Helpful things:

1. Helpful things: Revision books for sale(who’d be interested?) English blog- it’s great! http://shenglishdept.wordpress.com We’ll add some of our completed essays next week.

2. The Hunchback in the Park By Dylan Thomas

3. Homelessness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_4kX9yt9CE

4. Dylan Thomas is the most famous Welsh poet of all time, this poem is based on his own experience. “We knew every inhabitant of that park; every regular visitor; every nursemaid; every gardener; every old man. We knew the hour when the alarming retired policeman came in to look at the tulips and the hour when the old lady arrived in the bath-chair with six dogs, and a pale girl to read aloud to her. I think she read the newspaper, but she always said she read the Wizard. The face of the old man who sat summer and winter on the bench looking over the reservoir. I can see clearly now and I wrote a poem long after I’d left the park and the sea-town called: ‘The Hunchback in the Park’.”

5. Summary: This is the sad story of a homeless man who is different from others, both physically (he has a deformity, hence "hunchback") and mentally. As a result, he is isolated and spends all day in the park. He is tormented by the local children and also has to avoid the park keeper. The tramp's life is lonely, miserable and full of fear.

6. No title or name ‘The Hunchback’ -’Solitary mister’-lack of respect? De-humanises him.  The visitors to the park know the hunchback and that he is always alone. Labeled by his disability. How does the length of the line support this? What does the word propped suggest? The hunchback in the parkA solitary misterPropped between trees and waterFrom the opening of the garden lockThat lets the trees and water enterUntil the Sunday sombre bell at dark Surrounded by natural world alliteration of the ‘s’ sound emphasises the sadness that it is the end of the day. The park’s closure means he becomes homeless.

7. Verbs list the three basic essentials for life. They’re shocking ones as the hunchback only has the basics to sustain him. Also he sleeps in a ‘dog kennel.’ This shows that the hunchback has a fairly hand to mouth existence and appears little more than an animal; one step up from a dog. Childish point of view – contrast between a free, playful young boy and the homeless man Eatingbread from a newspaperDrinking water from the chained cupThat the children filled with gravelIn the fountain basin where I sailed my shipSlept at night in a dog kennelBut nobody chained him up. ambiguous. It is almost as though the narrator is suggesting that maybe the hunchback should have been chained up as far as his young self believed because he was not normal. Could also suggest that nobody needed to chain him up because he was already ‘chained’ by his poverty The children are selfish-they don’t care about what the hunchback needs.

8. He enjoys the beauty of the park. The natural beauty of the park is in contrast to the degradation of his sleeping accommodation. Similes link the tramp to the natural world so that he seems part of it, suggests he has become part of his environment. Like the park birds he came earlyLike the water he sat downAnd Mister they called Hey misterThe truant boys from the townRunning when he had heard them clearlyOn out of sound suggests that the boys wanted the hunchback to hear their taunts. - an act of bravado on the part of the boys. The boys mocking shouts are written phonetically- how they sound-effect = realistic interesting image. -‘out of sound’ instead of ‘out of sight.’ Could suggest that they run far enough so the hunchback’s response is not audible or until the sound of their feet or taunts can no longer be heard.

9. The boys copy the hunchback’s posture – acting cruelly about something that he cannot alter and which is a disability. Past lake and rockeryLaughing when he shook his paperHunchbacked in mockeryThrough the loud zoo of the willow grovesDodging the park keeperWith his stick that picked up leaves. Metaphor: the tramp feels like he is an animal in the zoo – watched, gawked at for entertainment Child-like, boyish or possibly animalistic imagery – a word not usually associated with a grown man. Does this make the hunchback seem more wild and free or is it just the voice of the boy (speaker) coming through? Childish description – innocence?

10. Animalistic imagery – up early with the birds, moves around like an animal, dodging the park keeper etc. Has a basic life, simple food, ties into the isolation he feels – he is a creature on the outskirts without human feelings? He is trapped but also free like an animal in the way he exists in nature without ties – he’s free to roam and dream And the old dog sleeperAlone between nurses and swansWhile the boys among willowsMade the tigers jump out of their eyesTo roar on the rockery stonesAnd the groves were blue with sailors He feels alone even when he isn’t. Contrasts with the boys friendship. Metaphorical - endlessness of the boys’ imagination – imaginary games. Or suggests boys are free and wild

11. The only person he has is in his dreams Simile. Woman is compared with nature – strong and tall. Compares her to nature like the tramp. Made all day until bell timeA woman figure without faultStraight as a young elmStraight and tall from his crooked bonesThat she might stand in the nightAfter the locks and chains He imagines that she will protect him. Morose, sad tone – he imagines a woman without fault – she stands with him, straight and perfect in contrast to the hunchback Not clear if this woman is imaginary or real. She has qualities that the hunchabck would admire.

12. The boys are ‘wild’ like ‘strawberries.’ Wild strawberries are small and very bitter or very sweet - the hunchback actually relishes the human contact they provide him with? Or they are red the colour of danger? ‘Innocent’ contrasts with their cruel mockery All night in the unmade parkAfter the railings and shrubberiesThe birds the grass the trees the lakeAnd the wild boys innocent as strawberriesHad followed the hunchbackTo his kennel in the dark.  Another comparison of the hunchback to a dog- dehumanises him. the reader is left unsure, in the ‘dark,’ as to what we should take from this poem

13. FORM: The poem contains several characters; the boys, the narrator who tells us about the hunchback and the hunchback himself. ANIMAL METAPHORS: Used to show how uncivilised the hunchback is, and to suggest how wild the boys are. ATTITUDES AND FEELINGS: LONELINESS: The hunchback is isolated from society and lonely. THOUGHTLESSNESS: The boys are cruel, but the poem also says they are innocent, maybe they are unaware of the consequences of their actions? VULNERABILITY: The vision of the woman shows the hunchback needs to be protacted. IDENTITY,NEGATIVE EMOTIONS STRUCTURE: The poem is a series of observations. The poem looks regular, with seven clearly separate stanzas, all of which have the same number of lines (six). However, the punctuation is irregular and minimal: there are only three full stops in the whole poem (at the end of stanzas two, four and seven). The gaps between the stanzas assist us in reading the poem aloud. The lack of organisation (because of an absence of punctuation and irregular, inconsistent rhyme) could reflect a lack of stability in the life of the "hunchback".

14. Look through the following list of words. Which would you use to describe the old man?  Why? Friendly familiar Isolated despised neglected lonely irritable helpless self-pitying poorimaginative uglyfrightening still proudsad humble

15. Links with other poems:

16. Not all doom and gloom… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lki_IeM6bQ

17. Links with other poems: Casehistory: Alison (head injury) • Both deal with figures who are isolated in some way (though for very different reasons). • Disability is central to both poems. • Both warn against judging by appearances. Alison is not merely a set of notes (a "casehistory"); she has a past and distinct present. The term "hunchback"reflects that he is judged and known only by his appearance. • Both central characters' lives are, for different reasons, empty. • A reader will certainly feel sympathy for both characters.