English

We are the tenants

With close reference to the text, discuss the poet’s use of imagery to describe the North.

The Poem 'We are the tenants' by Kapka Kassabova, uses imagery to describe the North Island of New Zealand. Kapka uses similes to show how they see the North in their eyes, especially in the first stanza. The simile; 'The people smile with missing teeth like hosts of a drunk party.' shows how they see the people in the north. Implying more negative connotations of the people of NZ. This simile however, shows how they view the North itself 'The hills are packed like cement,' which implies that they see the North as old and hard, looks like it's been there for centuries. Or possibly that the hills look man made. That New Zealand doesn't look as pristine as they had hoped. This simile linked with the metaphor 'cemeteries lush with centuries of flesh.' really enhances what they are describing the North to be; packed in tight, full, hard and old, giving it a more negative connotation.

Limestone

Explain how contrasts of ideas are important in the passage. Give details from the text to support your answer.

Limestone, by Fiona Farrell, contrasts two ideas that are important in this passage; The exceptions she come back to and the realties that are. A significant way Farrell shows the contrast on both of these key ideas is diction and figurative language.

"...that dream of primeval beaches scattered with driftwood, and dark forests, and plains"
- expectations
"That dream she knows to be corrupted by reality"
-Reality
"Legendary and beautiful from 30,0000 feet, shorn of their clutter of rusted cargo boats and effluents and chemic spills and millennia of quarrelsome human history." 
- Human impact
"...we're all trying to paddle towards perfection but we don't know how to get there, so we squabble and fight." "all just trying to find happiness" - Understanding

threatened, burned, corrupted, arguing, cramped - negatives connotations - Reality

dream, perfection, primeval, happiness, settles and bulking herself in - Positive connotations - Expectations

FIRST:
Lament - is an expression of sadness. With close reference to the text, discuss the style used in the non-italicised section of the poem to convey this sadness.

In the poem Lament, one of the aspects of style is repetition, which effectively conveys the idea of sadness. The repetition of ‘it does not matter if…’ helps to show the idea of this person's grief and sadness. Saying things like; ‘It does not matter if’ ‘...I am happy,’ ‘if...I am sad,’ ‘if...he is gone,’. This use of repetition starts off each stanza of the poem, showing their sadness each and every time. Reminding the reader of their grief. 

Personification and diction - choice of words - ‘ front door trembles like a lip.’ ‘windows poke out their tongues for a drop of water’ ‘trees keep their shadows tightly to themselves’ ‘ - very unique sayings, not something you would usually hear people saying or even written before. - shows us what their surroundings are in an almost gloomy tone. Making these objects seem sad themselves.

-Ran out of time.