CSEC ENGLISH
Hello there! We are aware that this pandemic has seriously disrupted your schooling. Even the best online classes are not as helpful as learning in the classroom. But we all have to try our best to overcome the challenges that Covid has brought. If you are taking your CSEC exams in 2022, we encourage you to start preparing NOW! Read your English B texts. Check teacher’s corrections in your notebooks, and learn the correct spelling of words. Make a note of any new vocabulary, and try to use it in your writing. Keep a journal to help you get your thoughts together in order to put them down on paper. All those things will help get you ready for next year. Meanwhile, work through your
CSEC English page every Sunday. Read on now, and enjoy!
POETIC DEVICES
Poetic devices are not merely decorations on the poem, like silver balls on an iced cake! No! They actually carry the message of the poem. Last week we examined a SIMILE, and commented on its effectiveness. Today we take a look at a metaphor. A metaphor makes a comparison between two things, just as a simile does. The difference is that there is no AS or LIKE in a metaphor.
Example 1
A very simple example of a metaphor occurs in the last line of Wordsworth’s Sonnet Composed Upon Westminster Bridge. Looking at the city of London in the early morning, the speaker comments: ‘And all that mighty heart is lying still.’
Why would he call the city a ‘heart’? And why does he bother to mention that the heart is ‘still’?
Think about any city you know about: Georgetown, New York, Moscow, Capetown. Cities never stop working. They send supplies of every kind to every part of the country. They are vital centres of communication, government, travel, and so on. Your heart pumps life-giving blood through your arteries to each part of your body, and in the same way, the capital city is the life-centre of a country. The ‘heart’ metaphor communicates how important the city is for the country’s life, and how a city never ever rests..
As the speaker looks at the city, though, he is struck, paradoxically, by its stillness, its quietness. Cities are generally noisy places, and the speaker in the poem is well aware that later on in the day, London, too, would be noisy. But right now, in the ‘smokeless air’ of the early morning, the city is ‘silent’, ‘still’, and seemingly asleep. And that’s exactly what the speaker is thrilled by. Some people love the hustle and bustle of a city—the busy night-life and the constant activity. But not this speaker. He much prefers the peaceful countryside, so he celebrates this miraculous moment, before the busy day has started, when the city is utterly lovely—‘still’, ‘calm’, and ‘glittering’ in the morning sunlight.
Example 2
Birdshooting Season: Here’s a lovely metaphor in Olive Senior’s poem
In birdshooting season, the men Make marriages with their guns.
You will agree that the men are not literally getting married to their guns. They are still married to their women-folk. What, then, does this metaphor mean? It conveys the idea that during birdshooting season, the men are totally in love with their guns, and want to have their guns with them all the time—rather like young lovers.
But the metaphor does not ONLY tell us how infatuated the men are with their weapons. You see, we are a bit disturbed by the juxtaposition of the words ‘marriages’ and ‘guns’. Marriage is about love between a man and a woman who, in time, will have children and provide a loving home for them to grow up in. Marriage is all about love and new life.
The word ‘guns’, though, suggests the exact opposite: war and death. The reader of the poem is shocked to realize that the men are so very much in love with… with killing! That shock and horror that we feel is made possible by the metaphor ‘making marriages’. You can see how very effective that metaphor is in manipulating our feelings and making us agree with the little girls as they whisper, ‘Fly, birds1 Fly!’
WRITING IN PARAGRAPHS
Take another look at the earlier paragraph that begins: ‘As the speaker looks at the city…’ That topic sentence introduces the idea that the speaker in the poem is ‘struck’ by the city’s quietness. Each sentence that follows picks up on the idea of noise/quietness, stillness/activity. The final sentence sums up the idea by quoting words from the poem that establish the idea of stillness, calm and beauty.
You need to aim for that kind of unity of idea in your writing.
For You to Do
Write a paragraph of around 80 words with the topic sentence: Miss Ashton was clearly in a bad mood. Each sentence that you add to that topic sentence give us a bit of information about that bad mood (Did she slam the door? Did she glare at her colleagues/the students? Did she fling her bag into the seat/desk? Did she yell, or was she silent?). Then you can sum up the whole paragraph in a final sentence that perhaps gives the speaker’s reaction to the Miss Ashton’s behaviour.
ADVANCE/ADVANCED
What is the difference between these two words?
Look at these sentences:
1. The carpenter was given a substantial advance payment to purchase building material.
2. The meteorological centre is now equipped to give advance notice of hurricane activity in the region.
Do you see that in both of these sentences “advance” means “ahead of the event/ahead of time”?
Now look at these sentences:
3. My brother is taking an advanced course in computer programming.
4. That book is a little too advanced for my little sister: she has only just started to read.
Do you see that in sentences 3 and 4, the word “advanced” means “at a high/challenging level”?
BUILDING YOUR VOCABULARY
Here are ten comments, and here, too, are ten verbs describing different facial expressions or moods. Verbs: smirk, yawn, frown, sneer, wince, beam, pout, glower, scowl, grin.
Match the most suitable verb to each comment. (Always remember to use interesting verbs when inserting dialogue into your short stories.)
1. ‘I have wonderful news for you,’ ……the headmaster. ‘You have all gained Grade 1 in the exam!’
2. ‘I’ll get even with you when I get out of jail,’ ……the prisoner as he passed the policeman who had brought him to justice.
3. ‘We’ll have a great time at camp,’ ……the mischievous lad. ‘I brought my water pistol with me!’
4. It’s not fair! You’re always picking on me!’ ……….Melanie. ‘Why can’t Gem do the dishes for once?”
5. ‘That sneaky cheat! I’ll beat him up after school for telling Mr Singh that I stole the money. I’ll make him sorry!’ ……….the boy as he walked back to the classroom.
6. ‘I got all the answers right in the quiz,’ …….Julian, ‘and made all those other kids look stupid!’
From 1B
7. ‘Oh sure! You’ll win the beauty competition,’………..Fazia, ‘as long as no one notices your legs! Not to mention your flat chest and skinny hips!’ 8. Nina ………. As she replied to the woman’s probing questions. ‘Yes, I did see my father beat my mother many times. It made me cry a lot.’
9. ‘I think I’d better go and have some rest now,’ ……the professor. ‘Three o’clock will be here before we know it.’
10. ‘You were very careless to leave your bag on the bus like that,’ ……Dad. ‘There will be no pocket money for you for the next three weeks!’
TALKING ABOUT APOSTROPHES
Put apostrophes in the places they are needed in these sentences:
1. My aunts are coming in a months time.
2. The childrens friend can play here to his hearts content.
3. Nobody wants to read yesterdays news in todays newspaper.
4. We live just a stones throw away from Alicias house.
5. Back in the 50s and 60s we had to warn parents to keep medicines out of harms way, but now we have tamper-proof medicine bottles, so there is less danger of children being hurt.
6. The opinion of many scientists is that the earths surface is getting hotter and that the suns rays are penetrating the ozone layer as never before. 7. I can hear the ladies voices but not the mens.
8. Carol goes to a girls school not far from the famous dentists surgery.
9. I suggest you keep that young man and his gifts at arms length.
10. Small boys sometimes fly kites near these high wires.
11. Theres plenty of time to do that, isnt there?
12. Now that you have finished the frame of the kite, its time to work on its tail.