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    Seal (Poem WS)

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    Mia Wang
    The poem describes a baby seal alone in the rough ocean, heaving and boiling into milk. The second stanza depicts the baby seal as a hungry "child" with wild, wide eyes like "a famine child" that has lost its mother. The seal is characterized as a "famine child" that has been left alone in the sea without its mother to feed it.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Seal (Poem WS)

    Uploaded by

    Mia Wang
    91 views14 pages
    The poem describes a baby seal alone in the rough ocean, heaving and boiling into milk. The second stanza depicts the baby seal as a hungry "child" with wild, wide eyes like "a famine child" that has lost its mother. The seal is characterized as a "famine child" that has been left alone in the sea without its mother to feed it.

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    Seal(poem ws)

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    The poem describes a baby seal alone in the rough ocean, heaving and boiling into milk. The second stanza depicts the baby seal as a hungry "child" with wild, wide eyes like "a famine child" that has lost its mother. The seal is characterized as a "famine child" that has been left alone in the sea without its mother to feed it.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    91 views14 pages

    Seal (Poem WS)

    Uploaded by

    Mia Wang
    The poem describes a baby seal alone in the rough ocean, heaving and boiling into milk. The second stanza depicts the baby seal as a hungry "child" with wild, wide eyes like "a famine child" that has lost its mother. The seal is characterized as a "famine child" that has been left alone in the sea without its mother to feed it.

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    You are on page 1of 14

    Seal

    TED HUGHES
    Vocabulary
    1. heave (v) – breathe nosily, e.g. heave a sigh;
    rise and fall heavily
    2. jag / jagged (adj) – uneven with sharp points
    3. reef (n) – a line of rocks just above the sea
    surface
    4. famine (n) – a serious shortage of food; violent
    hunger
    Pre-reading Task
    1. How does the seal look in the sea? Why is it
    alone?
    Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
     He was an English poet
    who published many
    collections of poetry.
     He is often viewed as a
    nature poet, and became
    Poet Laureate (a position
    given by the queen) in
    1984.
    Content / Themes
    1. In the first stanza, is the ocean calm or rough?
    Quote two examples.
     The ocean is rough.
     For examples, ‘heaved a breast of silk’ and
    ‘boiled into milk’.
    Content / Themes
    2. In the second stanza, who is the ‘child’? How
    does it feel?
    • The baby seal is the child.
    • It feels hungry.

    3. In the last stanza, why is the seal ‘a famine


    child’?
    • It has lost its mother.
    Language / Techniques
    1. In lines 1-2, what technique is used? Explain
    the example.
    • Personification is used, e.g. the ocean heaved a
    breast of silk’.
    • It means that the ocean rises and falls (‘heaves’),
    making waves (‘breast’) of shiny water (‘silk’).
    Language / Technique

    1. What does ‘Boiled into milk’ (lines 3-4) refer


    to? What technique is it?
    • The boiling milk refers to the white waves
    splashing up the reef of rocks.
    • Metaphor is used.
    Breast & milk image

    1. Why is the breast and milk image used in the


    first stanza?

    • The breast and milk


    image emphasizes the baby
    seal’s hunger for its
    mother’s milk.
    ‘a famine child’
    1. In the second stanza, the
    poet says the seal’s eyes
    were ‘wild / And wide and
    dark / As a famine child’.
    What technique is used?
    Explain the example.
    • Simile is used.
    • It means that the baby seal is
    extremely hungry after it has
    lost its mother.
    2. What does this comparison
    say about how the poet is
    feeling about the seal?
    • He is feeling sympathetic
    about the seal.
    Sound technique
    1. The same vowel sound ‘i’ is repeated in the
    ‘wild’ and ‘wide’ eyes of the ‘child’. What
    technique is it? What does it emphasize?
    • Assonance is used.
    • It emphasizes that the baby seal is so hungry
    that its eyes grow ‘wild’ and ‘wide’.
    Mood / atmosphere
    1. Is the mood happy or sad in the poem, and
    why?
    • The mood is sad.
    • The baby is extremely hungry (‘famine child’)
    and alone because it has ‘lost its mother’.
    Post-reading Task
    1. Why do you think the baby seal has lost its
    mother in the sea? What would happen to it?
    Act 5

    •Why did Nerissa and Gratiano have


    an argument?
    •How did Antonio try to stop Portia
    and Bassanio from arguing?

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