Plath in English

Muiriosa

Hey Everyone,

The general reaction from mocks around the country is that Bishop is the female poet that has tended to come up most. I haven't heard much about Plath at all.

Did Plath come up for anyone doing the mocks??? I'd nearly prefer to write about her poetry than Bishops.

What do people think in general. Plath or Bishop more manageable???

Cheers.

smemon

Muiriosa wrote:

Hey Everyone,

The general reaction from mocks around the country is that Bishop is the female poet that has tended to come up most. I haven't heard much about Plath at all.

Did Plath come up for anyone doing the mocks??? I'd nearly prefer to write about her poetry than Bishops.

What do people think in general. Plath or Bishop more manageable???

Cheers.

plath is depressing and suicidal in her writing which makes her boring and dull to write about.

bishop is easy and more bluffable. just study bishop. for the real deal in june, hardy is guaranteed to come up.

Rockerette

smemon wrote:

plath is depressing and suicidal in her writing which makes her boring and dull to write about.

bishop is easy and more bluffable. just study bishop. for the real deal in june, hardy is guaranteed to come up.

firstly - how is hardy "guaranteed" can i ask?

and secondly, i disagree completeyl with your comment on plath being "depressing and suicidal in her writing which makes her boring and dull to write about"

i love writing about Plath - her and Elliott and the 2 on the course i could write endless pages on.

Muiriosa

smemon wrote:

plath is depressing and suicidal in her writing which makes her boring and dull to write about.

bishop is easy and more bluffable. just study bishop. for the real deal in june, hardy is guaranteed to come up.

Depressing and Suicidal maybe but there's a lot more to her than that. And plus what are too huge issues in modern Ireland?? Yeah - suicide and depression. I think if any is a banker for June, it's Plath.

Raphael

Plath or Bishop - Guaranteed
Yeats or Longley - Guaranteed

Just study those four, don;t take the risk of breaking it down more

Rockerette: I refuse to study Eliot. I like him too mich, I'd hate to ruin his poetry by dissecting it

smemon

hardy isnt on the course again until 2011 and hasnt come up in over 5 years. added to the fact that he's in the pre papers, i would say he's a dead cert to come up.

more so than any other poet. stop liking poets, they all brutal and no matter what one comes up i'll write a loada waffle saying how great such and such is and what a truly touching experience reading their poetry was...bla bla bla.

i'll get an A for it too.

Rockerette

Raphael wrote:

Plath or Bishop - Guaranteed
Yeats or Longley - Guaranteed

Just study those four, don;t take the risk of breaking it down more

Rockerette: I refuse to study Eliot. I like him too mich, I'd hate to ruin his poetry by dissecting it

Are you working on that STUPID theory of it being "essential" that 1 female, and 1 irish poet come up???
cos if you are... you deserve to get stung!
THEY ARE NOT GUARANTEED.

and its perfectly easy to study a poet that you love without ruining you appreciation for them. I happily study/write about Eliot, as i enjoy doing it so much

Rockerette

smemon wrote:

more so than any other poet. stop liking poets, they all brutal and no matter what one comes up i'll write a loada waffle saying how great such and such is and what a truly touching experience reading their poetry was...bla bla bla.

i'll get an A for it too.

get the **** over yourself.
you are coming across as such an ignorant pathetic person right now.
all the poets are "brutal"? yeah...
and you're just deadly arent ya?

smemon

Rockerette wrote:

get the **** over yourself.
you are coming across as such an ignorant pathetic person right now.
all the poets are "brutal"? yeah...
and you're just deadly arent ya?

i dont give a toss what any1 thinks of me, that aint gonna help me in june. im tellin ya right now, hardy will be sitting waiting for us in june. your a fool if you think he's not!!

he's not on the course for another 5 years and hasnt come up the last 5 years!!!! put 2 and 2 together. plus one female and 1 irish poet ALWAYS come up- check ur stats.

plus they are all brutal. the whole course is brutal apart from the creative writing. who in the right mind likes king lear, novels and poetry???

Rockerette

smemon wrote:

he's not on the course for another 5 years and hasnt come up the last 5 years!!!! put 2 and 2 together. plus one female and 1 irish poet ALWAYS come up- check ur stats.

plus they are all brutal. the whole course is brutal apart from the creative writing. who in the right mind likes king lear, novels and poetry???

yeah of course i have looked at past papers, but all im saying is that its not an official rule.. so therefore IS NOT GUARANTEED.


