So...a few hours to your actual leaving cert orals (if you are unlucky enough to be born into a name at the start of the alphabet - I feel your pain, I was tempted to change my name to O' Dowd!). To make matters worse I have asked you to write a poetry essay on good old Willie W. I bet you are as enthusiastic as he is in the picture opposite. The question is: "In his poetry there is a vivid evocation of both the natural world and the mind of the poet" Do you agree or disagree with this view. Support your answer. It's actually a fairly straightforward question. Does Wordsworth discuss nature and mental health in his poetry? Yes. So what you should do next is draw up a plan, use at least FIVE poems to be on the safe side. See below for a simple plan to get you started - you should add to this before you begin your essay. Remember use topic sentences, how are your paragraphs answering the question. Refer to the question at all times and use very specific quotes, only discuss what is relevant to the question, cut the rest.
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Sylvia Plath reads her poem...it's a very distinct voice!This is Plath's poem about the importance of poetic inspiration. Her biggest fear is her loss of the "incandescent...celestial burning" that inspires her writing. She reckons life would be unbearable without it. The moments of inspiration that she is subjected to (ie: the momentary inspiration that shines from the rooks wet feathers) gives her life meaning and future direction. Even the most mundane scenarios can be illuminated in an instance, "bestowing largesse, honour, / One might say love." More than anything this poem demonstrates that for her, poetry was her life. Some points to note:
Okay, so your last ever term of school is just about to start. How does that make you feel? For some the end is in sight. For others its creeping up way to fast. One thing is for sure you have an exam to do in approximately nine weeks. So my advice to you is to keep your head down, stay on top of your work, and DO NOT procrastinate. Give yourself a task and a time limit and see it out to the end. For those of you who came into school over the Easter to do the 'post mock - pre leaving cert exam' I want to say well done. It is the type of practice you would never carry out at home on your own unless you are very disciplined. Those of you who weren't able to make it in, I am attaching the paper to this blog so you can download it yourself. I can imagine some of you would find this paper difficult. The reason I say this is because some of you think you can predict the exam so have disregarded all the good work you did last year. Just because Rich came up last year does not rule her out for this year. Do not fall into that trap. You will have studied FIVE poets, you need to know these FIVE in detail - not one or two and hope that they come up. Gambling is a dangerous game, especially when you are gambling your own future. Furthermore, don't take it for granted that THEME/ISSUE will come up on the exam. This is not always the case, so have TWO modes studied and with some key moments prepared for the exam. Do not sell yourself short. You have put in a lot of work so far this year but you need to give it one last big effort. You can do what you like in July, but for now concentrate on the weeks ahead and put in as much effort as you can. Also, don't copy other people, you know the areas you need to work on yourself. Now is the time to JUST DO IT!
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