Breathe in: experience. Breathe out: poetry



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Resources needed: photocopies of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Two Lorries”, data projector/speaker, glossary sheets, Youtube link for U2’s ”Sunday Bloody Sunday”, Youtube link for Martin Luther King’s”I have a dream” speech, whiteboard maker, glossary sheets (from previous lesson), students will need individual access to a word processor.

Activities

Watch the Youtube clip of U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. Ask students if any of them can explain the historical events around which the song is based. Hand out the song lyrics.


Discussion Questions.

  • Question 1 - What are the recurring images in the song?

  • Question 2 – How does the musical composition/instrumentation of the song affect our perception of the lyrics?

  • Question 3 - Identify some of the more emotive/sentimental lyrics within the song.

  • Question 4 - Identify how the song uses language and repetition to make its point.

  • Question 5 – What are the key themes of the song? How is the writer appealing to us as an audience?

Hand out and read aloud Seamus Heaney’s “Two Lorries”.



Discussion Questions.

  • Question 1 - What are the recurring images in the poem?

  • Question 2 – How does the language used differ from “Sunday Bloody Sunday”? How is it alike? How does Heaney use language and structure to set the tone of his poem?

  • Question 3 - Identify some of the emotive/sentimental imagery within the poem.

  • Question 4 - When/where is the poem set? What is it about?

  • Question 5 – What are the key themes of the poem?



Debate.

Divide the class into two groups to debate the issue: “Should writers/creative

artists also be political activists?”. Group #1 must argue “Yes, writers have an

obligation to be political activists and try to improve the world ” … Group #2

must argue “No, writers should not also be political activists, and they have no

obligation to do so”. Conduct the debate.


As a class, discuss– “Who are some writers/creative people who have changed the

world in some way?”. Ask students to consider “what is the role of the poet/writer or artist in our society”? Should writers/artists try and “change the world”? Do they have that power?

Conclude the lesson by watching Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.

Discussion.


  • Is this merely a political speech or does the language used make it something else as well?

  • What poetic elements and devices can you identify in the speech?

  • How effective is this speech as a work of art? How does the speech seek to position and influence the audience and how persuasive is it in doing so?


Appendices for Section Three “Poetry and War”.

Activity One appendices.

POETRY – GLOSSARY



TERM

DEFINITION

ALLITERATION




ASSONANCE




BALLAD




COUPLET




ELEGY




ENJAMBEMENT




FEMININE RHYME




HYPERBOLE




IMAGERY




LIMERICK




LYRIC




MASCULINE RHYME




METAPHOR




NARRATIVE




ODE




ONOMATOPOEIA




PERSONIFICATION




RHYME




SIMILE




SONNET




STANZA




SYMBOL




Oliver’s Army

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwrrkt22Ag

Don't start me talking
I could talk all night
My mind goes sleepwalking
While I'm putting the world to right
Called careers information
Have you got yourself an occupation

CHORUS:
Oliver's army is here to stay


Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today

There was a checkpoint charlie


He didn't crack a smile
But it's no laughing party
When you've been on the murder mile
Only takes one itchy trigger
One more widow, one less white nigger

CHORUS


Hong Kong is up for grabs
London is full of arabs
We could be in palestine
Overrun by a chinese line
With the boys from the mersey and the thames and the tyne
But there's no danger
It's a professional career
Though it could be arranged
With just a word in Mr. Churchill's ear
If you're out of luck you're out of work
We could send you to Johannesburg

CHORUS


And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today Elvis Costello.

Charge of the Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league, 


Half a league onward, 
All in the valley of Death 
Rode the six hundred. 
`Forward, the Light Brigade! 
Charge for the guns!' he said: 
Into the valley of Death 
Rode the six hundred. 

`Forward, the Light Brigade!' 


Was there a man dismay'd? 
Not tho' the soldier knew 
one had blunder'd: 
Their's not to make reply, 
Their's not to reason why, 
Their's but to do and die: 
Into the valley of Death 
Rode the six hundred. 

Cannon to right of them, 


Cannon to left of them
Cannon in front of them 
Volley'd and thunder'd; 
Storm'd at with shot and shell, 
Boldly they rode and well, 
Into the jaws of Death, 
Into the mouth of Hell 
Rode the six hundred. 

Flash'd all their sabres bare, 


Flash'd as they turn'd in air 
Sabring the gunners there, 
Charging an army, while 
All the world wonder'd: 
Plunged in the battery-smoke 
Right thro' the line they broke; 
Cossack and Russian 
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Activity Two appendices.

Buddy can you spare me a dime?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I8-CbJYGMA&feature=related

Once I built a railroad, made it run,

Made it race against time;

Once I build a railroad -- now it's done.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Once I built a tower to the sun,

Brick and rivet and lime;

Once I build a tower -- now it's done.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Bridge:

Once, in khaki suits, gee, we looked swell,



Full of that Yankee Doodle de-dum;

Half a million boots went sloggin' through Hell --

I was the kid with the drum.

Say, don't you remember, they called me Al?

It was Al all the time.

Say, don't you remember? I'm your pal.

Buddy can you spare a dime?

Words & Music by E.Y. Harburg & Jay Gorney

Recorded by Bing Crosby, 1932

 

Anthem For Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

--Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

 

What candles may be held to speed them all?



Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

 

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)



Activity Three Appendices.

I Was Only 19

Mum, Dad and Denny


were some amongst many
who turned up to see the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
Seemed every man and his mongrel
watched cadets stumble
on the long march to the Viet jungle.
'Oh Christ', I mumbled as I drew that card
and my mates came to slap me on the back with due regard
We were the sixth battalion and the next to tour
we did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left, rest assured

Seemed half of Townsville turned out to see us leave


and they lined the footpaths as we marched to the quay
The papers wrote it up like you would not believe
but we were looking to the future for a fast reprieve
The newspaper clippings show us young
strong and clean rockin' slouch hats
slung SLRs and greens

Lyrics www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/the_herd/
God help me, I was only nineteen

From Vung Tau the black helicopters


the chinhook pilots seemed relieved at Nui Dat when they dropped us
Feels like months running on and off landing pads
letters to Dad
'cause it's like, man, he's sad
But he can't see the tents that we call home
cans of VB and pin-ups on the lockers of chicks off TV
The noise, the mosquitoes and the heat surprising
like the first time you see an agent orange horizon

So please can you tell me doctor why I still can't get to sleep


the scar's left in me?
Night time's just a jungle
dark and a barking M16 that keeps saying
'rest in peace'
And what the hell's this rash that comes and goes
I don't suppose you can tell me what that means?

God help me, I was only nineteen

Sent off on a four-week long operation
where every single step could be your last one
My two legs were sorta living hell
falling with the shells, war within yourself
But you wouldn't let your mates down
'til they had you dusted off
so you closed your eyes and thought of something else

Then someone yelled 'contact!'


another bloke swore
we hooked in there for hours then a god almighty roar
Then Frankie kicked a mine
the day that mankind kicked the moon

God help me, he was going home in June

And I can still see Frank with a can in his hand
thirty-six hour leave in the bar at the Grand
I can still hear Frank
a screaming mess
of bleeding flesh
couldn't retrieve his legs

The ANZAC legend


neglected to mention
the mud
the fear
the blood
the tears
the tension
Dad's recollection
beyond comprehension
didn't seem quite real until we were sent in
The chaos and confusion
the fire and steel
hot shrapnel in my back
I didn't even feel

God help me, I was only nineteen

So please can you tell me doctor
why I can't get to sleep
I can't hardly eat?
And the sound of the Channel Seven chopper still chills me to my feet
still fuels my grief?
And what's this rash that comes and goes like the dreams
can you tell me what that means?

God help me, I was only nineteen

Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
It was a long march from Cadets
The sixth battalion was the next to tour
It was me who drew the card
we did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left

So please can you tell me doctor


why I can't get to sleep
I can't hardly eat?
And the sound of the Channel Seven chopper still chills me to my feet
still fuels my grief?
And what's this rash that comes and goes like the dreams
can you tell me what that means?

God help me, I was only nineteen.



. (John Schumann, as performed by Hip Hop band ‘The Herd’).

Weapons Training.

And when I say eyes right I want to hear


those eyeballs click and the gentle pitter-patter
of falling dandruff you there what's the matter
why are you looking at me are you a queer?
look to your front if you had one more brain
it'd be lonely what are you laughing at
you in the back row with the unsightly fat
between your elephant ears open that drain
you call a mind and listen remember first
the cockpit drill when you go down be sure
the old crown-jewels are safely tucked away what could be more
distressing than to hold off with a burst
from your trusty weapon a mob of the little yellows
only to find back home because of your position
your chances of turning the key in the ignition
considerably reduced? allright now suppose
for the sake of argument you've got
a number-one blockage and a brand-new pack
of Charlies are coming at you you can smell their rotten
fish-sauce breath hot on the back
of your stupid neck allright now what
are you going to do about it? that's right grab and check
the magazine man it's not a woman's tit
worse luck or you'd be set too late you nit
they're on you and your tripes are round your neck
you've copped the bloody lot just like I said
and you know what you are? You're dead, dead, dead

Bruce Dawe 1930 -

Activity Four appendices.

The Beastie Boys – In a World Gone Mad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3szSKD3meg

[CHORUS]
In a world gone mad it's hard to think right
So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

Mirrors, smokescreens and lies


It's not the politicians but their actions I despise
You and Saddam should kick it like back in the day
With the cocaine and Courvoisier
But you build more bombs as you get more bold
As your mid-life crisis war unfolds
All you want to do is take control
Now put that axis of evil bullshit on hold
Citizen rule number 2080
Politicians are shady
So people watch your back 'cause I think they smoke crack
I don't doubt it look at how they act

[CHORUS]
In a world gone mad it's hard to think right


So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

First the 'War On Terror' now war on Iraq


We're reaching a point where we can't turn back
Let's lose the guns and let's lose the bombs
And stop the corporate contributions that their built upon
Well I'll be sleeping on your speeches 'til I start to snore
'Cause I won't carry guns for an oil war
As-Salamu alaikum, wa alaikum assalam
Peace to the Middle East peace to Islam
Now don't get us wrong 'cause we love America
But that's no reason to get hysterica
They're layin' on the syrup thick
We ain't waffles we ain't havin' it

[CHORUS]
In a world gone mad it's hard to think right


So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

Now how many people must get killed?


For oil families pockets to get filled?
How many oil families get killed?
Not a damn one so what's the deal?

It's time to lead the way and de-escalate


Lose the weapons of mass destruction and the hate
Say ooh ah what's the White House doin'?
Oh no! Say, what they got brewing?!
Well I'm not pro Bush and I'm not pro Saddam
We need these fools to remain calm
George Bush you're looking like Zoo Lander
Trying to play tough for the camera
What am I on crazy pills? We've got to stop it
Get your hand out my grandma's pocket
We need health care more than going to war
You think it's democracy they're fighting for?

[CHORUS]
In a world gone mad it's hard to think right


So much violence hate and spite
Murder going on all day and night
Due time we fight the non-violent fight

Post Cards from Hajj Omran 

Macedonians on the lost trail,

Russian cavalry dragging mules,

Shepherds of sly goats on the march,

carrying guns and fresh cheese,

Did Abdel Salam Barazani flare it up Like one strikes a match?

Rawandouz leaves but a sigh, like walnut stains on the palms of your hand,

Which trees questioned for the Naqashbandites the pole star?

Came:Macedonians,

Alexander the grate's ideal stature,

Russians, Kurdish rebels, the British,

Social classes from all over the world,

the Shah,

artillerymen and rocket experts,

a general from overseas,

came: a woman looking for her sons...

(in this lost corner of the world ships turned in to stone, and the " Nationalist council for Hatred"

reigns over an orchard Of stone and gun-powder.

Flares beyond the river.

Roses from Bukhara. Rosary beads from Qom. An Armenian face. Quiet are the waves of van. Into the silence, the bell tints. Syria's, Yazidis. Turkmen violence. Assyrian peasants. Delicious is the village wine- The partisans are in the cave and BobDinar in the Mirage 2000)

Country born

between river and river

Country torn

between sword and sword

You barely drew a map of light, that were dimmed the lights on Summer's minaret and al Raha walls...

Which white-dark Hellenic woman built a winepress and a pottery? built cities from Hajj Omran to the sea?

(when Alexander the Great, died there were, in Mesopotamia alone, three hundred towns and cities bearing his name)

Country born

between river and river

Country tom

between sword and sword,

Bitter country with imbecile rulers

The children of Nisibis grazed your fresh grass. And the chaldean rose slept in her forgotten mass ...

Do woman still carry it in their wombs?

Hark, rose by river and sea watered:

Once, we meant to make History. but, stood waiting ... so the mom passed,

and History passed Byzantines passed and Daylams.

Constantinople or Mecca. Al-Hallaj and Al-Hajaj.

Who will ever awaken the rose of Memory in these salty marches?

Would we still drink from I shtar's jar wine that once flowed from the eyes of Gilgamesh's?

Ah!

Country born



between river and river

Country torn

between sword and sword,

Whenever you conjure your ancestors, beat the Barbarian drums...

Nationalists enjoying the affluence of torture, devouring the tens of thousands they have killed

(the communists were blind-folded, stacked like corpses, yet hymns rose in crescendo as the execution squads woke UP in the ailing dawn)

Blood in Babylonia, what is the difference between the squads of years and the squads of death?

would that my arm be a tree-root, I'd unleash my Winged Bulls, and with the magic of my Gods

and children, stop the invaders at Uruk's gates...

But,


Country born

between river and river

Country torn

between sword and sword,

Country between Hajj Omran and Basrah,

between Revolution and Death,

the time-bomb was mightier than you, mightier than your contented water clocks. And you

surrendered to the Primitive Bedouins who came from the peripheries, from those villages thrown

in capital letters on the military maps of this cruel world. The Metropoles across Marum

Bizantum had synchronised their time. And the Barbarian hordes swarmed upon you from their

savage villages; you, fair maiden of the Summerian jars; you, beautiful arabesque on the

ceramics murals. You water and words...

The Metropoles had synchronised their time,

and the Barbarians came upon you exhausted and bleeding,

O, country born

between river and river

country torn

between sword and sword,

Why

the sailorsbar. Mossul horsemen. Dyana. Assyrian ruins. The kings of the Hatra. Syria's.



Shqlawa. Bab al-Shikh. Bikhal waterfalls. The last sky. AlZaqqura. The papyrus in the Ahwar

marshes. Fahd. The Leninists. The pilot in the MIG fighter. The people of Kufah. The exile in

Nuqrat alSalman. Asoldier in the cafe at Samarrah. Dockers on the waterfront

Why have they all become prisoners in a jungle of wild beasts?

what are Uruk's children up to? What is the priest praying for? What says the oracle?

and the prisoners of war who surrendered to God by the thousands? And the dead?

Country torn

between sword and sword?

The rocks of Kurdistan have acquired the mechanism for destroying bunkers. Vietnam's victory

was no geographic exclusivity.

In Suar Tokeh, the chars carrying mortar guns were weeping like mules. Asks a recruit: why

don't the sergeants rebel?

Yesterday, a platoon surrendered at night fall. Silence, soldiers! silence, palm trees torn between Khorramshahr and Ahwaz!

My voice, an aunt who lost her sons, a child shuddering On the roads of exile.

Kurdistan retracts into her crevasses. and Dyana asks about Dyana....

Country born

between river and river

Country torn between sword and sword,

Baghdad buys her gloves from a Parisian fashion shop. Is Jacques Chirac the famous Monsieur 10%

And that socialist who anoints with mpagne the Exocet rocket?

Which genuine Arab in Pouters were the Righteous Ancestors?

Which un-Arab Arabs in these villages of oblivion were the socialists?

(May I suggest to Mr.Francois Mitterand, President of the French Republic, to carefully read the "Collected Works" of Hajj Khayyrallaa Tulfah, official theoretician of the Baghdad regime; Regis Derby's help will be appreciated!)

Country born

between river and river country born

between sword and sword,

This land which had been our home, even for one

day, has it beacon the invaders passageway?

or just another prey? Did You have to elect the sick Prince even at the fateful price?

Peace be upon you, my land peace be upon you.

Mandali

Ba'qouba


Baghdad...

trinity Of the world-Hellerltic Organization.

And Alexander-the-student/ drunk from Aristotle's cup,was sweeping across lands with horsemen

and wine, building cities to be later destroyed by Priests/ officers and bedouins,

and Mandali was the road...

