Modern Texts and Poetry

JB Priestley: An Inspector Calls Mr Birling says, '...a man has to mind his own business and look after himself and his own'. How far does Priestley present Mr Birling as a man who cares only for himself and his family? Write about: • what Mr Birling says and does • how far Priestley presents Mr Birling as a man who cares only for himself and his family.

JB Priestley: An Inspector Calls How far does Priestley present male characters as irresponsible in the play? Write about: • one or more of the male character(s) • how far Priestley presents one or more of the male character(s) as irresponsible.

SOURCE TEXT: Walking Away It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day – A sunny day with leaves just turning, The touch-lines new-ruled – since I watched you play Your first game of football, then, like a satellite Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away Behind a scatter of boys. I can see You walking away from me towards the school With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free Into a wilderness, the gait of one Who finds no path where the path should be. That hesitant figure, eddying away Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem, Has something I never quite grasp to convey About nature’s give-and-take – the small, the scorching Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay. I have had worse partings, but none that so Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly Saying what God alone could perfectly show – How selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in the letting go. Cecil Day-Lewis QUESTIONS: Compare how poets present family relationships in 'Walking Away' and in one other poem from 'Love and relationships'.

SOURCE TEXT: Remains On another occasion, we get sent out to tackle looters raiding a bank. And one of them legs it up the road, probably armed, possibly not. Well myself and somebody else and somebody else are all of the same mind, so all three of us open fire. Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear I see every round as it rips through his life – I see broad daylight on the other side. So we’ve hit this looter a dozen times and he’s there on the ground, sort of inside out, pain itself, the image of agony. One of my mates goes by and tosses his guts back into his body. Then he’s carted off in the back of a lorry. End of story, except not really. His blood-shadow stays on the street, and out on patrol I walk right over it week after week. Then I’m home on leave. But I blink and he bursts again through the doors of the bank. Sleep, and he’s probably armed, possibly not. Dream, and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds. And the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out – he’s here in my head when I close my eyes, dug in behind enemy lines, not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land or six-feet-under in desert sand, but near to the knuckle, here and now, his bloody life in my bloody hands. Simon Armitage QUESTIONS: Compare how poets present the ways people are affected by difficult experiences in 'Remains' and in one other poem from 'Power and conflict'.

SOURCE TEXT: I Am Offering this Poem I am offering this poem to you, since I have nothing else to give. Keep it like a warm coat when winter comes to cover you, or like a pair of thick socks the cold cannot bite through, I love you, I have nothing else to give you, so it is a pot full of yellow corn to warm your belly in winter, it is a scarf for your head, to wear over your hair, to tie up around your face, I love you, Keep it, treasure this as you would if you were lost, needing direction, in the wilderness life becomes when mature; and in the corner of your drawer, tucked away like a cabin or hogan* in dense trees, come knocking, and I will answer, give you directions, and let you warm yourself by this fire, rest by this fire, and make you feel safe I love you, It’s all I have to give, and all anyone needs to live, and to go on living inside, when the world outside no longer cares if you live or die; remember, I love you. *hogan: wooden hut/shelter Jimmy Santiago Baca QUESTIONS: In 'I Am Offering this Poem', how does the poet present the speaker's feelings about love?

SOURCE TEXT: First Light The sun has burst the sky, And spilled its gold on you. My world, once grey, now drenched in light, A canvas, fresh and new. No grand design, no crafted word, Just this: the simple truth I see. My love is like the dawn, absurd In its bright certainty. QUESTIONS: In both 'First Light' and 'I Am Offering this Poem' the speakers describe their feelings about love. What are the similarities and/or differences between the methods the poets use to present these feelings?