W.H.Auden- Musee des Beaux Arts

How is the story told?

•  This poem is about suffering and how it is always happening but others get on with their lives, and those suffering are unnoticed.
• One stanza in the middle, one line.
• Enjambement- could represent the isolation compared to the rest of the poem, whereby there are individuals and groups that are separate.
• Ekphrastic- using a painting as a poem, to tell the story of the picture through poem.
• Voice- is Auden as an art fan, and his interpretation of the paintings- Cencus at Bethlehem, Icarus etc- this is subjective as its his perspective and opinions- it is an observation.
• There is an irregular rhyming pattern- free verse structure.
• The setting is in an art gallery.
• There is no sense of time
• There are 3 stanzas.

These poems so far link  together about suffering, particularly Miss Gee.

W.H.Auden- Miss Gee

How is the story told?

•  Form- it is a ballad- in the form of a blues song
• Quatrain- 4 beats
• It has a regular metre
• ABCB rhyming pattern.
• Tone- is childlike, with the easy diction to understand. But it also has a serious, and ironic meaning behind it. The story is almost a cautionary tale that could cover the sadness that the poem expresses. The way that it is a song makes it more friendly to understand and more fun. 
• Setting- i imagine a small village, and church. 
• Miss Gee's clothing is described- 'with her clothes buttoned up to her neck'- Imagery and her street repetition.
• Time- shown through stanzas
• It is black comedy.
• Religion is used a lot- it could show the irony that she goes to church all the time but still gets cancer in the end. Possibly Auden making a statement about the church, his beliefs. She worked for the 'church bazaar', prayed regularly . Also she may have been sexual, as she wishes to be 'a good girl' she is ashamed of herself  and has dreams that subtly made point out that she may not be honorable, and certainly conflicting the ideas of the church.
• She is lonely- the readers become emotionally attached and feel sorry for her. She looks away at the couple. She is generally a good person.
• Linear chronology
•  Voice- the poets voice addresses the reader.
• The voice changes when the doctor talks about Miss Gee, he tells the story for a bit- we find out she has cancer. When this happens so does the mood, it becomes more serious and depressing as we know she is going to die.
• Linear chronology.
• The ending of her in a hospital being dissected by students is odd. It shows she is worthless, as she did not have a funeral. backing up the point she is alone, without any friends. It's very ironic and sad.
• The poem is written in a framed narration- start middle end. 

Debate between religion and science
Spinsters( unmarried women)- secret lives under appearance
Religion
Death
Life- the importance, that cancer could happen to anyone, even religious people
The voice is objective- cold voice, negative and to the point.

W.H.Auden- O What Is That Sound

How is the story told??

• It is a ballad- which is in quatrain (4 lines per stanza)
•  Form-it is a conversation- call and response between a couple.
• It is subjective
• It is phonetic ( the repetition of drumming drumming)
•  Binary opposition of 'brightly' and 'weapons'
• 'O' is an exclamation of dispair, used at the start of every stanza- it's woeful. The reassurance of 'only'
• ABAB regular rhyming pattern and metre
• Setting- in the war, the soldiers are coming for the man.
• The title is missing a question mark.
• The tone changes in stanza 7- 'cunning' - showing the end is coming- change in diction.
• Each line of each stanza sums up and tells the story.
• The story is of someone trying to evade signing up to fight or on the run from the army.

The History Boys- Act One

History boys analysis.

• The physicality of Hector, the boys teacher. He wears a bow tie, is flamboyant and eccentric. He creates slapstick comedy as he hits the boys. 

• There is clear characterization of Dakin at the start he is called the pretty boy and he likes attention from the teachers and is Hector's favourite. Posner is the typical bookworm, with the constant referencing of the dictionary.

• The boys mocking and feeding off Hector by saying the lines of 'King Lear', they encourage him to go off task- showing respect and his authority.

• The issue that Hector grooms the boys, all except Posner- this is a big problem today and would have been at the time- the fact that the boys do not mind about this, or they appear to not mind because they like Hector so much as a friend and a teacher. Towards the end of the Act 1, just after the Headteacher finds out what he has been doing, Dakin comes in and ask about having a lift home on Hectors motorbike, claiming ' its Wednesday sir'. The acceptance and the normality of the malasting is shocking.
•  A rivalry between Hector and Irwin forms.
• Irwin is the outsider of the group, but Posner has a different relationship with him, he could open up about being gay but not to Hector. Also Dakin agrees with the thoughts of Irwin about poems that they are all about unhappy endings.
• The two teachers debate the nature of education. This highlights their differences in terms of teaching methods. Hector is much more relaxed, but he is caring as he wants the boys to be cultured instead of learning the full syllabus as Irwin would do, he is focused on passing the boys through the exams. However Hector is attached to the boys.

Ideas for the essay : To think about the role that hector has for the boys, linked to comedy aspects.How the boys act towards the teachers, it is interesting how natural they are and prefer Hector over Irwin in general. The different teaching methods of the teachers.