Transcript Poems That Paint a Picture

Poems That Paint a Picture
Copyright Sandy Fussell 2010-11
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Poet of the
day
Dorothea
Mackellar
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Dorothea the poet
Born 1 July 1885, over a hundred
years ago in Sydney
 Her real name was Isobel Marion
Dorothea Mackellar
 Her family were very wealthy and owned a
number of country properties
 Most famous poem is My Country
 She wrote My Country when she was 19 living in
London and homesick for Australia

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My Country

INSERT MY
COUNTRY POEM HERE
Performed in Sydney at the 2010 Australia Day Concert (start 5.42)
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Individual Activity
Poems can paint pictures – draw a picture based on
Dorothea’s poem Open Sea
The Open Sea
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2
From my window I can see,
Where the sandhills dip,
One far glimpse of open sea.
Just a slender slip
Curving like a crescent moon Yet a greater prize
Than the harbour garden-fair
Spread beneath my eyes.
Just below me swings the bay,
Sings a sunny tune,
But my heart is far away
Out beyond the dune;
Clearer far the sea-gulls’ cry
And the breakers’ roar,
Than the little waves beneath
Lapping on the shore.
(Excerpt Stanzas 1,2,4,6)
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6
All its changes who can tell?
I have seen it shine
Like a jewel polished well,
Hard and clear and fine;
Then soft lilac—and again
On another day
Glimpsed it through a veil of rain,
Shifting, drifting grey.
Far and far I look—Ten miles?
No, for yesterday
Sure I saw the Blessed Isles
Twenty worlds away.
My blue moon of open sea,
Is it little worth?
At the least it gives to me
Keys of all the earth
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Open Sea by Dorothea Mackellar
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Imagery
Language that
appeals to the
senses  Describes
touch, taste, see
hear, feel

Examples:
A stark white ring-barked forest
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes
She pays us back threefold
• adjectives
• similes
• metaphors
• personification
Curving like a crescent moon
Like a jewel polished well
My blue moon of open sea
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Similes
•A comparison of two things
•One thing is like another
• Use ‘like’ and ‘as’
A Red, Red Rose
A Red, Red Nose (parody)
By Robert Burns
By Sandy
1 O My Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June;
O My Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.
My nose is like a red, red rose,
I blow it all through June;
My nose is like a brass trumpet
Playing out of tune.
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Group Activity
Showing Off (a similie list poem)
I’m great.
As fast as _______________________________
As smart as _____________________________
As clever as ____________________________
As cool as ______________________________
As strong as ___________________________
As brilliant as _________________________
I’m great.
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Metaphor
•A comparison of two things
•One thing is not like the other
FOG
by: Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbour and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
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Group Activity
Making a metaphor
3 steps to a metaphor
1 The ocean is blue.
2 The sky is blue.
3 The ocean is a sapphire sky.
1 The sun is hot.
2 The ______________ is hot.
3 The sun is a _________________ _________________________.
1 The car is ___________________________
2 The ___________________ is ___________________
3 The car is a _________________ _________________________.
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Group Activity
Showing Off – metaphor list poem
I’m great. I am a
_________________________________ (fast)
_______________________________ (smart)
______________________________ (clever)
________________________________ (cool)
_______________________________ (string)
_____________________________ (brilliant)
I’m great.
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Personification
•An animal given human
characteristics
•An object given life-like qualities
The Cat & The Fiddle
Hey diddle, diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
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Individual Activity
In My Bedroom
The television talks to itself,
The bed stretches and yawns,
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________.
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Individual Activity
Make a Simile Metaphor Chatterbox
1.
2.
3.
Make the chatterbox
Put a number on each of the flaps
Write a similie under the look up flaps –
make some good and some awful – but
not too insulting!!
You look like ….. A movie star, Hannah
Montana
You smell like ….. A rose, A wheelie bin
You sing like …. A bird, A car horn
You dance like … A swan, A duck
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Copyright
© Sandy Fussell 2011
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