Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's English lesson, where we're going to be moving forward with Mary Robinson's poem, "The Birth-day" by considering her use of language and emotion.

But before we begin, please make sure that you have something to write with and something to write on.

If you don't have that, please go and grab it now.

I'd also like you to make sure that all distractions are out of the way, so you can fully focus on today's lesson content.

Great.

Let's get started.

We're going to begin by considering our agenda for today's lesson.

So we're going to start with a brief overview of the narrative of "The Birth-day".

Then we're going to move on to our key vocabulary.

Today, that is the term "ignorant." Then we're going to look at Robinson's use of language and emotion before zooming in specifically on her use of alliteration.

Then we're going to put that all together by considering the role of ignorance in Robinson's "The Birth-day".

Lots to do.

Let's get going.

So as promised, you're going to begin by doing a gap-fill exercise to review the narrative of "The Birth-day".

On the screen, you will see a summary of Robinson's "The Birth-day", but with some important words missing.

These important words are detailed at the bottom of your screen.

I would like you to pause the video here and to read the summary and fill in the missing words.

This is also available as a downloadable resource or worksheet, if you would like to access it in that manner.

Otherwise, I suggest you copy it out and fill in the missing gaps.

Please resume the video when you're done.

Great.

Let's check our answers.

"The Birth-day" review.

"The poem imagines the grand celebrations that take place on an unnamed countess' birthday.

As the contest is paraded through the streets, the speaker describes the luxury that surrounds her.

These images of celebration are contrasted with images of inescapable poverty that also surround the countess.

The poem ends by suggesting that these divides will not outlast death, an inevitability regardless of class or social standing." You're more than welcome to pause the video here and tick off all of your gap-fills, just to make sure you've got this correct.

When you're done, please resume the video.

We're going to move on to our key vocabulary for today's lesson.

That is the term "ignorant." Ignorant means to lack knowledge, understanding, or an awareness of something.

Let's read that together.

Ignorant means to lack knowledge, understanding, or awareness of something.

Let's look at how we can use ignorant in a sentence.

"She laughed at him for being so ignorant." "Their ignorance got them into lots of trouble." "They took advantage of his ignorance." Here you can see, in each of these examples, someone lacks knowledge, understanding, or awareness or something.

Now, ignorant is an interesting word to use.

Sometimes we can't help be ignorant about something.

We've perhaps not been educated about it or told about it in our life.

And so we lack knowledge of it and we maybe have to educate ourselves so that we're not ignorant.

However, some people in society decide to be ignorant on certain matters.

They don't wish to educate themselves and to inform themselves about things that they should really know about.

And so that's going to be important in today's lesson.

Let's check your knowledge of the term ignorant.

Please pause the video here and fill any gaps in this definition.

Resume when you're finished.

Great.

Let's check your answers.

To be ignorant means to lack knowledge, understanding, or an awareness of something.

I'm going to present you with three sentences.

And you're going to tell me which of the sentences uses the word ignorant correctly.

Let's go.

One, "She lacks ignorant about the world around her." Two, "I was entirely ignorant of the matter." Three, "I was disgusted by their ignorance." Pause the video here and write down the examples below that use the word ignorant correctly and resume the video when you're done.

Great.

Let's check our answers.

The answers in bold are those that have used the word ignorant correctly.

As you can see here, sentences two and three both use the word ignorant correctly.

"I was entirely ignorant of the matter" suggests that someone knows that they lack understanding about something.

"I was disgusted by their ignorance." Here it is being suggested that someone should have a better knowledge and understanding of a topic.

And therefore, the people around them are disgusted by the fact that they don't know about it.

However, number one has not used ignorant correctly.

Let's look why.

"She lacks ignorant about the world around her." Ah, I see what this person has done.

They have understood that to be ignorant often means to have a lack of knowledge.

And so they've used the word as a substitute.

Really, it should read, "She lacks knowledge about the world around her." So what this person could do is to change the sentence by saying, "She lacks knowledge about the world around her.

This makes her ignorant." I would like you to test your knowledge of the term ignorant by applying the key vocabulary.

Please write me one sentence that uses the word ignorant accurately and resume the video when you're done.

Great.

Now you've had some time to write your sentence, I'd like to hear it.

So after three, please read me your sentence that uses the word ignorant.

One, two, three.

Excellent.