"Who in there right mind..." - me. i do. i like poetry. i like good novels. i like good drama, didnt like lear, but hey, i dealt with it.


Jee, if only i was like you and was "too cool" for the english course
*sighs*

smemon

Rockerette wrote:

Jee, if only i was like you and was "too cool" for the english course
*sighs*

im not too cool for english, i just dont like reading, h8 reading in fact. hate poetry & shakespeare too. that said i was one of the 4.8% in the country that got a A at JC level and i expect to do the same at HL.

ive earned the right to criticise english, im not just saying it because i cant understand it or dont do it.

Rockerette

smemon wrote:

im not too cool for english, i just dont like reading, h8 reading in fact. hate poetry & shakespeare too. that said i was one of the 4.8% in the country that got a A at JC level and i expect to do the same at HL.

ive earned the right to criticise english, im not just saying it because i cant understand it or dont do it.

you've earned a right???? based on what?!?!?
an A at junior cert?

Rockerette

(Ok by the way im not looking for an argument here.... i dont want to fight.. cos i'll end up shouting abuse at you or soemthing

i just love english so much.. and call me a loser, but poetry is somethign i hold very close to my heart - it annoys me when i hear people unjustifiably critising poets i admire )

smemon

Rockerette wrote:

(Ok by the way im not looking for an argument here.... i dont want to fight.. cos i'll end up shouting abuse at you or soemthing

i just love english so much.. and call me a loser, but poetry is somethign i hold very close to my heart - it annoys me when i hear people unjustifiably critising poets i admire )

and thats exactly what i say when i write about them, but im lying through my teeth. i fail exams when i criticise poets so im forced to write nice things about them and then go wayy over the top. dont worry, i'll not fight over english

Rockerette

ok ok... we'll agree to differ!

i hate fighting with people...




and is that statistic really 4.8%?
i feel special now..... i was one of those people too...

Dagnir Glaurung

smemon wrote:

and thats exactly what i say when i write about them, but im lying through my teeth. i fail exams when i criticise poets so im forced to write nice things about them and then go wayy over the top. dont worry, i'll not fight over english

There is no reason for you to fail exams when criticising unless you aren't terribly good at it. Everything on the course has it's weakness and can be attacked. It's slightly harder obviously because everything is excellent.

smemon

Rockerette wrote:

ok ok... we'll agree to differ!

i hate fighting with people...




and is that statistic really 4.8%?
i feel special now..... i was one of those people too...

yes it was whenever i did mine in 2003. we mete again in june 2006 rockerette.

Rockerette

indeed we do smemon, indeed we do.....



2003 - i remember i wrote a terrible composition on "a summers evening" or soemthing... and my poetry was on... September 1913 by Yeats i think, and a really cool one called "5 ways to kill a man".. and then the merchant of venice... aaaah Shylock... and Oh yes, To Kill A Mockingbird - i hated it at first, but by god it grew on me.

X-SL

smemon wrote:

i fail exams when i criticise poets so im forced to write nice things about them and then go wayy over the top.

It's stupid but that's really the way it is:rolleyes:

smemon

cant remember what i wrote, just used my usual 'bluff' tactic added with the reliable 'i love poetry and shakespeare' and bang, i get an A. easy as that.

no work, no hassle, just write a few pages or rubbish and bob's your uncle. h8 when people overrate these things and come out asking how did you do and what the answer to such and such.

cdak68

sometimes I feel dirty when I pontificate on the beauty of GM Hopkins' poetry and its relevance to our lives today...

Rockerette

btw my new friend smemon, if you fail when you say negative things about the poets, you're obviosuly not expressing yourself very well... and probably making negative comments that you cant back up...

my english teachers marks the exams, and he has no problem at all when you write negative things, just once you can back up what youre saying with a decent argument, no just empty "he's ****e and i hate him" comments...

Rockerette

cdak68 wrote:

sometimes I feel dirty when I pontificate on the beauty of GM Hopkins' poetry and its relevance to our lives today...

that was the first poet i did in 5th year, and i wrote such a weird essay on him... basically saying how much of a slight weirdo he was, which is somethign i can relate to... "life death does end, and each day dies with sleep" - was my opening quote... saying how i can understadn that feelign of wanting a day to end...

