Study Sessions: STG English Revision

In this episode, we're exploring 'Storm on the Island' by celebrated Irish poet, Seamus Heaney. From the confident opening declaration that 'We build our houses squat' to the realisation that it 'is a huge nothing that we fear', this is a poem interested in the limits of human power and the raw intensity of the natural world.

In this episode, I'll be exploring 'The Prelude' by William Wordsworth. We'll be looking at the sublime power of nature, feelings of guilt and inner conflict, and the journey from childhood innocence to the world of adult experience.

Focusing on Act 1 of 'Romeo and Juliet', this episode is designed to help Year 8 revise and prepare for their end-of-year assessment. We'll look at Romeo and Juliet's first meeting in Act 1, Scene 5, as well as taking a brief look at other relationships in the play, including Romeo/Rosaline and Juliet/Nurse/Lady Capulet.

Designed to help you prepare and revise for your Year 9 end-of-term assessment, this episode examines Owen's much-anthologised poem 'Dulce et Decorum Est'. Focusing on the text's connections to the Aristotelian triad and classic rhetoric, I also want to draw your attention to the poem's distinctive and creative language choices, or diction .

Another quick pre-exam episode, this time looking at the most unsettling character in 'Lord of the Flies', Roger. If you enjoy this episode, why not check out the previous one on Ralph?

Short episode (with Paper 2 on Monday 20th May!) focusing on Ralph and an illuminating interaction with Piggy...

Beatrice Garland's poem 'Kamikaze', from her 2013 collection 'The Invention of Fireworks', explores themes of sacrifice, nature and the consequences of war. In this episode, we'll consider the poem's sudden perspective shift and poignant reflections on shame.

In this episode, we look at the role of the supernatural in the play, from the riddling, paradoxical witches (or weird sisters), to visions, hallucinations and phantom daggers!

In this episode, I explore the mechnical imagery in Hughes' 'Bayonet Charge' and the relationship between an individual soldier and the impersonal forces of history. Enjoy!

Often considered the trickiest poem in the 'Power and Conflict' anthology cluster, in this episode I'll show you how we can consider the poem in comparison with Shelley's 'Ozymandias' as an impressionistic exploration of human transience and fragility.

In this inaugural episode of our new English Literature revision podcast from the fine English teachers at St George's School, Blackpool, we explore the role of 'the beast' in William Golding's unsettling, adult-free allegory 'Lord of the Flies'.