Let's move on.

So we're going to consider some key stanzas from Robinson's "The Birth-day" and we're going to look at how Robinson uses emotion and who those emotions apply to within her poem.

So let's read this stanza together.

"Here, guarded by a motley train, The pampered Countess glass along.

There, wrung by poverty and pain, Pale Misery mingles with the throng." I would like you to find me a quotation that suggests misery.

And you can write down that quotation.

If you have access to the downloadable resource and worksheet, you will find the stanza on here and you're more than welcomed to annotate your stanza.

After three, please tell me the quotation that you've found that suggests misery.

After three, one, two, three.

Hopefully, you found this one: "Pale Misery mingles with the throng." Here, we can see how misery has been personified.

It's made to sound like it's a person that's walking among the crowds.

This suggests that the working classes in the crowd are all consumed by their misery.

They know no other emotion at this current time.

I'd now like you to find me a quotation that suggests satisfaction.

If you're satisfied with something, you're more than happy with it.

You can write down the quotation or annotate it on your copy of the worksheet.

After three, I'd like to hear the quotation you found.

One, two, three.

Did you find this one? "The pampered Countess glares along." Here, we know that the countess is more than satisfied by her surroundings.

She's being pampered, she's being looked after, she's being spoiled.

This completely contrasts the miserable nature of the working classes that surround her.

Let's have a look at another stanza.

"Here four tall lackeys slow precede A painted dame in rich array.

There, the sad, shivering child of need Steals barefoot o'er the flinty way." I would like you to find me a quotation that suggests satisfaction.

You can write down this quotation or annotate it on your copy of the worksheet.

After three, I'd like to find out which quotation you have chosen.

After three, one, two, three.

Hopefully, you found this quotation: "A painted dame in rich array." Here, our poet is suggesting that she has everything she could possibly need.

She is in rich array, which probably suggests that she's surrounded by luxuries and wealth.

"Painted dame" also suggests that she's probably been made up.

This is something that would not have been afforded the working classes.

Now I'd like you to find me a quotation that suggests desperation.

You can note it down or you can annotate it on your copy of the worksheet.

After three, I'd like you to tell me the quotation that you found.

One, two, three.

I'm hoping you picked this one here: "Steals barefoot o'er the flinty way." Here, the working classes are desperate.

They do not have the basic necessities in life, like shoes.

This child is barefoot.

This completely contrasts the dame, who is painted and in rich array, surrounded by luxuries, when the working classes around her, that also surround her, don't even have the most basic of necessities.

They are desperate.

"'Room, room! stand back!' they loudly cry, The wretched poor are driven around.

On every side they scattered fly, And shrink before the threatening sound." So here, the working classes are being ordered to stand back in quite a threatening manner.

I would like you to find me a quotation that suggests fear among the working classes.

You can note it down or annotate it in your copy of the worksheet.

Great.

I'd like to hear what quotation you found.

After three, one, two, three.

Thank you.

I'm hoping you picked out this one here: "And shrink before the threatening sound." If something is threatening, it's really quite scary.

You might say it's intimidating.

It makes us fearful.

But I think it's also important to see here that the working classes shrink.

Now here, Robinson isn't suggesting they physically do shrink, but it's metaphorically, they're shrinking backwards.

They don't feel like they have a presence among the upper classes, and especially in the vicinity of the countess.

I think you'll also agree with me that these ideas are echoed in the first line of the stanza.

"'Room, room! stand back!' they loudly cry." The members of the working classes here are being ordered to get out of the way.

It's like they're not worthy and they have no power over the situation that they're currently in.

Now that we've looked at Robinson's use of emotion in three of the stanzas, we're going to go back to the first stanza and explore the language in a bit more detail.

This first stanza, we agreed, looks at both emotions of misery, but also that of satisfaction.

Can you remember the quotation that we found that we thought echoed the misery of the working classes? It was, of course, "Pale Misery mingles with the throng." Let's look at the use of language here in a bit more detail.

Firstly, the use of the adjective pale suggests that they are lacking colour.

We often associate that with people that are unhealthy.

Then the use of Misery with its capital M has been personified.

It's suggesting that the working classes are defined by their misery.

It's a trait.

It's something that they all collectively have.

And finally, mingles, the verb suggests that the working classes are sort of on the outside and that they're trying their best to fit in, but perhaps it's not natural for them.