Raphael

smemon wrote:

im not too cool for english, i just dont like reading, h8 reading in fact. hate poetry & shakespeare too. that said i was one of the 4.8% in the country that got a A at JC level and i expect to do the same at HL.

ive earned the right to criticise english, im not just saying it because i cant understand it or dont do it.

Wow, I actually feel ashamed to be in that 4.8% with you. Odd that. Oh, and I love Lear, a large portion of the poetry on the course, quite a bit of poetry off the course and reading in general. Guess I should be commiteted so.

Rockerette: They've always come up. And there would be unholy consternation if they didn't.

smemon

Raphael wrote:

Wow, I actually feel ashamed to be in that 4.8% with you. Odd that. Oh, and I love Lear, a large portion of the poetry on the course, quite a bit of poetry off the course and reading in general. Guess I should be commiteted so.

this is gettin ridiculous. this is like an english A1 club on here where everyone loves everyone's work and we're all sippin champagne as we look through our nose glasses at a shakespeare novel.

common, wheres man on the street??! he'll agree with me! the majority hate poetry and shakespeare.

Rockerette

Raphael wrote:

Rockerette: They've always come up. And there would be unholy consternation if they didn't.

i disagree.....
yeha, they probably will come up this year, and i dont necessarily expect them "not" to come up...

But its spreading everywhere (not helped by those twats at lesson st telling people in my year who went there over christmas that its COMPULSARY for 1 irish and 1 female to come up - NOT TRUE) that thats the way.. soon enough it'll change i bet, and some people will get a very nasty shock :rolleyes:

otherwise, why not just learn of Bishop and Plath and youre sorted no?? (for our year at least).

despite what we may think sometimes, the dept. aint completely stupid and im sure are well aware of this "official" rumour going round about females/irish poets.


just my thoughts.

Im merely stating its not definite.....

Raphael

I didn't get it from a rumour, I just looked at the past papers & looked at it logically. They always have. If the department didn't put a female and an irish poet on the course then people would complain. It was the exact same thing in the old course with the Anglo Irish poets.

And if you learn all 4 you have a choice of 2 on the day in case an awful question comes up.

smenon: Little bit of advice: You're not everyone. Just because you hate literature, doesn't mean everyone does. And by "man on the street" do you mean your average student, or your average person.

Aoibheann

smemon wrote:

this is gettin ridiculous. this is like an english A1 club on here where everyone loves everyone's work and we're all sippin champagne as we look through our nose glasses at a shakespeare novel.

common, wheres man on the street??! he'll agree with me! the majority hate poetry and shakespeare.

Well, Junior Cert subjects don't have A1s for there to be a club. Besides, isn't the A quota higher than that, meaning that there'd have to be a lot more than just 4.8% of the JC students getting As. In my class alone, every single one of us got an A in the junior cert. That's one-fifth of the year. Others in the next class got As too. So either we're abnormally above average as a school, or the average is much higher than you say.

Also, if people don't like the english course, why are they even bothering to complain? Nobody likes the maths course, the irish course, the whatever... well, except a few, but exceptions to every rule and all that. Anyway, point is, it's school, nobody's really meant to enjoy it. If you happen to like the texts and poetry, it's a much welcome bonus..

smemon

Aoibheann Brady wrote:

In my class alone, every single one of us got an A in the junior cert. That's one-fifth of the year. Others in the next class got As too.

everyone in the class got an A in english? how many was in the class, 1?! the average was indeed 4.8%, dont forget we're talking about out of 60000 or something so around 3000 got an a at JC english.

Raphael

Actually, statistcally speaking 15% of people should have gotten As. and seeing as they do balance out the grades, it was probably closer to that.

Aoibheann

smemon wrote:

everyone in the class got an A in english? how many was in the class, 1?! the average was indeed 4.8%, dont forget we're talking about out of 60000 or something so around 3000 got an a at JC english.

There's 30 students in my class. All with As. That class alone makes up slightly more than 20% of the year. Then add in the other few As and you're up another percent or two..

The quota is 15% of the total junior cert students, as was just said, and it tends to be around/at that mark.