Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this English unit, "Telling Tales" by Patience Agbabi.

I'm Miss Sewell and I will be leading you through our pilgrimage towards Canterbury.

Now this lesson looks at extended metaphors and the language of Patience Agbabi's "Emily" by Robert Knightley from "Telling Tales." Please note this lesson covers mental health and violence.

If these topics are sensitive to you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

In the meantime if you decided to carry on with this lesson, I'd like you to make sure that you have a pen, a piece of paper, and that you've remembered to clear away any distractions.

Make sure you've turned off your notifications on this device that you're viewing the video on so you're not distracted throughout the lesson.

So you should have completed those things.

So let's get started with the lesson today.

In this lesson, we'll gain an understanding of extended metaphor.

We'll also explore the extended metaphor within "Emily" by Robert Knightley from our "Telling Tales" collection.

First, we're going to do a quick catch-up.

Now Pal an Arc are two of our three main characters from our "Telling Tales" poem, "Emily" by Robert Knightley.

Both Pal and Arc live inside Emily's mind.

They manifest, or they exist inside Emily's mind.

Arc, in order to gain control, once before tried to starve his host, Emily.

As a result, Arc caused long lasting damage to Emily's body, his host's body.

Pal is our narrator and we never hear from Arc because Arc, we are informed, has died.

Then we have our third main character, Emily, who is central to both "The Knight's Tale" and "Emily" by Robert Knightley.

This Emily from the 21st century now has a voice unlike in Chaucer's, "The Knight's Tale." Emily is not aware of the personalities that occupy her mind.

When Pal or Arc take over her mind, she blacks out and she cannot remember what she does when they take control of her body.

Pal and Arc are essentially Emily's alternate personalities, alter egos.

We also need to know the key term heroine.

A heroine is the main female character in a story.

She has great qualities and the reader sympathises with her.

So for example, our mediaeval Emily from the Canterbury tales has great qualities, she is the ideal mediaeval woman.

She is beautiful, she is delicate.

We also sympathise with her because she lives within a patriarchal society and therefore, her opinion does not matter.

Her opinion is not thought about.

Then we go to our other key term, patriarchal.

Now patriarchal is a society within which men have more power and influence than women.

So our mediaeval Emily lived within a patriarchal society where men had more power over Emily than she did.

Men would be able to run Emily's life for her.

Now we're going to look at our 21st century Emily, our Emily that Patience Agbabi has created.

Now this Emily has alternate personalities.

Pal and Arc live within her brain, they manifest in her mind.

So you wouldn't be able to physically reach out and touch Pal, physically reach out and touch Arc, but instead, they occupy a space in Emily's brain.

Our 21st century Emily is damaged and she is vulnerable.

She is described within the poem as not being of sound mind, and this can be said to be because she is given a voice.

Now what do I mean by this? Well I mean, the mediaeval Emily that we are presented with in "The Canterbury Tales" has no voice.

Her opinion is not thought about, she does not make any decisions by herself that will affect her life.

She is told by Theseus that she will either marry Palamon or Arcite, and Palamon and Arcite never ask her opinion on who she wants to marry.

So Emily is never given a choice within that patriarchal society, and physically, we never hear from Emily within the poem.

However, within "Telling Tales," Agbabi gives Emily a voice.

She gives Emily something that Chaucer was never able to give her, and instead of concentrating on the romantic tale, instead Agbabi focuses on the tragic tale, the tragedy of Emily.

And because Emily is given a voice, it's questionable as to whether she can handle having this voice, it's questionable if she's able to handle having this much freedom to be able to make her own decisions, and that's why I think we're presented with a fractured Emily, an Emily that's broken in some place.

She doesn't quite know how to make her own decisions.

For this lesson, we are going to learn a new word, and that new word is metaphor.

Now you might have already studied metaphors but we're just going to make sure that we're 100% aware of what they are and what they do.

So a metaphor is a figure of speech, a figure of speech that compares two different things.

Two different things.

And it describes something by saying it is something else, and it's really important that a metaphor says that something is something else.

