SPM LITERATURE

A POISON TREE

by William Blake

Themes

·                  Anger, revenge and deadth

·                  Insincerity and deceit

·                  The danger of holding back one's feeling

·                  Bad feelings like anger among friends and rivals

·                  Keeping anger and its destructive consequences bottled up

Moral Values / Lessons

·                   We should not allow anger to control our life

·                  We should express our feelings in a healthy way not bottle them up

·                  We should make peace with everyone,friend and foe

·                  We should be sincere even with our rivals

Literary Devices

·                  Imagery - Stanza 2 gives a good image of a tree being well taken care of

·                  Symbol - The tree is asymbol of life and anger seems to have been given life to grow

·                  Personification - 'the night has veiled the pole' means night has been personified as a person putting veil or cover on the pole or light

·                  Diction - 'my wrath did grow' , 'my foe beheld it shine' , 'into my garden stole' 

·                  Metaphor - The tree of anger like an apple tree stars bearing fruit

·                  Irony - it is ironical that anger is a tree  albeit a poison tree; that is, a negative thing growing into something positive

·                  Simile - 'sunned it with smiles and with soft deceitful wiles ' means the smiles and wiles are like the sunlight

·                  Repetition - The word 'wrath' is repeated in stanza 1  for emphasis that anger is poisonous

SPM LITERATURE

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO LULU?

by Charles Causley

Setting

Place

·                  Probably in England as the word "money-box" is a typical British word.

·                  Lulu's room

·                  The fireplace

Time

·                  In the past

Themes

1. The end of childhood and the loss of innocence

·                  Lulu is probably a young teenager. 

·                  She ran away based on the note that her mother crumpled.

·                  She took her savings "money-box" to start a new life with a man who drove her off in a "engine roar".

·                  She left her childhood behind.

2. Parent-child relationship

·                  The mother and Lulu relationship could have been a tense and strained one.

·                  Lulu is a rebellious teenager.

·                  She dislikes her mother's restrictions on her freedom and emerging interest in the opposite sex.

·                  She keeps secrets from her mother.

·                  The mother and narrator relationship is less dramatic.

·                  The narrator is obedient and respectful to the mother.

·                  The narrator loves the mother very much and observe her pain and distress.

3. Grief and love

·                  The mother is grieving over the loss of her child, Lulu.

·                  The mother clearly loves Lulu.

·                  The narrator loves the sister as she called her by pet name "Lu".

·                  The narrator is worried about the sudden disappearance of the elder sister.

DEAR MR KILMER

SYNOPSIS

      The Knight family, which consists of Mr. Knight and his three children –Gus, Angie and Richard, is a farming family living in a small district in Turtle Lake, Iowa, USA in 1917.

        The novel centred on Richard, a fifteen-year-old boy, who begins a correspondence with a poet, Joyce Kilmer, while Mr. Kilmer is serving the country during World War I.

        Richard is a budding poet himself but is unable to get the encouragement he needs from his family. Richard’s father is a good, hardworking farmer but he is very reserved and hardly shares his feelings with his children. Furthermore, Gus and Angie do not understand poetry and think that Richard is odd.

       One day, Mrs Hansen, Richard’s English teacher, reads a poem by Mr Kilmer in class. While the other boys feel that the poetry is boring and meant for ‘sissies’, Richard is inspired by the beauty of the poem, Mrs Hansen further explain that Mr Kilmer is a brave and patriotic man as he has volunteered to be a soldier to fight in the war. Richard’s admiration for the poet compels him to write a latter to Mr Kilmer and thus begins their correspondence.

          During the war, Richard takes solace in his friendship with Hannah and the letters from Mr Kilmer. Through his letters, Mr Kilmer encourages Richard to continue writing poems and not to keep this talent a secret. Richard finally manages to read his poem in class, gaining the admiration and respect of most of his fellow classmates.

         One day, Richard hears the dreadful news that Mr Kilmer has been killed in battle. In his grief, Richard writes a poem in Mr Kilmer’s memory. The Schermers, who have always been supportive of his talent, suggest that Richard send his poem to The Turtle Lake Weekly, a local newspaper, in the hope that it gets published. Later, the paper carries an obituary for Me Kilmer along with a special section with Richard’s poem.

         After reading the poem, Richard’s father is finally able to open up and share his sadness of having lost his brother, Roland, in the war several years ago. The poem enables father and son to have a closer bond.

TIME SETTING

** The story is set during World War 1.The story begins in February 1917 and ends in November 1918

DEAR MR. KILMER

MAIN  CHARACTER

RICHARD KNIGHT

         He is a fifteen-year-old boy and the youngest in the family. He is tall, pale and slender with blond hair. Her mother died when he was seven. He takes after his mother’s looks. He has a distant relationship with his father. He loves nature and  doing farm work. He also loves poetry and begins writing to a poet who is serving in the war. The poet’s name is Joyce Kilmer who dies in a battle. Richard admires  the poet and wants to become like him.

SPM NOVEL 2016

DEAR MR. KILMER

By: Anne Schraff

            Germans are starting up submarine warfare. Richard and Gus want hunting at noon. Richard is scared to kill a animal because he never went hunting before.
United States had declared war on Germany.
Blanche's Uncle Steve is in the army, and he is liable to be fighting the Germans soon. Richard wrote a letter to famous person named Mr.Kilmer about what he should do with his poetry and about how he is feeling right now.
Someone vandalized the tavern owned by Hannah Schermers just because they came from Germany. Richard gained two bullies for signing a card going to the Schemers. Richard got a letter from someone in New York he wonders who it came from.
          The letter that came back was from Mr.Kilmer. The letter said that Richard it is time to come over your fear and tell everybody you write poetry. Hannah's brother joined the American Expeditionary force cause its the write thing to do even know he might have to kill his on cousins. On the last day of school he finally reads his poetry in front of the class. Working at the farm with his Pa that summer helped them get closer. Richard and Mr.Kilmer exchanged a handful of letters during the summer. Mr.Kilmer left to go to Europe for the war. The school is putting on a patriotic program to help finance the war. There was two main people for the play, but in order to get the parts you had to write poetry. Richard got the main part for dough boy and Hannah got the main part for lady liberty.
Students and parents where mad when Hannah got the part for lady liberty because she was from Germany. Hannah decided to decline the role for lady liberty. Richard decided not to do the play either. 
Richard talks to his dad about why he turned down his part in the play. He got a letter back from Mr. Kilmer from the war. In April, they forced the British to retreat.
           Gus (Richard's brother) joined the army after his graduation. Pa and Gus get into an argument about the war. Hannah tells Richard that Mr.Kilmer has been killed in the war. Richard reads in the newspaper how he died. Mr.Schermers wants Richard's poems to be in the newspapers. The Americans win the war against Britain.

BRAINSTORMING - SELF ESTEEM