DEATH OF A TEACHER

Question 1

stanza 1

Answer 1

-trees= personification, look like poker players
- pathetic fallacy
- poker face= mysterious, hard to understand, high risk= loss
- life cycle
- list -> movement/ change
-

Question 2

stanza 2

Answer 2

• daydreaming, hazy
• semantic feel of card games
• caesura
• simple sentence
• contrast from stanza 1 (relaxing nature imagery to stark fast death)

Question 3

stanza 3

Answer 3

• double entendre— news of death and hour of lesson
• last bell= double entendre
• list of 3= takes us down her memory
• certainty in “of course”
• relaxed calm slow atmosphere

Question 4

stanza 4

Answer 4

• 2nd person pronoun= personal, prayer like qualities
• Caesura= different ideas constructing in her mind
• swinging legs= relaxed, not stiff, at ease
• rule of 3= rhythm

Question 5

stanza 5

Answer 5

• contrast between her and her love for poetry and other girls in school and their boredom
• personification,, heart is symbol for love,, fast unexpected
• flicking between past and present (i saw the tree)

Question 6

stanza 6

Answer 6

• synaesthesia— overwhelming
• senses warped/contorted
• desk was changing into tree that it was before
• bird’s “song” was being written down on the sky.
• scribble= metaphor, childish, sibilance
• internal rhyme= adds to structure,, not bouncy
• new perspectives

Question 7

stanza 7

Answer 7

• enjambment= flowing/ continuous thoughts
• or later= spontaneous. ideas coming to her as she speaks
• dreamy/ relaxed state of mind
• cigarette= sensuous,mature, wisdom
• mix of physical and abstract
• colloquial language
• personification of cigarette smoke
• physically present and spiritually/emotionally present

Question 8

stanza 8

Answer 8

• enjambment= overflow= uncontrolled
• not just reading but KNOWING
• love
• remembered them
• list of three
• learning tongue= lack of pressure
• direct address= praying for teacher/ even magic
• l sound= romantic feel

Question 9

stanza 9

Answer 9

• caesura= hesitation
• from past to present
• acceptance and peace with death
• strong imagery
• cycle— back to trees. like life cycle (cyclical structure)
• extinguishing flame
• new chapter
• metaphor of trees
• hope
• independence= has to turn page herself
• opportunity

Question 10

structure

Answer 10

• short stanza = short sporadic images/ thoughts

- overwhelming

Question 11

THEMES

Answer 11

• nostalgia
• love
• reminiscing
• feeling of loss
• gratitude
• melancholy
• idolise
• admiration
• bittersweetness
• hope?