Right, let's look at its opposing emotion, that of satisfaction.

Can you remember the quotation that we found that suggests satisfaction? It was, of course, "The pampered Countess." Pampered, the verb, suggests you are the centre of attention that you're being spoiled through excess luxury.

More than anything, if you're being pampered, you're being really well looked after.

So no wonder the countess is feeling satisfaction.

It's also important to note that while she's described as being pampered, she glares along at the people around her, including those members of the working classes.

If we glare at someone, it's not because we're trying to make them feel welcome and we're being a friendly presence.

It's quite the opposite.

It's suggesting that we're being rather judgmental.

Now, if she's being judgmental of the position the working classes find themselves in, that's probably due to a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding.

She is a moneyed member of the upper classes.

Therefore, we can call this countess ignorant.

She's ignorant about the suffering that goes on among the working classes and the poor people in society.

We're going to focus in on the language technique of alliteration.

So alliteration means a series of closely placed words that start with the same letter.

Let's read that definition together.

Alliteration means a series of closely placed words that start with the same letter.

Here are a couple of examples.

Let's hope I get through the first one.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

We've got repetition of that P sound.

And then, the big brown bear broke down the tree.

We've got repetition of the B sound.

The repetition of the B sound sounds very sort of forceful and quite violent, in a way.

And that echoes the fact that the big brown bear broke down the tree.

It echoes the violent manner that the bear probably completed this action.

So let's review alliteration one more time.

Alliteration simply means a series of closely placed words that start with the same letter.

I would like you to write down the definition of alliteration, filling in the gaps.

Please pause the video to complete this task and resume it when you're done.

Great.

Let's check.

Alliteration means a series of closely placed words that start with the same letter.

I would now like you to write your own descriptive sentence that uses alliteration.

You could begin "The lazy lizard," if you need a bit of a prompt, or you could write a descriptive sentence about yourself, using alliteration.

Please pause the video to complete this task.

Great.

I'd really like to hear your sentence, please.

So after three, please tell me your sentence that uses alliteration.

One, two, three.

Great.

Thank you.

So we're now going to look at Robinson's use of alliteration in "The Birth-day", using these two stanzas.

Can we read the first stanza together? "Here bounds the gaudy, gilded chair, Bedecked with fringe and tassels gay.

The melancholy mourner there Pursues her sad and painful way." I would like you to find me an example of alliteration in this stanza.

You're welcome to pause the video as you find it, but make sure you resume so we can carry on.

Great.

Can you tell me the sentence you found that uses alliteration? After three, one, two, three.

Let's see.

"The melancholy mourner there." We've got a repeated M sound.

Now let's look at the second stanza.

Read it with me.

"Here, guarded by a motley train, The pampered Countess glares along.

There, wrung by poverty and pain, Pale Misery mingles with the throng." I would like you to find me use of alliteration in this stanza.

You're welcome to pause the video as you find it, but please make sure that you resume.

Now you've had some time to find a use of alliteration, I'd like to hear it.

Where have you found alliteration in the second stanza? After three, one, two, three.

I'm hoping you found it here, in "Pale Misery mingles with the throng." Once again, we've got a repeated M sound.

So the repeated M sound echoes the sound of sadness among the working classes.

It sort of sounds like a moan and a bit of a cry for help.

I think you'll all agree with me that the repeated mmm sound is not a happy sound, quite the opposite.

By repeating the alliterative M sound, so, the fact that Robinson doesn't just use it once, but she uses it again in her poem could suggest that this is a never-ending feeling of misery and pain for the working classes.

So here, we're not just looking at the use of alliteration as a language technique, but we're also looking structurally at the fact that it's used throughout the poem.

Its never-ending nature of the misery suffered by the working classes is echoed in that use of alliteration.

Here, we're going to look at another use of alliteration.

So let's read this stanza together.

"Here four tall lackeys slow precede A painted dame in rich array.

There, the sad, shivering child of need Steals barefoot o'er the flinty way." I'd like you to find me an example of alliteration in this stanza.

You're welcome to pause the video as you write it down, but please make sure you resume.

Great.

I'd like to hear your example of alliteration.

So after three, one, two, three.

Thank you.

I'm hoping you found it here in these final two lines.

"There, the sad, shivering child of need Steals barefoot o'er the flinty way." We've got the use of an S sound at the start of three words that are very closely placed in these last two lines.

Just like with the repeated M, the repeated S sound could actually echo the shivering and the suffering by the working classes.

It says here, doesn't it, that they were explicitly shivering.

They were physically affected by the cold around them.

And so the repeated sss could echo that feeling.

It emphasises their lack of basic necessities and its effect on their health.

They're shivering because they don't have the basic things that they need in order to survive, like warm clothing and shoes on their feet.

So hopefully you can see how Robinson has used alliteration very cleverly in her poem to echo the feelings experienced by members of the working classes.

Firstly, those of misery with the M sound echoing the sort of moan and cry for help, and secondly, the repeated S sound, which echoes the actual physical shivering suffered by the working classes.

Now let's look specifically at what the ignorance of the upper classes leads to.

Remember, ignorance is to have a lack of understanding and knowledge about something.

Their lack of understanding is regarding the working classes.

They lack understanding about what life is like for these members of society.

So what does ignorance of the upper classes lead to for the countess and the upper classes? Does it lead to their misery, their satisfaction, their fear, or their desperation? After three, one, two, three.

I'm really hoping you said satisfaction.

The ignorance of the upper classes simply leads to their satisfaction.

They lack understanding.

They lack knowledge about what life is like for the working classes.

And so it doesn't bother them at all.

They just lead their life, not having to think about the suffering that is going on around them.

And we can see that in the quotation that we've looked at this lesson, "The pampered Countess, glares along." Remember, the fact that she glares suggests that she's being judgmental, and she's judgmental because she's ignorant.

She lacks knowledge about what life is really like for the working classes.

Now, what does the ignorance of the upper classes lead to for the working classes? Does it lead to then misery, their satisfaction, their fear, or their desperation? After three, I would like you to tell me what the ignorance of the upper classes leads to for the working classes.

One, two, three.

Thank you.

In reality, the ignorance, the lack of understanding from the upper classes leads to this for the working classes: their misery, their fear, and their desperation, anything but their satisfaction.

And we can see this echoed in the quotation, "Pale Misery mingles." They are completely defined by their misery in the hands of the ignorant upper classes.

I would like you to pause the video here and complete the following task.

You're going to answer this question: What does the ignorance of the upper classes lead to in "The Birth-day"? I want you to think about the different emotions that are experienced by the upper classes versus those experienced by the lower classes.

Think about the satisfaction experienced by the Countess and members of the upper classes, and think about the fear and the misery and the desperation experienced by members of the lower working classes.

And as always, I want you to use quotations to back up your ideas.

Remember, we were looking at the key quotation of the pampered countess glaring along, and also the fact that for the working classes, misery mingles.

You're welcome to rewind the video slightly and remind yourself of those key quotations to help you in your writing.

I would like you to resume the video when you're finished.

Great.

Now let's look at an example answer to this question.

What does the ignorance of the upper-class classes lead to in "The Birth-day"? Well, "In Robinson's 'The Birth-day', she suggests that the working classes become victims of the upper classes' ignorance." Excellent opening sentence there.

This person is suggesting that because the upper class is ignorant and they lack knowledge, the working class has become victims of this.

They suffer from this.

"The 'pampered countess' is the centre of attention as she receives luxuries that the poor could only ever dream of.

Her ignorance is emphasised as she glares at the working class members of society, among whom 'pale Misery mingles'." Great.

This person has analysed the use of the word pampered and suggests that in her ignorance, she's the centre of attention, receiving luxuries.

But they haven't stopped there.

They've said that the poet emphasises this.

They draw attention to this even further through the use of glares, which shows a rather judgmental attitude towards the working class.

"Here Robinson's personification of 'Misery' suggests that the working classes are defined by their sadness.

In addition, the alliterative M implies this misery is everlasting in the hands of the judgmental classes, as represented by the ignorant countess." Great.

And what I'd like to draw your attention to in this answer is how the writer has used the word ignorant or ignorance three times.

It is the key word in the question, and so they keep coming back to it when they're answering their question.

You're more than welcome to pause the video here and use this model answer to make any edits that you would like to to your own work.

Well done for all of your hard work and engagement during today's lesson.

I hope you're becoming even more familiar with Robinson's "The Birth-day".

Please don't forget to complete the end of lesson quiz and I'll see you next time.

Bye.