LIFE

Module Development
By V.Indira, DL in English – Wanaparthy

Subject : English

Class : UG- II Year- PU

Term : SEM-III

Topic/ Module : ‘LIFE’(Poem)

Prepared by : Dept.of English, Wanaparthy

No.of classes/ hours : 5 hours

Teaching aids : Text book, charts, etc.

Teaching Technique : Rhyming, Simile, Symbolism, Metaphor,etc.

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Objectives:
Students will be able to ….

 To enable the students to get an idea about sentences and rhythmic

lines at their own.
 Through reading poem ‘LIFE’ students should learn how to face
adversity in their life.
 Through poem learner will know how to overcome negative thoughts
and emotions.
 Life presents both opportunities and challenges, So learn from this
poem how do they think and respect to the challenges.
 Students with learn figure of speech by developing figure of speech
life as an assignment.

PRE – TEST:

1. Can you recall some happy moments of your life?

2. How should you face adversity?
3. What is the purpose of human life?
4. What is the real purpose of life?
5. Share your happy and unhappy, feedings
6. What are your happy but sad moments?

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Day – 1

LIFE - Charlotte Bronte

 The purpose of our lives is to be happy – Dalai Lama.

 Get busy living, get busy dying – Stephen King.

About the author:

Charlotte Bronte (1816 -55) was a 19th century English

written whose novel Jane Eyre(1847) is considered a classic of western literature.
She was the eldest of three Bronte Sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne). Charlotte
Bronte like many writers of her time, Originally published her poems and novels
(including Jane Eyre) under a male pseudonym (Pen name) – Currer Bell.

About the Poem:

The poem focuses on the realities of life and reminds us that

we have to face moments of joy as well as sorrow. Hope as well as despair in life.
However, The poet urges us to have a positive attitude and not be disheartened by
temporary setbacks. She encourages us to look beyond the immediate
disappointments and appreciate life has to offer. She asserts that in the battle
between hope and despair, although despair may seem more powerful initially, it is
hope that will win eventually.

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Class room Activity:

Q. Collect the list of famous authors and their pen names.

Authors Name Pen Name

Joanne Rowling J.K .Rowling
Theodore Seuss Geisel DR.SEUSS
Stanley Martin Lieber STAN LEE
James “Jim” D.Grant LEE CHILD
Samuel Clemens MARK TWAIN
Eric Blair GEORGE ORWELL
Teacher appreciate the students for their responsed answers

Assessment:

1. What is Charlotte Bronte’s writing style?

2. What is Charlotte Bronte famous for?
3. What was the pen name of Charlotte Bronte?
4. What were the names of Charlotte Bronte’s sisters?

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DAY – 2

Poem Analysis:

Stanza 1 :

“Life, believe, is not a dream

So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall ?”

Stanza 1 Summery:
Brontë begins this piece with a repetition of the title. It is made clear to the reader
form the beginning that this poem is going to be speaking on some element of life.
The speaker of this poem is seeking to pull back the shadow from life. She wants
to make clear to the reader that life is not something to be feared, or some dark
dream that one has to dread. The third and fourth lines speak of how something
that seems gloomy can foretell something “pleasant” such as a “little morning rain”
bringing forth a calm and lovely day.

She gives two additional examples in this stanza. The speaker brings up gloomy
clouds that cover the sky, and though these may seems ominous and foreboding,
will clear. They are “transient” and do not last forever. Her third example is in the
final two lines of this stanza. She ask the question, if the rain means that all the
roses will bloom, why should one “lament its fall?” There is no reason to be sad
over these elements of life as they will all pass or bring with them something
positive.
While the speaker is just discussing simple elements of nature, a deeper meaning
can be drawn from their relationship to real life. Clouds, just like bad days of
ones life, will clear and eventually end. Even though for a few minutes things may
seem retched, with rain pouring down, the rain will stop, and one’s outlook will be
better.

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Classroom activity:
Role Play –
Students enact a role play as:

Characters: 1. Poetess - One student

2. People - Four students
3. Sages - Two Students
4. A set of students as images of the poem.

The students will practice dialogues from the poem according to the time, action
and setting.

Suggestions and Feed back:

Dear students now as you have enjoyed the role play, now we welcome your
suggestion and feedback in their record.

Assessment:

1. What do the sages say in poem Life?

2. What does the rain often foretell in poem life?
3. Why are the phrase clouds of gloom apt?

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Day - 3

Stanza 2 :

“Rapidly, merrily,
Life’s sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly ! “

The second stanza of this piece is written much more lyrically. The words are
almost asking to be sung. One can imagine someone dancing, spinning in a circle
as they celebrate these phrases.

Life, the speaker says, will “rapidly,” and “merrily” fly by. The hours will pass
without notice until suddenly they are gone. The speaker is promoting a way of
living in which one appreciates and enjoys each hour that passes.

Classroom activity:

Share your happy and unhappy experiences in life which people you trust,
sharing your sorrow with others is one way of overcoming it. Learn more about the
ways to cope with loss.

Assessment:

1. What do life’s “sunny hours” refer to; and according to the poet, how should
we respond to them?
2. What was the meaning of 2nd stanza of four lines?

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Day - 4

What though Death at times steps in

And calls our Best away ?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O’er hope, a heavy sway ?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair !

The final stanza is the longest of this poem and conquers the more
daunting part of life, death. The first two complete sentences of this stanza are
questions in which the speaker is basically asking,”so what?” So what if “Death at
times steps in…?” So what if “sorrow seems to win?” These things are temporary.
The speaker is acknowledging that these things exist but she is not allowing them
to sway her.

The fifth line of this stanza is more hopefully. She describes hope
as having “elastic springs.” Even though “she fell” in sorrow, she will bounce back
up again in hope. Her “golden wings” are still “strong” and “buoyant” and will be
able to “bear us well.” This character in the poem can be representing the poet
herself, or perhaps someone she knows quite personally and has depending on for
support in the past, a mother or sister figure. The last four lines of the poem speak
of strength in which the speaker is promoting living “fearlessly” and “manfully”
(as a strong man would live).

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 She concludes with, when one’s day of “trial” comes (this
could be simply one’s most challenging day or the end times itself in which one
will be judged by God) be victorious in courage. No despair can quell the victory
one feels when holding on to hope; nothing can touch it, not even death.

Student Activity:
Lecturer: Let’s collect some famous/ We known poet/ poetess biographies.

Students: Okay madam.

Assessment:

1. What seems to win initially and over what?

2. What us described as “unconquered” and why?
3. What is the theme of the poem?

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DAY-5

Activity:

Group discussion on the poem:

By the end of the discussion students will know the life is full of meeting and
partings like whenever we face a sorrowful situation. We learn something good
from it.

Activity:

Glossary

Vocabulary: Charts Preparations

Students prepare a chart with all synonyms / antonyms of the vocabulary.

Comprehension – I

1. Examine the poet’s view of life and how it differences from conventional
wisdom.
2. Discuss the language and tone of the poem.
3. Bring out the main arrangement of the poem and judge whether it is
convincing

Post – Reading Activity:

1. Read the poem titled “Life’ by the well –known Indian poet Sarojini Naidu.
Compare and contrast the views expressed in the two poems.

CHILDREN, ye have not lived, to you it seems

Life is a lovely stalactite of dreams,
Or carnival of careless joys that leap

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 About your hearts like billows on the deep
In flames of amber and of amethyst.

Children, ye have not lived, ye but exist

Till some resistless hour shall rise and move
Your hearts to wake and hunger after love,
And thirst with passionate longing for the things
That burn your brows with blood-red sufferings.

Till ye have battled with great grief and fears,

And borne the conflict of dream-shattering years,
Wounded with fierce desire and worn with strife,
Children, ye have not lived: for this is life.

“Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the
choice of how you’re going to live through this.” — Celine Dion

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