- Poem
- Touchdown, Year 6
- Issue 5, 2020
Gargoyles
Learning resource
Outcomes
Worksheet: Create a spine-tingling poem
Understanding
Illustrate the comparative language devices (simile and metaphor). To do this complete the following tasks:
- Identify ONE Simile and ONE metaphor in the poem
- Create an illustration or visual representation of the two examples discovered.
Suggested ideas include:
Simile – ‘coils like a serpent’ – Students can draw/write the word gargoyle in a spiral shape.
Metaphor – ‘erase the sky’ – students can draw bat wings covering the sky
Investigate the use and effect of enjambment in the last three lines of the poem. Begin by giving students a definition of enjambment from litchart. Assign 19 students with one line each from the poem – including the Title. Ask students to stand across the front of the room in a line, in correct order (outside on a basketball court would allow for more space). The students read their line one by one until the poem has been read in full.
Discuss:
- Was there always a full stop, comma or hyphen before a new person had to read their line?
- How many times did a different person read the end of a sentence started by some one else?
- Which examples of enjambment (run on lines) are the ones that stand out the most? (the answer should be the last three lines)
- Why do you think the last three lines are presented this way? A suggested answer is that it reflects the meaning of ‘descend into dreams’ – that the words are descending like the gargoyles are descending.
Engaging Critically
Analyse the image. Observe the photograph. Students use the three steps from the J. Paul Getty Museum website to describe, reflect on and analyse the image.
Some sample answers provided in the following table:
| Describe | There is a Gargoyle perched high above a city. The gargoyle is seen from the side at eye level. The gargoyle is to the right hand side of the image and the view over the city is taking up most of the left hand side. There are clouds in the sky. The sky takes up a lot of the image. |
| Reflect | The city is Paris and the gargoyle is looking over the city. We know that gargoyles are used as waterspouts to send water away from the building but the gargoyle looks frightening and intimidating. It is a very impressive view of the city of Paris. |
| Formal analysis | The salient image is the gargoyle itself – as it is in the foreground and is darker in colour than the rest of the image. The clouds create a mood or tension or gloom. The way the mouth of the gargoyle is open and positioned down towards the city makes it seem like it is watching, hungrily. The gargoyle is made to seem threatening. |
Discuss the features of the image and the analysis that students have come up with in their analysis:. Use the questions below:
- Was the stormy sky appropriate for an image of a gargoyle?
- Describe the mood and atmosphere created by this image
- What is the salient image? (What stands out the most?)
- Do you think that the image is a suitable choice for this poem?
Engaging Personally
Play the word connotation game. Use masking tape or chalk to draw a line down the centre of the classroom (or you could do this outside in the playground). One side of the tape is ‘positive’ and the other side is ‘negative.’ Call out words from the list below and students should decide if it is a word with a positive or a negative connotation.
- Light
- Dark
- Yellow
- Grey
- Bossy
- Determined
- Youthful
- Childish
Identify and explain word choices and connotations in the poem. Look at the poem again, students are to select up to 4 words that they believe have been selected due to the associated feelings, images or ideas that relate. They should then explain their chosen words and describe the feeling or image that these words create for the reader.
Suggested answers: ‘cold’ eyes; serpent; dark flock; midnight; descend. These words have sinister connotations. Darkness, snakes and midnight are often related to feelings of fear.
Choose one of the words from those chosen in the previous activity. Students write out the sentence or line it is from in the poem. Then they substitute the word for something else to create a different feeling or image. For example, ‘the blink of cold eyes’ could be changed to ‘the blink of bright eyes.’
Experimenting
Write a poem using the line from the word connotation substitution activity in the Engaging Critically section of this learning resource. The line can be used anywhere in the poem. For example ‘the blink of bright eyes’ could become the first line of a poem about a pegasus or other less sinister mythical creature.
Design your own gargoyle: All students must draw a design of their gargoyle, then bring this drawing into a 3D form using play dough or plasticine, In order to prepare for this task students should visit the State Library of NSW website to see some different gargoyle images.