1. ‘The Three Fates’- Rosemary Dobson
Thursday, 18 July 2019
What impression does this myth create of human life? How does it make you feel?
Do you recognise this myth or know any similar trios in mythology?
Clotho spun the “thread” of human fate, Lachesis dispensed it, and Atropos cut the thread (thus determining the individual's moment of death). The Romans identified the Parcae, originally personifications of childbirth, with the three Greek Fates. The Roman goddesses were named Nona, Decuma, and Morta.
‘The Three Fates’- Rosemary Dobson
What does “FATE” mean? Do you believe in Fate?
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

2. The Three Fates – Rosemary Dobson
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Complete the Examples and then turn to your PEE worksheet to create your paragraph.
Device/ Feature/ Technique
Definition
Example
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Homonym
List
Symbol
Tercet
Simile
Find these as you read the poem for the first time.
Saying something is ‘like’ or ‘as…as’ something else.
Words which sound the same but have different meanings and/or spelling.
A number of items connected by commas or connectives.
Exaggeration.
A thing which shows the themes of the poem.
Repeated sounds at the beginning of words.
Stanzas with three lines.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

3. The Three Fates – Rosemary Dobson
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Complete the Examples and then turn to your PEE worksheet to create your paragraph.
Find these as you read the poem for the first time.
Device/ Feature/ Technique
Definition
Example
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Homonym
List
Symbol
Tercet
Simile
Repeated sounds at the beginning of words.
Exaggeration.
Words which sound the same but have different meanings and/or spelling.
A number of items connected by commas or connectives.
A thing which shows the themes of the poem.
Stanzas with three lines.
Saying something is ‘like’ or ‘as…as’ something else.
Every attempt has been made to connect to the publishers regarding permission for fair usage of this poem in this resource. If this has not ben possible, the publishers are asked to please contact the author through Best_Newcomer_2009
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

4. Rosemary Dobson Biography
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Rosemary Dobson Biography
Rosemary Dobson was born in Sydney, Australia in and showed early promise as a writer. She has shown a fascination with European art and literature in her poetry. Her sister, Ruth, worked in the Australian Embassy in Greece and Rosemary visited her whilst travelling Europe and living in England.
When she moved back to Australia in 1971, she took a job at the National Library in Canberra.
“Her poetry has generally followed classical verse forms, and a deep respect and reverence for European  literary and artistic history and traditions has been an important element in Dobson's work, though some major poems also draw on Chinese influences. All these influences in her poetry have always been transformed through a specifically Australian sensibility.” rosemary
The Three Fates is from her 1984 collection which goes by the same name.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

5. Who wants to live forever?
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Who wants to live forever?
Consider how these problems would be worse if you were immortal:
Environmental damage
Memory recall
Boredom
Physical and mental decay
Lack of social change and progression (your racist, misogynistic Grandad never dies!)
Loneliness
Evolution will leave you behind!
Getting trapped/living in pain
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

6. The Three Fates – Rosemary Dobson
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Complete the Examples and then turn to your PEE worksheet to create your paragraph.
Find these as you read the poem for the first time.
Device/ Feature/ Technique
Definition
Example
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Homonym
List
Symbol
Tercet
Simile
Repeated sounds at the beginning of words.
Exaggeration.
Words which sound the same but have different meanings and/or spelling.
A number of items connected by commas or connectives.
A thing which shows the themes of the poem.
Stanzas with three lines.
Saying something is ‘like’ or ‘as…as’ something else.
Every attempt has been made to connect to the publishers regarding permission for fair usage of this poem in this resource. If this has not ben possible, the publishers are asked to please contact the author through Best_Newcomer_2009
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

7. What are the three sisters in control of?
Thursday, 18 July 2019
The Three Fates
What are the three sisters in control of?
At the instant of drowning he invoked the three sisters.
It was a mistake, an aberration, to cry out for
Life everlasting.
Why does she amend it from ‘mistake’ to ‘aberration’? Why not to ‘oopsie’?
Why is there enjambement here? Why are there just the two words on the next line?
A poem with three lines in each stanza is called a tercet. How do the stanzas link to the title?
Stanza 1
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

8. Thursday, 18 July 2019
The Three Fates
Fate, or destiny – they control the length of your life and make the events happen in a certain order.
At the instant of drowning he invoked the three sisters.
It was a mistake, an aberration, to cry out for
Life everlasting.
The pause makes the reader wonder what he wished for. The next two words being alone and so short makes the reader consider the potential effects of that wish.
It makes the mistake into something more severe – an act which destroys the natural order and goes against God/nature.
The tercet matches the three fates and the concepts of the beginning, middle and end.
Stanza 1
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