So a metaphor compares two things that are completely different, and it describes something by saying it is something else.

We're going to look at some metaphors in action.

He has a heart made of gold.

Now a heart and gold are completely different things but we are comparing those two things together, and we are saying that the heart is made of gold.

Now you can't literally have a heart made of gold.

Otherwise our chest would be very weighed down and I don't think any of us would have very good posture.

By saying he has a heart made of gold, we're saying that that person has a lot of value, that that person is very good inside.

Number two, sea of knowledge.

You can't literally have a sea made of knowledge.

By saying a sea of knowledge, we're saying an abundance of knowledge, lots of knowledge.

The detective listened with a wooden face.

So here we're comparing the detective and wooden.

So the detective is listening with a hard, stern face.

Mary's voice is music to my ears.

So we're comparing Mary's voice to music here.

We're saying that her voice is music, it is something.

So we're saying that Mary's voice is clearly very beautiful, very lyrical, and in tone.

We were sardines in the tiny car.

So we're comparing we, the people in the car, to sardines, and that means that the people in the car are packed very closely together just as sardines are.

But we're saying that we are sardines.

We need to make sure that when we are identifying metaphors that we're always looking for the comparison between two different things, and that something is something else, that a writer is saying that one thing is the other thing.

Metaphors do not use as or like.

As or like are used for similes.

So an example of a simile is I run like a cheetah.

So I'm comparing me to a cheetah and I'm saying I run like a cheetah.

I'm not saying I am one, I'm saying I am like one, and that is a simile.

If I say I run as fast as a cheetah, I am saying that I am like a cheetah, I am similar to a cheetah, but I am not one.

So a metaphor says that something is something else.

A metaphor says something is something else.

Then we have an extended metaphor.

So an extended metaphor is a metaphor that runs throughout a piece of writing.

An extended metaphor is set up at the beginning of a piece of writing and then is continually mentioned throughout our piece of writing.

So within a poem, metaphor is set up right at the beginning and then threads and weaves itself through the poem.

For example, within the movie "Shrek," Shrek compares ogres to onions, and Donkey wonders if it's because they both stink or because they make you cry.

But Shrek says onions have layers and ogres have layers.

There, Shrek is almost highlighting what an extended metaphor is.

Ogres have lots of layers, onions have lots of layers.

Extended metaphors essentially have lots of layers.

So we have our first initial metaphor that we see and then we see lots of hints towards that metaphor throughout the rest of our piece of writing.

Let's check what we've learned so far.

On your sheet of paper I would like you to write the number of the question down and then write the letter to the answer you believe to be correct.

After I've read through the questions, you will have some time to pause the video and write your answers down.

Question one.

What does a metaphor do? A, it says something is something else.

B, says something is like something else, or C, says something is as something else.

Number two, I'd like you to select the metaphor.

A, as white as snow, B, quick like a cheetah, C, it's raining cats and dogs.

Question three, select the metaphor.

A, he has a heart of gold.

B, he has a heart like gold, C, he has a heart as solid as gold.

And then number four, how does Palamon use metaphor to describe Emily? So this is from "The Knight's Tale." A, he says she must be Venus.

B, he says she is like Venus.

C, he says she is as beautiful as Venus.

Remember for number four, you're looking for the metaphor.

You can pause the video and ask those questions in three, two, one.

Excellent! So by now you should pause the video and we're going to go through the answers.

Give yourself a tick as we go through them.

What does a metaphor do? So the answer is A, it says that something is something else.

Doesn't say it's like something else, it doesn't say it's as something else, it says it is something else.

Number two, select the metaphor.

The metaphor is it's raining cats and dogs.

Here, we are comparing the heavy rain to cats and dogs falling from the sky.

As white as snow is a simile, quick like a cheetah is a simile.

Number three, select the metaphor.

The answer is A, he has a heart of gold.

We're saying that the heart is gold.

Well done if you managed to select those metaphors.

Number four, how does Palamon use metaphor to describe Emily within "The Knight's Tale"? Well, that's A.

