Lesson video

Hello everyone, thank you very much for joining me.

I'm Mr Blackburn.

Today, we're going to be reading a poem called Causeway and thinking about the imagery and symbolism that's in that poem.

But before we begin, you'll need to make sure that you have a pen and paper.

You'll need to make sure that you've turned off any notifications or anything, which might distract you.

And if you can, you'll need to try and find somewhere quiet to work.

And once you've done all of that, then let's get started.

And here's what we're going to be doing today, we'll start off by reading the poem before having a closer look at some of the imagery which has created.

Then, we'll think about the symbolism contained within the poem before tying everything together so that you can recap all of the knowledge you've learned today.

We'll begin by reading the poem.

But before we do, it's important to understand what a Causeway is.

It is after all the title of the poem So we can assume it's going to be pretty important to understand this concept.

A Causeway is a road which links the island to the mainland.

However, this road is normally underwater.

So it's not until the tide recedes that the road is visible or usable.

That means that for the majority of the time, the island and the mainland are disconnected from each other, you can't cross the road if it's under the water.

But when the tide recedes and the road becomes usable, then suddenly the mainland and the island are linked again.

it's a reasonably dangerous and unreliable road I imagine, but it creates an invaluable link between two things.

And that's going to be the point of the causeway in the poem.

We're going to be presented with two ideas, which are linked.

So if you remember nothing else about what a causeway is, it's a road which links an island to the mainland and is often submerged.

But the important thing is it keeps those two linked.

And here's the poem "Causeway" by Matthew Hollis.

We'll read it once and then I'll explain some of the important vocabulary so that you can truly understand the poem.

"Beneath the rain shadow and washed farmhouses, in the service of the old shore, we waited for the rising of the road, the south lane laden in sand, the north in residue in wrack, the tide drawing off the asphalt, leaving our tyres little to disperse; still, the water under wheel was forceful, cleft between the chassis and the sea that clean division that the heart rages for.

But halfway out the destination ceases to be the prize, and what matters is the sudden breadth of vision to the north, a hovering headland, to the south of shoal of light- the sea off-guarded, but hunting: our licence brief, unlikely to be renewed.

land and island, in neither sway, a nodding the needle as the compass takes its weigh".

It's a really pleasant poem to read aloud and there are some difficult words in there which might seem a bit tricky.

The first here is laden, We waited for the rising of the road so the causeway, rising out of the sea as this tide receding and it's laden in sand.

Now Laden means weighed down, so the road is covered in sand to the south.

In the north though it's covered in residue and wrack, and they are things which are left behind by the tide.

So I guess more sound, but wrack can mean either something which is being destroyed or a type of seaweed.

And I like to imagine a mixture of both parts of things that have been destroyed by the sea.

So maybe boat or those cages that they used to catch lobsters with, but also seaweed covering the route.

And then the last couplet cleft between the chassis and the sea- that clean division at the heart rages for.

Now cleft means split in two.

So in this case, the water under the wheel was cleft into split in two, as the car drove through it and the chassis just means the body of a car.

And the last line of this section, the clean division that the heart rages for, I think we as humans like things to be divided easily into two categories and not see any connection between things.

But of course, the causeway makes a connection between two things.

It forces us to connect the islands to the mainland, one idea to another.

What about in this section then? well, the prize as the poet tells us here is the sudden breadth of vision.

So we're driving on the causeway and we've been so used to seeing what's on the island or the mainland that becomes our very small bubble and that's all we see.

And then as we drive across the causeway suddenly, we're not worried about where we're going anymore.

We're worried and perhaps we're joyful at just how much we can see.

So, in front of you would be your destination and then all around you would be open sky and open sea.

And that's the breadth of the vision that the poet talks about.

Breadth just means that wide range of something and in this case, it's being able to see for miles and miles around you.

In my head when we're driving over this imaginary causeway, I can see the horizon either side of me and my destination in front.

To the north, a hovering headland, well that just means the coastline.

To the south, a shoal of light, the sea of guarded, but hunting, our licence brief unlikely to be renewed.

Licence just means permission to do something.

So in this case it's crossing the causeway because if you don't cross that causeway quick enough, the tide will get you.

So we can make ourselves a little flowchart of the plot, firstly, there's stormy weather above and we're waiting patiently for the road, for the causeway to appear.

Then the causeway does appear, nature gives way to the manmade world because this road isn't a natural phenomenon it was built.

We're reminded though that nature is still powerful, through the use of forceful to describe the water.

And this cleft, this divide between the sea and the car, shows a struggle between nature and humans.

Halfway through, halfway out the destination, ceases to be the prize.