9. Thursday, 18 July 2019
What language feature is in this phrase? What does it suggest?
He came up like a cork and back to the river-bank, Put on his clothes in reverse order, Returned to the house.
What seems to be happening here?
What type of sentence makes up this stanza?
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

10. A list of the things he does instead of a natural death.
Thursday, 18 July 2019
The simile suggests that he comes straight back up to the surface because corks are so buoyant. It foreshadows how hollow and weightless his life will become.
He came up like a cork and back to the river-bank, Put on his clothes in reverse order, Returned to the house.
The adverbial phrase suggests that his entire life is running in reverse now.
A list of the things he does instead of a natural death.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

11. Thursday, 18 July 2019
What events does the unnamed man relive? How would he feel about it?
He suffered the enormous agonies of passion Writing poems from the end backwards, Brushing away tears that had not yet fallen.
How will the reader feel about life and death at this point?
What is so poignant about this last line?
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

12. Thursday, 18 July 2019
The pain of love is suggested in the first line. Writing poems is often associated with love and romantic wooing. It must be unsatisfying to start with the pleasure of finishing and then see work getting worse and worse before there’s nothing left except the awful anxiety of procrastination.
He suffered the enormous agonies of passion Writing poems from the end backwards, Brushing away tears that had not yet fallen.
Flipping the structure of life like this should (hopefully) make us feel grateful that events progress chronologically for us. We realise that his life (like all lives) has had a lot of sadness which he has to relive
This line suggests that he will know he is upset before finding out why. At least we understand what has upset us and may worry about the future, whereas he knows for certain that something awful will happen.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

13. What do these two hyphenated adjectives suggest?
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Is there a homonym (word which sounds the same) which would be significant here?
Loving her wildly as the day regressed towards morning He watched her swinging in the garden, growing younger, Bare-foot, straw-hatted.
How does this link to the poem’s title? How would the unnamed man feel?
What do these two hyphenated adjectives suggest?
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

14. Thursday, 18 July 2019
The tragedy of this situation is underscored with the homonym ‘mourning’.
Loving her wildly as the day regressed towards morning He watched her swinging in the garden, growing younger, Bare-foot, straw-hatted.
Even in these happiest lines, it is underpinned with sadness that he knows how it will all end and he cannot be with her – he is separated by time now.
They show a sense of innocence, naivety and happiness, telling us it’s summer and the woman he loves is continuing her life – all he can do is “watch”.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

15. Thursday, 18 July 2019
What has happened now?
What is the effect of the repeated ‘and’s?
And when she was gone and the house and the swing and daylight There was an instant’s pause before it began all over, The reel unrolling towards the river.
What does the reader discover is happening? What is the message?
What is the effect of the ‘r’ alliteration?
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

16. How are the same themes explored in this myth?
How are the same themes explored in this myth?
What similarities and differences do they have?
Similarities: 1. 2.
Differences:
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

17. He has returned to the time before he knew the woman/girl he loved
He has returned to the time before he knew the woman/girl he loved. The adverb “when” shows the inevitability of an end, even though it is now a beginning. Did he try to drown himself because the relationship ended or she died?
Thursday, 18 July 2019
It creates a sense of loneliness here, separating all the impressions of his life before her. The house shows their domestic life, the swing is symbolic of youth and innocence (and perhaps this new passage of time, swinging back and forth), the daylight represents the beginning and the end (religious overtones perhaps).
And when she was gone and the house and the swing and daylight There was an instant’s pause before it began all over, The reel unrolling towards the river.
We understand that he is trapped in an eternal life which runs backwards, so he has to relive all the good and bad times. It seems like a hellish alternative to the natural order, even though we suffer and death is the only ending for a reason.
The repeated r-sound mimics a noise like “the reel unrolling” and it creates a slightly aggressive or worrying mood, sounding like a growl.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

18. The Three Fates – Rosemary Dobson
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Complete the Examples and then turn to your PEE worksheet to create your paragraph.
Device/ Feature/ Technique
Definition
Example
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Homonym
List
Symbol
Tercet
Simile
Repeated sounds at the beginning of words.
“The reel unrolling towards the river”
Exaggeration.
“Enormous agonies of passion”
Words which sound the same but have different meanings and/or spelling.
“to cry out for/ Life everlasting”
A number of items connected by commas or connectives.
“and the house and the swing and the daylight”
A thing which shows the themes of the poem.
“swing”, “daylight”
Stanzas with three lines.
Any of them
Saying something is ‘like’ or ‘as…as’ something else.
“Like a cork”
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