He says she must be Venus.

So Palamon says Emily is Venus.

So there he's using a metaphor.

Well done if you managed to get those correct, really good work.

The text we're about to read contains references to mental health and violence.

For some people, these will be sensitive topics.

If this applies to you, you may want to do the rest of this lesson with a trusted adult nearby who can support.

I'm going to read through the poem of "Emily" by Robert Knightley, who was invented by Patience Agbabi as our fictional poet.

As I read through the poem in its entirety, I'd like you to listen and see if you can notice the extended metaphor within the poem.

"Emily," Robert Knightley.

In Chaucer's story, there are two heroes who are practically indistinguishable from each other and a heroine who is merely a name.

"Arc? Dead.

And if you're sniffing for his body, you won't find nothing.

Ransack the Big Smoke from Bow to Bank.

Arc fell for Emily 10 feet deep.

I'm Pal, Emily's alter.

Think ego.

Arc and me, we shared a cell for months, it was a shrine to her, a temple.

I miss him, like a gun to the temple.

Too close.

Two men locked in a woman's body, her messed-up head.

When I say shared a cell, I'm talking brain.

She became us.

Arc smoked the Romeos, and me, I smoked all tars.

We breathed out on her name, ah, Emily.

Blonde with blacked out highlights Emily.

Our host, the goddess.

Looks are temporal.

Who reads her diagnosis? It don't alter the facts.

She made me up to guard her body from predators, the silhouettes in the smoke.

It's when she wears the hourglass and plays damsel, she lets me out.

It messes with their brain cells, my voice, her face.

All men want Emily, they think they have a right.

It don't mean smoke.

She acts like growing up was Shirley Temple and don't remember nothing, but her body knows what happened on that altar.

Think bed.

Arc's dead, broke his parole, an alter crazy on id.

He starved us all to cancel me out for good.

It's written off our body.

He fought to win, I fought for Emily.

I'm dead beat, but I won up here, the temple, the messed-up head.

Sent her a ring, of smoke.

Having a big fat Romeo to smoke don't make you Winston Churchill.

Arc was altered.

He won the war but lost the plot.

The temple became his tomb, and me, I got the damsel.

She don't know yet.

We're stitched up, Emily, one and the same, one rough-cut mind, one body.

Must've blacked out.

This body ain't no temple but what's the alternative, a padded cell? Got anything to smoke? I'm Emily." Within the poem, we have an extended metaphor.

The extended metaphor runs throughout the poem.

The extended metaphor is the idea of Emily's mind, Emily's brain being a prison for Pal and Arc, and we're going to explore how this is presented to us through the language of the poem.

I'm going to read through this extract that's on your screen.

What I would like you to do is as I read write down any of the language that reminds you of being trapped or restricted.

"Arc? Dead.

And if you're sniffing for his body, you won't find nothing.

Ransack the Big Smoke from Bow to Bank.

Arc fell for Emily 10 feet deep.

I'm Pal, Emily's alter.

Think ego.

Arc and me, we shared a cell for months.

It was a shrine to her, a temple." Now I'm just going to explain what happens in this section of the extract.

So in the first line we are told that Arc has died and that we won't find his body even if we searched the Big Smoke.

So if we searched all of London, we would not find his body.

Then we're told, "Arc fell for Emily 10 feet deep." We're introduced to Pal, the narrator, Emily's alter ego meaning her positive side to her personality, the part that encourages her to do good things.

Then we're informed that Arc and Pal shared a cell, that this cell was a shrine to Emily, somewhere they could worship Emily similar to a temple.

Now it's interesting to recall that Pal and Arc live or exist with inside Emily's brain, her mind.

Now obviously, because that's the case we wouldn't find Arc's body because he does not exist in a physical form.

He is with inside Emily's mind.

Does that makes sense that we wouldn't find his body? But then if we highlight, "We shared a cell for months," Pal and Arc aren't physical beings.

So this cell that they shared for months must've been Emily's mind.