We're reminded that although nature's powerful, it can also be beautiful and we need to take some time to realise that.

And as we realise that, the poet presents the idea that we're stuck between two different worlds, the island and the headland.

We're in the middle of them.

So we're stuck between two worlds, two ideas.

We're reminded again, that nature will hunt and destroy, so we can't stay long in between these two different worlds.

We have to choose where we want to go, otherwise nature will run its course, hunt us down and destroy everything in its path.

And the last couplet, tells us that we have to decide which way to go.

Good work and I hope you understand some more about what the poem is trying to tell us.

We'll carry and analyse the poem in just a minute, but first let's have a little quiz to see how much you've learned about the poem already.

The first question I have for you is what is a causeway? And there are four options.

Is it option one, the causeway is a point on a map.

Is it option two, the causeway is a road which is sometimes underwater.

Is it option three, a causeway is a type of poem, or is it option four, a path that leads to nowhere.

Three, two, one, hopefully you said that it's a road which is sometimes underwater and that's really important.

There's a link between two places, but sometimes it's submerged.

What do you think the poem might suggest about nature then? Is it option one, that nature can be powerful.

Is it option two, that nature is absent.

Is it option three, that nature is less important than humans.

Or is it option four, that nature is about influence.

Three, two, one, hopefully you said that nature was powerful.

So as the tide receipt the road is available to us, the causeway is available to us, but we know while we're on the causeway, that we're surrounded by the sea and the any moment, it could exert its power.

What struggle do you think has presented in the poem? Is it option one, a struggle between good and bad.

Is it option two, a struggle between water and the air.

Is it option three, a struggle between humans and the natural world.

Or is it option four, a struggle between light and dark.

Three, two, one, it's a struggle between humans and the natural world.

Well done if you've got that right.

Okay, now we're going to continue and look at imagery in the poem.

Before we do, it's important that we remind ourselves what imagery is.

Imagery is a type of figurative language and figurative language is just the type of language a poet would use to express their emotions or their feelings, but which is probably different to the kind of language that you or I would use in a conversation.

Particularly imagery makes us use all of our five senses and it's really easy to think that imagery might just create a picture in your mind, an image in your mind.

But that's not true, imagery can make you use all five of your senses.

For example, the clouds were lit up by the sunset, Well, it's easy to imagine fluffy clouds illuminated in the pinks and oranges of a sunset.

But it's also easy to imagine that we're watching that sunset, perhaps you're on a beach, maybe it's warm.

Maybe we can feel the warmth, we can feel the wind coming of the sea.

Or another example, the thunder was so loud his ears were ringing.

And when I hear that, I imagine obviously very loud thunder, but I imagine myself standing on top of a hill watching a storm.

So just two lines of poetry, can make us imagine all kinds of things.

And if you can't remember what your five sentences are, we have sight, we have hearing, we have smell, we have taste and we have touch.

So here's an example for you, here's a picture of a rough sea crushing into rocks and I'll show you a bigger example of this in just a second.

I want you to think about how this image might activate all five of your sentences.

So here we are a bigger version of that photograph of a rough sea crushing into the rocks.

And I want you to pause the video for just a couple of seconds.

While you write down a description of what this photo makes you think you can see, might make you think you can hear and smell and taste and feel.

So pause the video and come back and I'll show you my answers.

And here's what I've said to this photo to create for me with all of my five sentences.

So I can see the massive waves crushing into rocks, that one was easy.

I can hear, well I've said it sounds like thunder because the sea is so rough.

So if you imagine the noise that those waves make as they break it might sound like thunder.

For smell, I've said that I can smell the clean air carried in the wind.

I love stormy days at the beach because you get a real mixture of cold, stormy windy air blowing towards you.

But also, and this links nicely to the next sense taste, You can taste the salt water in the air.

So if you're lucky, you get buffeted by clean air and strong winds.

And if you're less fortunate, then you get the salt air coming off of the sea.

And what can I feel whilst I'm looking at this picture? Well, again, I imagine it's quite stormy, It's very windy.

So I can imagine that strong wind almost blowing me over and me trying to stand on my feet against this really rough stormy sea wind.

Now, there's imagery in the poem, the poem creates imagery for us to imagine, but where might we see examples of that? Well, here's a good example, the rain shadow and washed farmhouses.

Now rain shadow to me suggests a storm, one of those really dark clouds that looms over you.

Farmhouses washed by the rain? Well that would tell me that it's recently rained.

So wherever we're starting off this old shore, there's been a storm and there's dark storm clouds are still hovering overhead.

