James Honeyman

The story is told through ...

1. The poem is in the form of a Ballad
2. The rhyming scheme is A,B,C,B
3. The name Honeyman is a juxtaposition to the rest of the poem as the name is sweet yet he creates a poison that kills everyone
4. The poem has an omniscient narrator and is written objectively 
5. There are different voices within the poem and stanza's 35-40 are the voices of his family and stanza's 36-40 are a call and response between him and his wife.
6. This also means that the poem changes from the objective to subjective
7. The poem is in chronological order, linear - like a child's story (cautionary tale)
8.  The poem has lots of changes in settings

As I walked out one evening

The story is told through ....

1. The poem is in the form of a ballad, Quatrain
2. Has the rhyming scheme of A,B,C,B and is written in iambic tentrameter
3. The poem is written in the 1st person and is written subjectively
4. The narrator may be Auden
5. The repetition throughout the poem emphasis the narrators emotions eg "I love you" and "O"
6. Sibilance on line 15
7. Personification of the river.
8. Lines 6-7 are a juxtaposition as "under the arch of a railway bridge" is a traditional place where prostitutes meet their 'clients'
9. There is a change in tone in stanza 6 and the poem becomes more tragic.
10. Onomatopoeia in line 22 "whirr and chime"
11. The sounds of the word become more aggressive as the poem progresses, during the first part the words are soft eg "sing, love, flower" but in the second part the words become more sharp eg "plunge, crack, dead"
12. References to Fairy tales in stanza 12
13. References to religion eg "First love of the world" - Adam and Eve "land of the dead" - Heaven.  

Victor

The story is told through ...

1. The poem is written in the form of a ballad, written in Quatrain
2. It has a A,B,C,B rhyming scheme
3. The poem could be written like a cautionary tale
4. The poem is written in chronological order, liner.
5. Use of dates and months
6. Omniscient narrator
7. change in voices
8. Change in pace as the poem progresses
9. Biblical references - Jezebel (women who cheated on her husband and was fed to dogs) foreshadowing Anna's fate
10. Anna is introduced straight after Jezebel
11. There are multiple changes in settings throughout the poem.
12. Line 93 he refers to someone called "father" - which father? His dad or god?
13. Auden personifies the wind, river and tree's - They give Victor advice on killing Anna
14. Ace of Spades - represents bad fortune, foreshadows her fate
15. Alpha and Omega = first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, represent Jesus and God

1st September 1939

the story is told through ...

1. The poem is written in free verse and has an irregular rhythm's and rhyming pattern. This could be to represent how the countries during this time period were unstable.
2. The title is the date that Britain declared war on Germany
3. The poem is written from the point of view of Auden - dramatic monologue.
4. The poem is written subjectively.
5. Their are lots of references to dictators and America's ignorance of the war at the beginning (America did not join the war until 1942) eg "Into this neutral air"
6. Linz - Hitlers birth place.
7. Auden refers to many Historical figures - Thucydides (Greek historian), Nijinsky and Diaghilev who were Gay lovers and choreographer and dancer for a Ballet Rous.
8. Auden also makes a lot of jabs at Dictators and Hitler eg "a psychopathic god" and "to be loved alone"
9. Line 46 the word "cling" shows desperation.
10. Lots of enjambment throughout the poem.  
11. Use of collective voice, lines 71 - 72
12. rhyme of pain and again symbolises the pain of history repeating itself.
13. The poem is overall very negative

Musee des Beaux Arts

The story is told through ...

1. The poem is split into 3 stanza's. 
2. The 2nd stanza potentially highlights the entire poem. We would rather ignore trouble to satisfy an itch. 
3. The poem is set in an art gallery and the narrator is looking at the paintings. .
4. The poem was written in the 1940's. In 1940 the war was happening and suffering was being inflicted and people ignored it. 
5. The poem is written in the subjective - the narrator is very emotionally connected and opinionated on the subject. 
6. The voice of the poem, I believe, is W.H.Auden
7. There is no sense of time in the poem 
8. Enjambment between stanza's and sentences.
9. The rhyming pattern is irregular. 
10. Colloquial language used in stanza2
11. Based on the paintings by Breughel, who is referenced in the poem. EKPHRASTIC!!!!!!!!!
12. Written like an essay or an observation. 

Miss Gee

The story is told through ...

1. The form of the poem is written as a ballad 
2. The rhyming pattern is A,B,C,B which is a traditional rhyming pattern scheme, again could this be to symbolise how often this happens. 
3. The poem is written like a children's story or nursery rhyme.
4. The poem is written in 1st person 
5. The context of this story is about a women called Edith Gee, a religious spinster who gets cancer,dies and then is dissected for medical research. 
6. The narrator writes in a very objective way - they are very detached and show no emotions towards Miss Gee or the events that befall her. 
7. Their is a number of multiple voices in the play including Miss Gee, the doctor and his wife and Mr Rose. This helps create a number of views in the play. 
8. The poem is quite funny and has comedic lines throughout the poem (black humor)
9. The poem could have many themes, religion and science, death, loneliness and the general stereotype of spinsters - personally I think the theme is religion.
10. The religious references are a significant part of the poem for instance Miss Gee "knelt down on her knees" and later has her knees cut off, she sees the vicars face in her dreams and that the Vicar of Saint Aloysius asked her to dance. 
11. There are many sexual connotations throughout the play for instance "loving couples", " charging with lowered horn" and the word "bust." When she prays to god to make her a "good girl" is she acknowledging her lustful thoughts? 
12. The stanza's represent time passing and lines 38-39 emphasis this "Summer made the trees a picture, Winter made them a wreck." This could also show that everything has its time and everything dies eventually.
13. The repetition of "buttoned up to her neck" and the imagery of her cycling on her bike, helps the audience to create an image of her and understand her personality.   

O What Is That Sound

 The Poem is told through...

1. The form of ballad 
2. It is a conversation between two people (perhaps a couple)
3. The stanza is divided into a call and response except for the last stanza which is only the narrator because his partner left when the army came. 
4. The poem could have either a male or female dictation, however the narrator would be more likely to be male as the context of the poem points to a man trying to avoid conscription. 
5. The poem is written in 1st person. 
6. The poem is written in the subjective - The narrator fills the poem with lots of emotions and it is biased.
7. The poem uses a lot of repetition to evoke emotions, eg, the repetition of 'O' which is also used in the title creates a feeling of repression and sadness. The sound of the letter is also a very soft sound but is also quite despairing. 
8. The repetition in line 2 of the stanza's is there to emphasis the narrators despair and paranoia.
9. The poem has a rhyming pattern of A,B,A,B a traditional rhyming pattern - could this be to symbolise how often this mans story happens. 
10. As the poem progresses the tone changes and becomes more morbid and desperate.
11. The punctuation helps emphasis the emotions of the narrator.

The History Boys Website

Hi guys
   Don't know if anyone started thinking about their English coursework yet but I've found what i think to be quite a good website, so here is the link....

http://yr13practise.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/the-history-boys/