Identifying how poets reflect desire in natural settings
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can identify similarities and differences between ‘Sonnet 29’, ‘Love's Philosophy’ and ‘Letters from Yorkshire’.
Key learning points
- Shelley, Barrett-Browning and Dooley use natural imagery in their poems to depict an idealistic view of love and desire.
- Shelley, Barrett-Browning and Dooley convey an element of distance in the speaker’s relationship in their poems.
- Both Shelley and Barrett-Browning convey sexual desire within romantic relationships through natural imagery.
- Dooley is the only poet to depict an ambiguous and seemingly platonic relationship.
- Both Shelley and Dooley indicate that their speaker’s desire remains unfulfilled by the end of their poems.
Keywords
Desire - intense longing or craving for something or someone
Ambiguous - unclear or open to interpretation; having more than one possible meaning
Yearning - deep longing, often associated with emotional desire
Intellectual - characterised by rational thinking and knowledge
Unfulfilled - desires, goals, or expectations not met; lacking satisfaction
Common misconception
Shelley's poem presents a purely positive view of love.
Interspersed among his speaker's overblown philosophical descriptions focused around the beauty of natural symmetry, it's possible to read an element of frustration that the speaker's feelings of desire are unrequited.
Teacher tip
Encourage students to match up key quotations from across all three poems as part of their revision to find similarities and differences between the poems.
Equipment
You will need access to 'Sonnet 29' (Barrett Browning), 'Love's Philosophy' (Shelley) and 'Letters from Yorkshire' (Dooley). They can be found in the AQA Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sexual content
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.In 'Sonnet 29', Barrett-Browning describes her intense thoughts of her absent lover using an extended metaphor to compare her thoughts to...
Q2.In 'Love's Philosophy', Shelley uses natural imagery and __________ imagery to imply that there is a moral good associated with togetherness and natural symmetry.
Q3.In 'Letters from Yorkshire', the speaker's relationship with her friend could be interpreted in multiple ways so the definite meaning is uncertain. We would describe this as...
Q4.Match up each of these quotations to the correct image
Q5.If two people have a close, affectionate relationship but there is no sexual attraction between them, we could describe this relationship as ... or ...
Q6.When selecting supporting evidence, you should make sure quotations are precise, accurate and judiciously chosen. What does 'judiciously' mean here?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What does 'desire' mean?
Q2.What does the word 'intellectual' mean?
Q3.Which poem is said to be autobiographical, rumoured to be based on the poet's own courtship with their spouse?
Q4.In the final line of 'Letters from Yorkshire', Dooley describes how their "souls" communicate across the distance between the speaker and the man from Yorkshire. Which type of desire does this link to
Q5.Which of the following statements below is true about the relationship between 'Letters from Yorkshire' and 'Love's Philosophy'?
Q6.Which of the following statements below is true about the relationship between 'Sonnet 29' and 'Love's Philosophy'?
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: Identifying how poets reflect desire in natural settings, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 English lesson on: Identifying how poets reflect desire in natural settings, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 English lessons from the 'Love and Relationships' unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.