WALT: engage with key ideas in poetry from the AQA anthology

Task (10 minutes)Read ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’. • Highlight all of the lines which describe old, happy memories• In a different colour, highlight all of the gruesome images of a

decomposing bodyWhy do you think the poet wants us to see this contrast?

WALT: engage with key ideas in poetry from the AQA anthology

Task (10 minutes)What attitude does the poet have towards death and religion?

You, God, who treat him thus and thus,Say ‘Save his soul and pray.’You ask me to believe You andI only see decay.

ExtensionSpecifically, which words or phrases show this attitude?

WALT: engage with key ideas in poetry from the AQA anthology

Task (5 minutes)Find three similarities between the final lines of ‘Ozymandias’ and ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’.

You, God, who treat him thus and thus,Say ‘Save his soul and pray.’You ask me to believe You andI only see decay.

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

WALT: engage with key ideas in poetry from the AQA anthology

You, God, who treat him thus and thus,Say ‘Save his soul and pray.’You ask me to believe You andI only see decay.

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Task (10 minutes)Compare how the final lines of these poems show the poets’ attitudes to death and God(s).

WALT: engage with key ideas in poetry from the AQA anthology

Task (10 minutes)• What have each of these examples done well?• How could they be improved?

Example 1Both talk to God and sound like they don’t like him. They both talk about decay which tells us they think when you die you rot away, which is disgusting. They are both obsessed with death.

Example 2In ‘Ozymandias’, the poet shows how everything falls into ‘decay’ eventually, even things which were once-great, like the monument of Ozymandias. ‘On a Portrait of a Dead Man’ uses ‘decay’ as the final word of the poem to reinforce the gruesome reality of death.

WALT: engage with key ideas in poetry from the AQA anthology

Task (10 minutes)Improve your own answer using these model answers to help you.

Example 1Both talk to God and sound like they don’t like him. They both talk about decay which tells us they think when you die you rot away, which is disgusting. They are both obsessed with death.

Example 2In ‘Ozymandias’, the poet shows how everything falls into ‘decay’ eventually, even things which were once-great, like the monument of Ozymandias. ‘On a Portrait of a Dead Man’ uses ‘decay’ as the final word of the poem to reinforce the gruesome reality of death.