If we think of connotations that the sentence, "We shared a cell for months" gives us.

So if we think of the ideas and feelings that this sentence gives us, we draw connections of the idea that Arc and Pal shared a prison cell.

That's where we commonly hear that phrase.

So we know that Pal is now referring to Emily's brain, Emily's mind as a prison, and he continually does this throughout the poem and we're going to see more of where he does this.

Just as before, I'm going to read through this short extract.

I'd like you to note down any words that hint towards the idea of being trapped or imprisoned.

"I miss him, like a gun to the temple.

Too close.

Two men locked in a woman's body, her messed-up head.

When I say we shared a cell, I'm talking brain.

She became us." So from that section, these are the areas I highlighted.

The idea of the men being too close.

Within a prison cell, there isn't much room, especially for two men to share their daily routine.

It's a very small enclosed space, just as Emily's brain would be.

Two men locked.

Now, the key word there, locked, has connotations, so has ideas and feelings attached to it that make us think that the two men are unable to escape.

They are locked in this woman's body.

They are locked in to Emily's body.

They cannot escape, just as within a prison.

And then he says, "When I say we shared a cell, I'm talking brain." So there, Pal explicitly states how the cell he is talking about, this prison cell, is actually Emily's brain.

He's saying it is something else.

He's saying the cell is Emily's brain, the brain is a cell.

So there he is using a metaphor to describe Emily's brain.

He's trapped.

There is no escape from this cell.

Again, with this extract, I'd like you to jot down any words on your sheet of paper, any words associated with prison.

"Arc's dead.

Broke his parole, an alter crazy on id.

He starved us to cancel me out for good.

It's written off our body." So there, you should have been able to highlight "broke his parole, an alter crazy on id." Parole is a temporary release from prison.

If certain rules are followed, then the parole can continue.

If these rules are broken, then a person is sent back to prison.

So here, Arc has been released.

He's been released into Emily's body to take full control of his host.

But while he did that, he starved Emily's body in order to get rid of Pal within Emily's mind.

However, breaking the rules, he was then sent back into Emily's brain and Emily took back over again.

So he broke his parole, he broke that small taste of freedom that he had from his prison cell by saying he went crazy.

He enjoyed being let out of his prison a bit too much by starving Emily.

This is the negative behaviour that broke his parole.

Now that we've read through those extracts, I'd just like to check what the extended metaphor of Emily is.

So could you pause the video in just a second and make your selection.

Option one, Emily's brain is like a prison.

Option two, Emily's brain is a prison.

Option three, Emily's brain is as cruel as a prison.

Option four, Pal is in prison.

What is the extended metaphor of Emily? So the metaphor that runs throughout the poem.

You can pause the video in three, two, one.

The correct answer is option two, Emily's brain is a prison, and that is the extended metaphor of Emily that runs throughout our poem.

Well done if you correctly identified what the extended metaphor of Emily is.

Now we're just going to make sure that we understand what our extended metaphor is within the poem.

We've seen how it works and now we're just going to make sure that we understand how it all pieces together.

So our extended metaphor is a metaphor that runs throughout a piece of writing.

Remember Shrek and our onion.

Shrek says he is an onion because he has multiple layers.

We're going to look at the multiple layers of our extended metaphor.

We begin with our extended metaphor and it is set up at the beginning of our poem.

Our extended metaphor is created by the language that Agbabi uses.

She uses words such as cell to describe the physical place where Pal and Arc live, uses the word locked to explain how there is no escape from the place where Pal and Arc live.

She uses the word parole to explain how Pal and Arc can sometimes leave or be released from the enclosed space.

Now the language that Agbabi uses provokes connotations.

So it provokes an idea or a feeling.

She provokes an undertone within her poem.

So the connections we can make between cell, locked, and parole is the feeling of being trapped.

It provokes or encourages the idea of the men being punished by not having their freedom.

They are enclosed in a tight space because, remember, Pal explains how him and Arc were too close together, and the idea of being in a cell as a tight enclosed space.