19. Tell me about the structure of the poem….
At the instant of drowning he invoked the three sisters. It was a mistake, an aberration, to cry out for Life everlasting. He came up like a cork and back to the river-bank, Put on his clothes in reverse order, Returned to the house. He suffered the enormous agonies of passion Writing poems from the end backwards, Brushing away tears that had not yet fallen. Loving her wildly as the day regressed towards morning He watched her swinging in the garden, growing younger, Bare-foot, straw-hatted. And when she was gone and the house and the swing and daylight There was an instant’s pause before it began all over, The reel unrolling towards the river.
Tell me about the structure of the poem….
Thursday, 18 July 2019
The Three Fates
Reading Structure:
Draw a red line down the right side of the poem.
Do most of the lines reach the red? If so, it’s a regular structure. This suggests either comfort and familiarity through order and balance (as in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star below) OR too much control and feeling trapped.
If most of the lines don’t meet the red, it has an irregular structure. This can show chaos and disorder OR freedom and natural ease.
3. Where is the punctuation?
- If it’s at the end of the line, that suggests order.
- If it comes in the middle of the line it’s called a caesura and it suggests disorder and breaking.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

20. Level 8 Grade Descriptors
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Level 8 Grade Descriptors
Read the four grade descriptors and work out what the examiners want in your own words. Get ready to feedback.
Work in lots of short, linked quotations on the point you’re making. Embed them into your sentences.
demonstrates knowledge by incorporating well-selected reference to the text skilfully and with flair (AO1)
sustains a critical understanding of the text showing individuality and insight (AO2)
responds sensitively and in considerable detail to the way the writer achieves her/his effects (AO3)
sustains personal and evaluative engagement with task and text (AO4)
Come up with your own ideas and explain how they link to the essay question.
Go into lots of detail analysing how individual words, imagery, sounds, structure, etc. make the reader feel.
Keep mentioning the key words from the exam question and giving your own arguments.
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.
L.O.: Use more impressive vocabulary to elevate the sensitivity of your points and explanations about the character in the poem.

21. Thursday, 18 July 2019
Structuring your paragraphs: Explore how Dobson presents life and death in her poem ‘The three Fates’.
Language and Structural Features
Simile
Metaphor
Alliteration
Assonance
Enjambement
Personification
Point
Evidence
Language feature
Develop explanation
Alternative reading
Readers then and now
Background
Dobson is…
In the first/second line…
The impression we get of life and death is…
One way Dobson portrays life and death is through…
Dobson writes “……….”
which suggests…
The adjective/ simile/ metaphor/alliteration/ shows…
As a child, she could…or…
As an adult, Dobson…
Other readers may think… however I believe…
In the 1980s… Now…
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.
L.O.: Use more impressive vocabulary to elevate the sensitivity of your points and explanations about the character in the poem.

22. Can you go beyond these ideas?
Thursday, 18 July 2019
example paragraphs: Explore how Dobson presents life and death in her poem ‘The Three Fates’.
Without the natural order instilled by death, life becomes a hellish ordeal.
Goddesses who control the ‘thread’ of our lives.
different ways – language, structure and form
Why did this poet write this poem?
Point
Evidence
Language feature
Develop explanation
Alternative reading
Readers then and now
Background
Dobson is…
In the first/second line…
The man is…
One way Dobson portrays the man’s life is through…
Dobson writes “……….”
which suggests…
The adjective/ simile/ metaphor/alliteration/ shows…
The man could…or…
Other readers may think… however I believe…
In the 1980s… Now…
Can you go beyond these ideas?
SOLID IDEAS:
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.
L.O.: Use more impressive vocabulary to elevate the sensitivity of your points and explanations about the character in the poem.

23. Self assessment Key
Grab your colours and colour code the following:
= Point (relevant to the question)
= Quotation (even just one word)
= Language, form or structural feature (simile, question, debate, enjambment, etc.)
= Effect (on different readers, on you, showing the poet’s message)
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

24. Why is this poem important?
Thursday, 18 July 2019
Why is this poem important?
The themes of life, death, loss and love are universal human experiences.
This forms a miniature Greek tragedy, similar to the fate of Prometheus whose punishment for trying to steal the fire of life from the Gods was to have his liver eaten out of his body by an eagle every night for all eternity.
We should consider our relationships with life and death.
The irony of getting what one wishes for is a common trope in Literature, as is the struggle of immortality. Can you think of any more books, films or poems which link to these themes?
L.O.: Analyse Dobson’s use of language, structure and form to represent her thoughts and feelings about life and death in ‘The three Fates’.

25. Useful Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary_Dobson
Thursday, 18 July 2019Thursday, 18 July 2019
three-fates
wFile/11615/10951