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Ridiculousness of english course

  • 11-05-2015 7:30pm
    #1
    bearwhite
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10 ✭


    Anyone else think it's ridiculous we're covering The Wild Swans At Coole at Junior Cert? I've been sitting here trying to write a personal response to it for 30 minutes... I haven't written a damn thing. It's a poem about being old! I'm 15! I have no idea what being old is like - how am I supposed to relate to this poem at all?!
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Comments

  • #2
    conorfinn1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17 ✭conorfinn1


    There are many other poems you can try for Junior Cert. there isn't any prescribed material.
    I'd recommend the following:

    Mid Term Break - Seamus Heaney (Mid Term break is literally rich in analysis notes, I'd really recommend one to do this.)
    Base Details - Siegfried Sassoon
    Blackberry Picking - Seamus Heaney
    Digging - Seamus Heaney
    Dulce Et Decorum est - Wilfred Owen
    An Irish Airman foresees his death - W.B. Yeats

    Any of those. they are straightforward once you understand the concept.


  • #3
    bearwhite
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10 ✭bearwhite


    Thanks, I have plenty of other poems - it's just that my teacher expects us to learn off by heart, make notes on techniques + personal response etc for about 20 poems! I have to do this personal response for homework but am drawing a blank. Thanks anyway


  • #4
    emersyn
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 430 ✭✭emersyn


    A personal response doesn't have to be about you relating to the poem per se, it's more about how the poem made you feel. For example, you could write about how you thought the way Yeats related the setting of the poem to the subject matter (autumn is a time closely associated with change) was very effective, or how you thought the symbol of swans representing eternity was unusual, or how you sympathise (rather than relate) with Yeats' apprehension regarding the changes that come with growing older.
    I would agree with the other poster - if you don't feel that you can write about the poem well you should focus on other poems. Just write the bare minimum that you can get away with for this assignment, and spend the extra time looking over poems you prefer.


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