves loved speculating about, believed their interpretation to be the only correct one), only their common patterns in writing. I love reading and writing poetry now, but I struggled to get back into it because these notions of strictness I was thought.
Also on an unrelated note, next time I hear someone using the term "helicopter parent" I'm going to say I want to be a kite parent, helping my child be free.
Okay im indian, preping to give 12th cbse boards (aka final year of highschool)
Due to the pandemic and other factors there's been a change in the formatting of question paper and we are getting an objective paper for term 1 instead of a subjective one- so we have to hone in a lot more of the details
Thanks for the steps outlined, it makes studying details easier especially bcs i cant write a long essay for the analysis lol
hi!!! I really like your analysis of poetry!!!! I am a student learning how to read poetry in a meaningful way and these were really helpful! If you wanted to and had the time, it would be cool to see you analyze the Doki Doki Literature Club poems?
You should check out my poetry collection, ‘Nicholas Leonard In A Stairwell’. It’s full of introspective poems about heartbreak, identity, vampires and gothic things as such.Looots to analyze in this one..too much
Is this a way of UA-cam telling me to stop slacking off and go study? 😆 Anyways, great video!
❤
Just in time for my final exams 😩 John Keats’ got nothing on me now
Rachel, Misha Collins (Castiel from Supernatural) is coming out with a poetry book. Not to be dramatic but I am dying for you to read it.
do you have a ten minute version? or chapters to this video
omg writing poetry is so much easier than analysing it, you managed to make something this complicated super simple and you still lost me. It will never stop being hilarious to me tho how much more time it takes to make an essay about a poem than making the actual poem, and how much more time is put into it. I guess with enough practice a writer gets good at understanding their world and mind and putting it into paper for others, but it's always going to be harder to understand someone else's mind. At least for me, I always hated analysing other people's writing, it feels like an invasion of their minds, and like putting words and thoughts in their name that maybe they never meant.
💙❤️💕
What is the name of this poem? I love it
I found it thanks
Watching this because I don’t know how to annotate reading selections
1963*
If I become an English teacher one day, I'll owe the success of my students to you 🥺
hm. would someone kindly recommend me some poems to read? don't know where to look ;(
Here are some book recommendations :) racheloates.uk/poetry-recommendations
@@RachelOates you're so lovely, thank you! learning to both love and appreciate poetry through your channel ❤️🥺