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Pictures in Words: Poems of Tennyson and Noyes
IntroductionJust as painters capture and manipulate
color and light, poets capture and manipulate words and sounds to create a vision
for their audiences. Striking examples of pictures in words—not just vivid images
but the entire mental picture conjured up by a poet—are to be found in "The
Charge of the Light Brigade," by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and "The
Highwayman," by Alfred Noyes. Both poems also tell compelling stories and
are easily comprehensible as well as appealing to the adolescent reader. Besides
guiding students in a close study of the text of these two poems, the activities
and handouts below provide an introduction to the terminology of figurative language.
A basic understanding of critical terms can help students to describe and analyze
the effects of poetry on readers. Specific activities include an Internet scavenger
hunt, discussion and analysis, an exercise involving the interpretation of poetry
through visual art, and an opportunity for students to create their own pictures
in words. Guiding Questions:How do
Tennyson and Noyes use words to paint vivid and memorable pictures?
How do
such "word pictures" emphasize or qualify the meanings of their poems? Learning
ObjectivesAfter completing these lessons, students
will be able to - Analyze, interpret, and understand two classic poems:
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and "The Highwayman"
by Alfred Noyes
- Identify examples of alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification,
metaphor, and simile in a poem
- Understand and discuss how line, stanza,
rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and other effects of form, phrasing, and sound
can enhance the mental picture created by the images in a poem
- Create
examples of alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, metaphor, and simile
Preparing to Teach this Lesson- Explore
the lesson, then print and duplicate all needed materials from this website. For
use in activity 1, please download the worksheet, Internet
Scavenger Hunt: Poetry, available here as a PDF file. For activity
4, you will need to download the PDF file, Painting
Pictures With Words.
- Obtain copies of the two poems. Both are widely
anthologized. Online copies of "The
Charge of the Light Brigade" are available from the EDSITEment resource, Victorian
Web, and the text of "The
Highwayman" may be found on the EDSITEment-reviewed Academy
of American Poets.
- Review authors and terminology addressed by the
lesson, if needed. Helpful online sources include the following:
- Familiarize yourself with
the paintings used in activity 4: Painting Pictures with Words.
All of these paintings are located on the Metropolitan
Museum of Art website. They include Head
of a Young Woman ("Contemplation"), by Jean Baptiste Greuze; Head
of a Woman, by Jean Baptiste Greuze; and The
Bell Inn, by George Morland. Students will be examining these paintings
in order to connect them to "The Highwayman."
- If you plan to do activity
1, you may want to give the scavenger hunt a trial run in advance to check
for broken links or information that may have been moved or deleted.
- For
more ideas on teaching the sounds of poetry, see the EDSITEment lesson plan Listening
to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet. Although designed for grades 9-12, many of
the activities—particularly those involving Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"—would
be appropriate for younger students as well.
Suggested
Activities
1. Poetry Scavenger
Hunt 2. Close Reading: "The
Charge of the Light Brigade" 3.
Close Reading: "The Highwayman" 4.
Painting Pictures With Words 1.
Poetry Scavenger Hunt Download and make
copies of the worksheet, Internet
Scavenger Hunt: Poetry. This preparatory exercise is a good team as well as
individual assignment. An effective motivator is to offer a prize or special privilege
to the team or student who is first to submit a complete and correct scavenger
hunt. As you discuss the results of this exercise with your students, and as you
read and discuss the poems in the activities below, help your students to understand
how the disparate poetic figures covered in the Scavenger Hunt (alliteration,
metaphor, personification, and so on) are not experienced in isolation as we read
but contribute to an integrated mental picture for the reader. 2.
Close Reading: "The Charge of the Light Brigade" As
an anticipatory question for reading Tennyson's poem, share the following journal
question with students and give them five to ten minutes to generate written responses:
What are some examples of times when people must obey an authority
figure, even though they may not want to? Allow students to volunteer
responses and discuss. Must military commanders enforce harsh discipline on their
soldiers? Is it important for a military outfit to work as a team? What are the
consequences if a commander is unable to keep his or her troops under control
during wartime? As you discuss these questions, share with students some basic
background information on the Crimean War (see Preparing
to Teach above for background information). In your discussion, you may wish
to include - The two "sides" mentioned in the poem (Russia and a group of
nations which included Great Britain)
- The story of the "Light Brigade"
(a mistake in command led to the attack of a Russian artillery post by a British
unit armed only with swords).
Have students read the poem aloud, then
read the poem to them or play a recording of the poem. Ask and discuss the answers
to the following questions: - Does a "line" in a poem have to be a complete
sentence? Is line four in "The Charge of the Light Brigade" a complete sentence?
What does this tell you about lines in poetry? How do you think a very short line
length would affect the reader's mental picture of the action in a poem? What
about a very long line length?
- What is a poetic stanza? When you look
at a poem, how does the way it is printed on the page help you to determine where
stanzas begin and end? How many stanzas do you count in "The Charge of the Light
Brigade"? What does each stanza do, in terms of telling the story? Is it fair
to say that each stanza contains a separate image? Why or why not?
