Year 9 - English
How Armitage writes about personal events and memories in 'Harmonium'
Simon Armitage: writing your world
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils learn more about how to read and write poetry by listening to words of wisdom from the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage. They read a range of his poems about his life and the wider world, and start to write increasingly poetically in response to them.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to respond to how Armitage writes about personal events and memories in 'Harmonium'.
Key Notes
- Armitage wrote 'Harmonium' as a response to his memories of church and his relationship with his father.
- Armitage suggests that you should avoid being too sentimental when writing poetry about personal events.
- Instead, you need to think about how the function of a poem is to convey an emotion.
- For him, he wants the emotion to be recognisable to people who may not have had the same experiences.
Vocabulary To Learn
- harmonium: a keyboard instrument that produces sound through foot operated bellows
- sentimental: strongly influenced by emotional feelings
- recognisable: familiar because of having been seen or experienced before
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Poetry about a personal event should be as emotional as possible.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Armitage wrote 'Harmonium' as a response to his memories of church and his relationship with his father. Armitage suggests that you should avoid being too sentimental when writing poetry about personal events.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'harmonium'
a keyboard instrument that produces sound through foot operated bellows.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Poetry about a personal event should be as emotional as possible. Correction: Armitage suggests that poetry about personal events should convey emotion without being too obvious or too sentimental.
More Lessons In This Unit
- How Simon Armitage writes about climate change in 'Futurama' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about hope in 'We'll Sing' and 'Only Human' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about human connection in 'All Right?' and 'Give' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about life in 'About his person' and 'Poem' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about news and media in 'Transmission Report' Study Guide
- How Simon Armitage writes about the world in 'Resistance' and 'Out of the Blue' Study Guide
- Simon Armitage and the power of poetry Study Guide
- Simon Armitage talks about 'I am very bothered' and 'My father thought it' Study Guide
- Writing about the self and the world with Simon Armitage Study Guide
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