Xellophones "Anabasis":

Mandali was the road.

Budyeni’s cavalry:

and Mandali was the road...

Persians and Turks. Turks and Turks. Mamluks and Buwayhi soldiers. Arabs for thus and for that.

Sunnis. Sabeans. Shiis descendants of the Prophet's household. Ayyarun. Chaldeans.

Nestorians. Atheists. Sun worshippers. And Kharijites....

One day, Alexander, drunk from Aristotle's cup, came to us from mandali

and Budyeni's cavalry

and Xenophone's " Anabasis".

Hulago came too....

Mandali

Ba'qouba


Baghdad...

Officers at the Headquarters Russian rnade helicopter is Might object. For the Russian made helicopter is Overflying Hajj Omrane, Becht Ashsn, And this War is unlike wars Of old. For war, here, is forgotten. Forgotten, the dead Forgotten, the year,. For who remernbers the dead? and who remembers the Years? (Barely mentioned by sorne bulletins Published Overseas )

Officers at the I feadquarters: we are fighting in a country that was never ours.

Birmam or Tikrit?

Let the jungle of guns burn!

burl, the water Course

Tikrit remains

and Baghdad is the journey's end!

Mandali

Ba'qouba


Baghdad..

The farce begins, and assassinated Baghdad is now dead.

Swiss guards for the intelligent Mary-Antoinette

watching over the Muslims' Treasury

French guards for Mecca and Medina

U.S. guards for those who inherited control to surrender

Israeli guards for Beirut which refuses to surrender

Guards on my house

Guards on my voice

Guards on my Gulf

Guards on Crowned heads from Abha to Ifran

Guards on the sands Of the Arabia, penninsula

Guards nn the channels

Guards on all the airport that link island to island s, far and near Guards On the new's paperink

Guards on my prison

Guards on flowers

Guards on the tipsiness Of wine

Guards on the branches Of the trees

Guards on my homeland

Heavenly guards on God's children front the East bank of the Euphrates to the Valley of the Nile.

What else remains?

May be in Hajj Omran Will we ask Ourselves about that cup we chose to drink, and prepared for it banquets dripped with our people's blood.

How naive, were the leftists! how faint the singer's voice!

High grows the papyrus ... but the machine-gun is stacked away,

rocks abound, yet no rifles are at sight.

It is us who delivered our beards ( Assyria's pride to the one who doesn't even know how to pluck them, taught him to be an executioner and told our friends the sordid lie).

And here we are now, awaiting the end of this orgiastic folly Perhaps in Hajj Omran will we realize that this cup remains.

Waiters might quarrel; a waiter will go, another will come, yet another, but the cup remains unchanged.

who knows? Perhaps a new renaissance will deliver us from the burning quest.

Who knows? perhaps a new balance of forces (without our participation) will stop the

catastrophe...

And, what about us? Inflamed by the fire of ancestors,, prepared to receive the rose of the soul,

uncovered discoverers, wanderers, squanderers...

But, mightier, is the Earth, heavier the impact of the falling comet, and all our modern

ammunition is not worth one bullet from our old gun.

Let us, then, rise in soul beyond our bloody Present and recognise, for once, our bitter

predicament and let the journey start from the darkness of this very night!

Saady Yossuf 1934 -

Notes :-


  • Hajj Omran: is a region in I raq’s Kurdistan occupied by Iranian forces in 1983.

  • Fahd(Yussuf Salman Yussuf) 1900-1948 is founder and leader of the Iraqi Commu nist Party.

  • Uruk, Nisibis, hatra, al-Raha: historic localities of Iraq.

  • Xenophone’s "Anabasis": recounts the author" adventures while a soldier of fortune in Presses and Kurdistan.

  • Budyeni: officer of cavalry in Tsarist Russia later to rally the October Revolu tion and become legendary leader of the Red Cavalry. Led the Russian cavallry in Iraq during WW 1.

  • Al-Hajaj : bloody ruler of Iraq in 8th century.

  • Al-Hallaj: sufi martyr.

  • Ba’quba, Mandali, Shaqlawa, Kufah, Samarrah and Tikrit: Iraqi cities

  • Bab al-Shaikh : Quarter in Baghdad

  • Khorramshahr, al-Ahwaz, bechtashan, Mahran : Iranian citeis were involved heavily in Iran-Iraq war.

  • Naqrat al-Salman: famous prison in the Iraqi desert

Activity Five appendices.

U2 Sunday Bloody Sunday Lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM4vblG6BVQ&ob=av2n

I can't believe the news today


Oh, I can't close my eyes
And make it go away
How long...
How long must we sing this song
How long, how long...
'cause tonight...we can be as one
Tonight...

Broken bottles under children's feet


Bodies strewn across the dead end street
But I won't heed the battle call
It puts my back up
Puts my back up against the wall

Sunday, Bloody Sunday


Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunday, Bloody Sunday

And the battle's just begun


There's many lost, but tell me who has won
The trench is dug within our hearts
And mothers, children, brothers, sisters
Torn apart

Sunday, Bloody Sunday


Sunday, Bloody Sunday

How long...


How long must we sing this song
How long, how long...
'cause tonight...we can be as one
Tonight...tonight...

Sunday, Bloody Sunday


Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Wipe the tears from your eyes


Wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
Oh, wipe your tears away
(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)
Oh, wipe your blood shot eyes
(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

Sunday, Bloody Sunday (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)


Sunday, Bloody Sunday (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

And it's true we are immune


When fact is fiction and TV reality
And today the millions cry
We eat and drink while tomorrow they die

(Sunday, Bloody Sunday)

The real battle just begun
To claim the victory Jesus won
On...

Sunday Bloody Sunday


Sunday Bloody Sunday...

Two Lorries

It's raining on black coal and warm wet ashes.


There are tyre-marks in the yard, Agnew's old lorry
Has all its cribs down and Agnew the coalman
With his Belfast accent's sweet-talking my mother.
Would she ever go to a film in Magherafelt?
But it's raining and he still has half the load

To deliver farther on. This time the lode


Our coal came from was silk-black, so the ashes
Will be the silkiest white. The Magherafelt
(Via Toomebridge) bus goes by. The half-stripped lorry
With its emptied, folded coal-bags moves my mother:
The tasty ways of a leather-aproned coalman!

And films no less! The conceit of a coalman...


She goes back in and gets out the black lead
And emery paper, this nineteen-forties mother,
All business round her stove, half-wiping ashes
With a backhand from her cheek as the bolted lorry
Gets revved and turned and heads for Magherafelt

And the last delivery. Oh, Magherafelt!


Oh, dream of red plush and a city coalman
As time fastforwards and a different lorry
Groans into shot, up Broad Street, with a payload
That will blow the bus station to dust and ashes...
After that happened, I'd a vision of my mother,

A revenant on the bench where I would meet her


In that cold-floored waiting room in Magherafelt,
Her shopping bags full up with shovelled ashes.
Death walked out past her like a dust-faced coalman
Refolding body-bags, plying his load
Empty upon empty, in a flurry

Of motes and engine-revs, but which lorry


Was it now? Young Agnew's or that other,
Heavier, deadlier one, set to explode
In a time beyond her time in Magherafelt...
So tally bags and sweet-talk darkness, coalman,
Listen to the rain spit in new ashes

As you heft a load of dust that was Magherafelt,


Then reappear from your lorry as my mother's
Dreamboat coalman filmed in silk-white ashes.

Seamus Heaney.   

INFORMATION

   

'cribs': hinged sides


'Magherafelt': (pronounced Mackerafelt) a town in Northern Ireland
'lode': vein or seam rich in coal
'black lead': preparation for smartening and polishing the exterior of black iron stoves
'emery paper': sandpaper, glasspaper, used for smoothing rough surfaces
'bolted': the lorry's sides put up and locked into place
'red plush': for many people the red velvety seats in cinemas represented luxury
'payload': profit-making cargo; the term is also used of the warhead of a rocket
'revenant': ghost, person returning from the dead
'motes': dust
'tally bags': coal sacks marked so they can be counted and checked off
'heft': lift
'dreamboat': 1940s word for a highly attractive member of the opposite sex
'filmed': covered with a film of ashes (but the idea of a cinema film - black and white in the 1940s - is also present)

Excerpt of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech”.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.



With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.



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