- What
is onomatopoeia? Can you find an example of onomatopoeia in the fourth stanza?
What word or words create a sound effect? Say the word "flash'd" aloud, and think
about a saber, or sword, being pulled from its scabbard, or whistling through
the air. How does the word imitate the sound of a sword?
- What is alliteration?
Can you find an example of alliteration in the fourth stanza? What consonant sound
is repeated? How does the repetition of the "s" sound in "saber stroke," "shattered,"
and "sundered" emphasize the action that is taking place in the poem at this point?
Closing journal question: Allow 5-10 minutes for students to
respond, then discuss their responses: - Tennyson uses the same lines to
open both stanza three and stanza five:
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell Why do you think he repeated these
lines, particularly the word "cannon"? Silently tap out the rhythm of these words
on your desk with your fingers as you read them to yourself. What effect do you
feel he was trying to achieve? What message does he wish to pass to the reader?
(For more ideas on teaching sounds in poetry, please see the last bulleted item
in Preparing to Teach, above.)
3.
Close Reading: "The Highwayman" Before
they read "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes, give students five to ten minutes
to generate written responses to the following question Some call
death "the ultimate sacrifice." What are some examples of people who have died
to save others? What do you think were their reasons to give their lives? Allow
students to volunteer responses and discuss. Explain that this is a poem about
making a sacrifice. Tell students that in the eighteenth century, there were men
who would ride the roads at night in search of wealthy people to rob. These men
were called highwaymen. Have students read the poem aloud, then read the poem
to them or play a recording of the poem. Ask and discuss the answers to the following
questions: - What is a metaphor? Can you find three of them in the first
stanza? What is being compared in each one? How can wind be "a torrent of darkness?"
How can the moon be "a ghostly galleon?" How can a road be "a ribbon of moonlight?"
By using the words "torrent of darkness," "ghostly," and "moonlight," what kind
of mood do you think Noyes is setting up for his poem?
- What is personification?
Can you find the example of personification in stanza ten? What is being personified?
Why do the hours seem to "crawl" for Bess at this point in the story?
- What
is a simile? Can you find the simile in stanza thirteen? What two things are being
compared? How can a face be "like a light?" What would cause Bess's face to be
"like a light" as she stood listening to her love ride toward the inn?
Review
questions: - In stanza twelve, there is an example of onomatopoeia.
What is it? Why does Noyes make a sound effect rather than just tell us that the
horse was galloping down the road?
- In stanza three, there is an example
of alliteration. What is it? What is the repeated consonant sound? How do the
words "cobbles," "clattered," and "clashed" create a sound effect for the action
that is taking place in the stanza? Why do you think Noyes used "noisy words"
at this point in the poem?
Summary: - If you were an illustrator,
and could paint only one picture to represent this entire poem, what would your
painting depict, and why?
Demonstrate rhyme scheme in this way: Write
these words in a column on the chalkboard: - trees
- seas
- moor
- riding
- riding
- door
Ask students where they
have seen these words before. They will tell you that they are the last words
in each line of the first stanza. Write a capital letter A next to the word trees.
Ask the students what other words in the list rhyme with trees. Put a capital
letter A next to the word seas. Next, write a capital letter B next to
the word moor. Ask the students what other words in the list rhyme with
the word moor. Put a capital letter B next to the word door. Finally,
write a capital letter C next to the first riding on the list. The students
will tell you that it rhymes with the second riding, which will also get
a capital letter C. The list will end up looking like this: - trees A
- seas
A
- moor B
- riding C
- riding C
- door B
Explain
to the students that they have just identified the rhyme scheme of the first stanza.
Tell them that poets sometimes write the stanzas of their poems in a rhyming pattern.
Have students determine the rhyme scheme for stanza two. They will tell you that
in that stanza, as well, there is an AABCCB rhyme scheme. Ask students what effect
the repetition of sound has on the mental picture created by the poem. If desired,
have students determine the rhyme scheme for stanzas in “The Charge of the
Light Brigade.” How does rhyme scheme reinforce or otherwise affect the mental
picture created in these poems? Closing
journal question: Allow 5-10 minutes for students to respond, then discuss
their responses: - Do you think Bess made
a wise choice in sacrificing herself for her love? Why or why not?
4. Painting Pictures With Words Download
the PDF file, Painting Pictures
With Words. This may be an individual or group assignment. It is recommended
that the students complete the activity in a word processor, so that they may
move easily between the poem, the paintings, and the activity. They may need to
be shown how to cut and paste their chosen stanzas into the document. A follow-up
to this activity could entail students weaving their figurative language creations
into a poem of their own. Selected EDSITEment
WebsitesAcademy
of American Poets
[http://www.poets.org/]The
Metropolitan Museum of Art
[http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp]Silva
Rhetoricae: the Forest of Rhetoric
[http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm] Victorian
Web
[http://www.victorianweb.org/]
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