Teaching Poetry for Key Stage 4
Study unit 3
John Keats
John Keats’ reputation rests on a few remarkably creative years. Born in 1795, he like
Shelley and Byron, had a very short life; in fact, all three died during a five year period
from 1820-1825. Keats was the youngest of the three and from the least privileged
background. His father was manager of a stables at Moorfields in London but died
when Keats was 8 years old. His mother remarried but died of TB when he was 14.
The children had already been sent to live with their grandparents and Keats remained
on very close and affectionate terms with his brothers and sisters throughout his life.
At the age of 16, he was apprenticed to a surgeon and, despite all his family tragedies
and upheavals, he succeeded in qualifying in medicine at Guy’s Hospital. He had,
however, already begun writing poetry. His early poems made an impression on the
literary editor Leigh Hunt who encouraged him to concentrate on poetry as a career.
His first volume was published in 1817; it received some good reviews but sales were
poor.
John Keats
Through the year 1818 he cared for his brother Tom who was dying of TB. In the
same year he met and fell in love with Fanny Brawne. Despite these emotional
distractions and serious financial problems, the next two years produced all his best
work. His poems never made money and although there were some good reviews, he
was also fiercely criticised and found this very hurtful. He became engaged to Fanny
Brawne but by the winter of 1819 he was, like his mother and brother, suffering from
TB and too ill to work. He offered to break off his engagement but Fanny Brawne
refused. Shelley encouraged Keats to join him in Italy for the sake of his health but by
the time he arrived at the end of 1820, it was already too late and he died three
months later in Rome at the age of 25.
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Teaching Poetry for Key Stage 4
Study unit 3
His work covered several poetic styles and he frequently re-wrote and revised earlier
work in the search for the perfect blend of subject matter and style. La Belle Dame Sans
Merci, which was published at the beginning of 1819, is a mysterious ballad with an
unearthly subject and a nightmarish atmosphere. It has echoes of earlier ballads
written in French and Italian as well as English.
What is wrong with you?
‘haggard’ = thin, drawn
‘granary’ = where grain
is stored for the winter
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
‘O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.
What kind of
relationship is this?
‘sedge’ = coarse grass/reeds growing in
water
‘O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms!
‘woebegone’ = miserable
So haggard and so woebegone?
The squirrel’s granary is full, So what time of year is it?
And the harvest’s done.
‘I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too.’
Is she real? Look for
evidence as to her identity
The title is taken from a medieval
French poem. It translates as
The Beautiful Woman without
Mercy
lily/rose = the colours of his
complexion
‘I met a lady in the meads, ‘meads’ = meadows
Full beautiful – a fairy’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.
‘I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look’d at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan.
= a belt made of flowers
As if she loved me
‘I set her on my pacing steed = horse
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A fairy’s song.
‘manna’ = food from
heaven, ie delicious food
‘She found me roots of relish sweet, = sweet tasting
And honey wild and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said
“I love thee true.”
‘elfin’ = belonging to the supernatural world
Why?
‘She took me to her elfin grot, = grotto, cave
And there she wept, and sigh’d full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
With kisses four.
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Teaching Poetry for Key Stage 4
Study unit 8
The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping
Shopping in London winter
is a real drag for the fat black woman
going from store to store
in search of accommodating clothes
and de weather so cold
Look at the frozen thin mannequins
fixing her with grin
and de pretty face salesgals
exchanging slimming glances
thinking she don’t notice
Lord is aggravating
Nothing soft and bright and billowing
to flow like breezy sunlight
when she walking
The fat black woman curses in Swahili/Yoruba
and nation language under her breathing
all this journeying and journeying
The fat black woman could only conclude
that when it come to fashion
the choice is lean
Nothing much beyond size 14
Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London on behalf of
Grace Nichols. Copyright © Grace Nichols 1984
7
8
Compare the environments depicted here. List the words and phrases she
uses to describe the background of each poem. Look at the references to
nature. How does she link the fat black woman with nature? How does
nature make her feel? Why is this important?
In The Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping she is in an alien habitat, a cold wet
British city. What trials and tribulations does she encounter on her shopping
trip? What forms of prejudice does she experience? What do you think of
her treatment by the salesgirls? How does she respond?
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Teaching Poetry for Key Stage 4
Study unit 8
Looking at Miss World
Tonight the fat black woman
is all agaze
will some Miss (plump at least
if not fat and black) uphold her name
The fat black woman awaits in vain
slim after slim aspirant appears
baring her treasures in hopeful despair
this the fat black woman can hardly bear
And as the beauties yearn
and the beauties yearn
the fat black woman wonders
when will the beauties
ever really burn
O the night wears on
the night wears on
judges mingling with chiffons
The fat black woman gets up
and pours some gin
toasting herself as a likely win
Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Ltd, London on behalf of
Grace Nichols. Copyright © Grace Nichols 1984
9 How are the themes introduced in the previous two poems extended here?
10 Consider the images of beauty in all three poems. Prepare a collage of the
images of beauty conveyed by the media in Britain today. Make a detailed
comparison of these images with the fat black woman’s ideas of beauty.
Present your conclusions to the class.
11 This group of poems creates a vivid picture of the life and the thoughts of
the fat black woman. Write an entry in her diary describing some of the
things that happen to her and some of her private thoughts and feelings.You
could try to tune into her language and rhythm by writing your diary in
Creole.
12 Grace Nichols uses the phrase ‘all this journeying and journeying’. Is she just
talking about the shopping trip? Taking all the poems together, what
journeys do you think she is referring to? Does she mean actual travel from
one place to another? What other kind of journeys are there?
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