So this is where our extended metaphor develops.

Through Agbabi's use of language, we are then able to see the extended metaphor come to life.

She builds language upon language and constantly refers, so constantly mentions, the idea of prisons.

She doesn't explicitly say the word prison but instead she uses lots of language that makes us think of prison itself, and this is how the metaphor works.

Pal says that the brain is a cell.

He explains how he is locked away, that Arc goes out on parole.

These words connect and form the idea of prison.

Now why did Agbabi do this? Why does she create a prison within Emily's mind for Arc and Pal to exist in? One theory, one idea is that then that then the men from the original, "The Canterbury Tales" would know how Emily felt.

Remember, mediaeval Emily from "The Canterbury Tales" had no voice.

She was trapped inside her own mind.

She was unable to share her opinions, she was unable to make decisions for herself because men had all that power, because the men in her life had all that power.

But now, by being trapped within this prison, the men know how Emily felt.

What is the possible effect of using this extended metaphoric prison within the poem? Well, it could be that we understand how an unvoiced heroine, Emily, must have felt imprisoned in her own mind.

Remember, mediaeval Emily lived in a patriarchal society and would not have been able to share her opinion.

Agbabi could be punishing Pal and Arc for assuming that they could claim Emily, instead of within Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" where Palamon and Arcite eventually escaped from their prison in the tower.

The effect could be that the men are trapped because of their misplaced worship of Emily.

Within "The Canterbury Tales," "The Knight's Tale," Palamon and Arcite worship Emily.

Maybe they shouldn't have been worshipping Emily based on her looks, based on her beauty, and based on their instant love for her.

Instead, maybe they should have just been talking to Emily and getting to know her.

And therefore, maybe that's why Agbabi traps them.

Could be for some people who haven't read "The Canterbury Tales" that reading "Emily" by Robert Knightley would encourage them to feel sympathy for the men.

If we have not read "The Canterbury Tales" it would be easy to feel sympathy for these men who were trapped inside Emily's brain and have no escape.

And so it'd be easy to feel that way towards them.

Now we move on to the final task of today's lesson.

I'd like you, in a moment, to pause the video and to answer the questions on the screen.

I'll read through the questions.

Number one, what is an extended metaphor? Number two, why did Patience Agbabi imprison Arc and Pal within Emily's mind? Number three, can you explain the extended metaphor of this poem? You can pause the video and answer these questions in three, two, one.

Excellent.

So you should have paused the video and answered those questions on your sheet of paper.

We're now going to go through the answers.

Do not worry if you do not get exactly the same wording as me, that does not mean that your answer is incorrect.

Instead, use the answers on the screen to help guide your writing and support the ideas that you had written down.

So what is an extended metaphor? An extended metaphor is a metaphor that runs throughout a piece of writing.

That's excellent if you managed to remember what an extended metaphor is.

Perfect.

Why did Patience Agbabi imprison Arc and Pal within Emily's mind? Remember that poetry is completely up for interpretation.

So don't worry if you've thought of a different reason why Patience Agbabi might have imprisoned Arc and Pal.

Patience Agbabi possibly imprisoned Arc and Pal to punish them.

This is a good idea because most of the time, we refer to prison as imprisoning people for doing wrong, and it's to punish them.

That's absolutely perfect.

You could have extended your answer.

So Agbabi could possibly be punishing them for the actions of Palamon and Arcite, who did not care about mediaeval Emily's opinion on marriage in "The Knight's Tale." Number three, can you explain the extended metaphor of this poem? The extended metaphor of "Emily" is that the heroine's mind is described as a prison for Pal and Arc.

They are trapped, imprisoned inside her mind as punishment.

Well done if you highlighted in your answer that the extended metaphor was that Emily's mind was a prison.

That's perfect if you managed to include those points.

Well done! That concludes the end of our lesson today.

Thank you for your hard work in this lesson and well done for completing it.

Do you make sure that you answer the exit quiz on your way out of the lesson today.

I hope you can join us next time when we explore "The Friar's Tale" from "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer.