After Reading and Listening Check your understanding
MANAGING MYSELF LITERACY
DEFINITIONS Refrain is a phrase or group of lines repeated at the end of each stanza in a poem or song.
BEING CREATIVE
1. What impression do you have of Maya Angelou as she recites her work? Think of three adjectives to describe her.
MANAGING INFORMATION AND THINKING
2. Who do you think the intended audience for this poem might be? Refer to the text of the poem when answering.
3. Identify the similes in the first four stanzas. In your opinion, which is the most effective and why?
WORKING WITH OTHERS R E E L
4. Angelou uses three strong metaphors in the sixth stanza. Which one is most effective, in your opinion?
NUMERACY R E E L
5. The poet uses the title of the poem as a type of irregular refrain (it doesn’t appear at the end of every stanza). In your experience of reading the poem and hearing the poet read it, is this use of refrain effective? Why?
STAYING WELL
6. In your own words, how would you explain Maya Angelou’s claim ‘I am the dream and the hope of the slave’?
R E E L . 66
7. With which adjectives would you describe the tone of the poem? Decide on at least two adjectives.
R E E L
8. How appealing is this poem to you, as a young person in Ireland today? Explain your answer by referring to the poem.
Text 2: The Proclamation of the Irish Republic, 1916 [extract]
Reading and Watching Context: Easter Rising 1916
The extract on page 168, which you may have encountered in history class or elsewhere, was written to be read aloud by Pádraig Pearse outside the GPO on 24 April 1916. At that time, the island of Ireland was still entirely within the British Empire and lacked independence and a right to govern itself.
Watch a 2016 reading of the Proclamation at the GPO [from 0:00 to 03:36] Link: RTE 1 Irish Proclamation 2016 Search Terms: RTE 1 Irish Proclamation 2016