Is this the calm after the storm? Is it before another storm? We don't know, but there has recently been rain, so maybe this is the calm after the storm.

And I think the fact that the dark shadow of this ring cloud is still there, is a reminder that nature and the natural world is always looming over us.

We can try to control as much of the world as we want by building on it or trying to change the way that rivers flow.

That actually, this is a reminder that nature is always in control.

Here's another example of imagery, which I really like the tide drawing of the asphalt.

Asphalt is the road surface and it's slowly being revealed.

So in my head, I can imagine that it looks like the road is rising out of the sea.

I know it's not and I know that the tide is receding, but in my head it's this slow reveal of the road.

And that picture is actually very, very reminiscent of how I imagined it.

So the road is slowly appearing under all of this water.

And to me that suggests that nature's slowly letting go of the road which had trapped.

When that road is submerged, it's completely consumed, completely trucked by nature.

But every so often nature releases its grasp and lets this road escape for just a little bit.

And I think that this imagery is used to remind us that nature can be dangerous.

If it can trap her road, it can trap us.

If it can destroy a road, what can it do to humankind? Here is another piece of imagery, the water under the wheel was forceful.

So again, this is kind of a literal representation of how I imagine it, we've all seen cars drive through big puddles like this.

Hopefully you've not been unfortunate enough to stand next to a puddle, when a car drives through a puddle like that.

I did have that unfortunate, event happened to me once, when I was walking on my way to school, it was most unpleasant.

But anyway, so another reminder of the natural world's power, the water is forceful.

It's like a tidal wave that comes over you and the water has the ability to stop the car if it wants.

What about in this section of the poem? Is there any imagery here? Well, yes.

The sea of guarded but hunting.

So this is an example of personification.

Matthew Hollis, the poet has turned the sea into a person, that makes it some caught unawares, but like a hunter and it's waiting for the right time to attack.

Is this a warning perhaps that nature will eventually hunt us all down? Nature will win back the world that we've built over perhaps.

Here's what I'd like you to do now, I've given you two questions and sentence starters, which I'd like you to finish writing about the poem.

The first question asks, what is imagery? And the second question asks, what does this imagery of water suggest about nature in "Causeway"? So think about the power that nature has.

Pause the video, answer these questions and then come back to see if your answered much mine.

The first question was, what is imagery? And my answer is, imagery is a type of figurative language, which makes you use all five of your senses.

The second question asked, what does Hollis' use of imagery suggest about nature in "Causeway"? And my answer is, Hollis uses imagery to make water seem powerful, like any moment nature could reassert its power over the world.

So reassert means to take back show its control.

Your answers might look slightly different and that's fine.

But if you think there's something from my answers that you'd like to put into yours, then now's the time to do it.

Before we move on to look at symbolism, and again, we need to remind ourselves what symbolism means.

So like imagery, symbolism is a type of figurative language.

In this case, symbolism is when an image or a picture represents an idea and we're surrounded by symbols every day, Whether you realise it or not.

For example, this picture is obviously of someone crying, but what ideas can we pull from that? When we see this picture of someone crying, what can we associate it with? Well, firstly sadness, that's obvious isn't it? We cry when we're sad.

We could also associate this with the idea of something being unfair.

Maybe picture is crying because something has been unfair.

Perhaps there's a sense of abandonment, perhaps this is a child crying because they'd been abandoned.

in that case, this crying child would be a symbol for abandonment, perhaps it's because they're lost, perhaps it's because they're a young child and they don't know how else to express their emotions.

Perhaps we can link this picture to the idea of feeling hopeless.

So what you see is lots of ideas linked to one particular picture.

And this is how symbolism works in literature.

Symbols might not be so easy to spot as something like that, emoji of a child crying.

Light and dark are often used as symbols in pieces of literature.

What do you think that light and dark might symbolise? We can always use this picture as inspiration, there's light at the end of this pathway, but we're surrounded by darkness in the woods.

Well, in this case, I think that the darkness represents something evil or bad.

Perhaps it's being hopeless, perhaps it's being lost, perhaps it's the idea that there's no escape.

So that's what the dark woods around us might symbolise.

But the light at the end of the path symbolises our hope, our happiness and our safety.

If we can make it down the path to the light, we know we'll be okay.

So if you're reading a piece of literature or even a poem, which uses darkness and light is two different ideas, you can probably be sure that they are symbolising something bad perhaps or something good.

Where is their symbolism in this poem then? Well, again, we'll come back to this line.

The rain-shadow it's darkness, darkness often symbolises something bad or something evil.

We waited for the rising of the road.

The road is rising up like it's triumphed over nature.

There's a symbol of our human made things like roads triumphing over the natural world.

What about in this section, can you see any symbolism in this section? Well, I think this is a good example, what matters is the sudden breadth of vision, because suddenly we're able to see everything from the middle of the causeway, where we've been and where we're going.

So we can see the natural world, we can see human made things and perhaps meant to start thinking about whether we're damaging the natural world.

To the north of hovering headland, to the south a shoal of light.

Darkness is to the north, it's hovering, it's dangerous.

Light is to the south, It represents our hope and our happiness.

Nodding of the needle is the compass takes its way.

Well, this is related to the north and the south, compass is point us in a direction.

Compass is point north, and if you remember, that's where darkness is looming, but in the south where our happiness is, the compass needle isn't going to point that way.

So will they literally compass is point us in a direction, we understand that we have a choice, we don't have to follow the compass.

Perhaps we should head south on this causeway towards the Shoal of the light, perhaps we should pursue happiness.

in the poem, Matthew Hollis the poet presents one thing as powerful.

What is it he presents as powerful? Is it nature represented here by the crushing tide against the giant's causeway in island? Or is it humans and human kind represented by this road going in between two mountains? What does Holly see is powerful nature or humankind? Three, two, one.

Hopefully you've said nature.

Matthew Hollis uses the poem to remind us of the power of nature.

Hopefully you can see how Matthew Hollis has used powerful imagery and symbolism to remind us throughout his poem, that there's an ongoing battle between nature and humankind.

Nature's trying to reclaim the world, we're trying to build on it.

Now you're going to show me what you know, by writing about what each location mentioned in the poem might symbolise.

What's the message of the poem? Then what are we meant to take from this? Well, first off let's remind ourselves, what a causeway is? A causeway is a road which links an island to the mainland.

Two separate spaces linked by a road.

in the poem, we could assume that the Island and the mainland are symbolic of things.

So I understand it as the island being symbolic of the world is at the moment, it's isolated.

It's alone, and this is a world which is consumed by climate change.

We're damaging the world around us.

In contrast to that, the shore, represents the world ahead of us, that the world is it should be undamaged by climate change.

And we can cross the causeway to get to that world, in the poem, we're stuck on the causeway in the middle.

We're given a choice, we can either continue to the shore or turn back to the island.

We can follow the compass north to the island or choose to disobey the compass and head south towards the mainland.

If we return to the island, we are warned that nature will hunt us.

It will reclaim the land, or we can head towards the mainland, which is described using light symbolism.

So something good and change the world for the better.

So if you remember nothing else about this poem, it's that it warns us about the dangers of climate change and the fact that nature can claim the land back at any time.

Now, as I said, I want you to write about the importance of each of the locations mentioned in the poem.

The island, the causeway and the old shore.

And I've given you a quotation for each of those locations, which I want you to include in your explanation.

I'll do the first one for you and then I want you to do the next.

So I've done the Island.

Hollis describes the Island as a hovering headland.

This makes it some scary as it looms over us, the island represents the isolation and danger we find ourselves in if we don't stop climate change.

So I've used the quotation and my understanding of the meaning of the poem, to write a short sentence about what the island symbolises.

And if you get stuck, then here are some pointers, the causeways in the middle of two destinations.

So what choices are we given on the causeway? And the old shore represents something better, it uses light imagery.

So you can talk about symbolism of light and what it might suggest.

Pause the video, write out your boxes and then when you're done, come back and we'll compare answers.

Welcome back.

Here's what I've written for the causeway, Hollis places are on the causeway, As he writes, "we waited for the rising of the road".

We are in the middle of two different destinations and have the power to decide where we want to go But we are surrounded by danger.

So when we're on the causeway, the sea is either side and could hunt us at any time.

And for the old shore, I've written, Hollis presents the old shore as a safe haven, which he describes as, "To the south, a shoal of light".

The light symbolism represents a place of safety and happiness inviting us to return to it.

That's where we want it to go, we don't want to go back to the island.

Your answers might look different to mine and that's okay.

But if there's something in my answers that you want to add in, then now is the time to do it.

Excellent work today everyone, well done.

We've analysed imagery and symbolism in a poem, and we've arrived at the conclusion that it's warning us about the dangers of climate change and not taking any action.

Now, I'm really excited to see what you've written.

So if you'd like to, then please do ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

And you can use our tag @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

And that way, I can see what you've written about this poem.

well done to working so hard, you should be very proud of yourselves.

The last thing I want you to do is take the quiz at the end of this lesson, to prove to yourself how much you know.

Well done for all of your hard work.

Goodbye.