Lesson 3 Poetry

Objectives

■ To practise strategies for reading poetry.

■ To study imagery, especially the use of metaphor and simile.

■ To practise using idiomatic language.

Resources used

Lexicon.

Possible problems

If students do not appreciate poetry and the use of imagery in Chinese, they may approach poetry in English with a negative attitude and find it difficult to think of imagery themselves.

Background

Li Bai (701-762 A.D.), a famous Chinese poet in Tang Dynasty, whose poems express enlightened thinking, attack dignitary in his time with intense patriotism, and the style of which is bold and unconstrained.

Routes through the material

If you are short of time, set some of the exercises for homework.

If you have time, do the Options activities.

If you have two periods for this lesson, a suitable natural break is after Exercise 4.

Language Power: pages 80-81.

Reading

Before you start

Exercise 1

■ Elicit from students as many as famous contemporary Chinese poets. Ask them who is their favourite and why.

■ Have individual students read out the Key Words to check pronunciation and give them time to check the meaning of the Key Words in the Vocabulary of the lesson.

Exercise 2

Key Words: