In Paris With You by James Fenton To

In Paris With You by James Fenton • To analyse and understand the ideas in the poem. • To be introduced to the Final Assessment for this Unit. Brainstorm all the words that you associate with Paris. This could be objects, places or concepts and ideas.

Word Association Organise the words into two lists: • Words you do associate with love and romance • Words you don’t

Context § Fenton often uses very populist poetic forms in his writing. These can vary from the ballad form to mimicking nonsense verse and late Nineteenth Century poetry. § In Paris with You does not fit into a particular definition of a form such as the sonnet or elegy or villanelle. § Instead, he makes use of strong rhythms and rhymes to create a poem which seems to have a lot of life in it. § He also uses the layout of the poem on the page for effect – he indents the third stanza, which is also much longer than the others.

In Paris with You Old hotel room Doing this and that To what and whom Find and highlight any language techniques: • Alliteration • Metaphor • Pun • Repetition • Caesura, • Enjambment • Rhetorical question Don't talk to me of love. I've had an earful Learning who you are, And I get tearful when I've downed a drink or two. Learning what I am. I'm one of your talking wounded. I'm a hostage. I'm maroonded. Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris, But I'm in Paris with you. The little bit of Paris in our view. There's that crack across the ceiling Yes I'm angry at the way I've been bamboozled And the hotel walls are peeling And resentful at the mess I've been through. And I'm in Paris with you. I admit I'm on the rebound And I don't care where are we bound. Don't talk to me of love. Let's talk of Paris. I'm in Paris with you. I'm in Paris with the slightest thing you do. I'm in Paris with your eyes, your mouth, Do you mind if we do not go to the Louvre I'm in Paris with. . . all points south. If we say sod off to sodding Notre Dame, Am I embarrassing you? If we skip the Champs Elysées I'm in Paris with you. And remain here in this sleazy Within this first reading, what are your first impressions about this relationship?

▪ Point = What technique did the poet use, and for what purpose? ▪ Evidence = What line best proves your point? ▪ Explanation = What does the line mean literally and figuratively? ▪ Language = What words stand out? What are their connotation? ▪ Audience = What is the poet’s intention? What does she want the audience to feel?

In Paris with You Group 1 1. How does the opening line prepare us for the idea that this is not a typical romantic poem? (Think about both the language and caesura) 2. What does the phrase “I’ve had an earful” suggest about the narrator’s recent experience of love? 3. Look at the alliteration in line two: what effect does this have? Group 2 1. What does the pun in line three suggest? 2. At the end of line four Fenton uses some non-standard English – what does this suggest and what is its effect? 3. How does the final line of the first stanza change its tone? Group 3 1. What do we learn about the narrator’s feelings in stanza 2? How does this subvert our expectations of a romantic poem? 2. A more conventional way of writing line four would be “And I don’t care where we are bound” – why do you think Fenton changes the word order in the way that he does? 3. Why has Fenton italicised “not” in the first line of stanza 3?

In Paris with You Group 4 • The narrator clearly does not want to go to the Louvre, Notre Dame or the Champs Elysées: what does the narrator want to do instead, and what’s the effect on how we respond to the poem? • “Doing this and that” is clearly a euphemism. Given that Fenton was happy to use “sod off to sodding Notre Dame” earlier, why do you think he chooses not to be more explicit here? • How do the last two lines add to our understanding of how the narrator feels about themselves? Hint: look at Fenton’s use of “who” and “what”. Group 5 • Why do you think Fenton has indented the third stanza? • How does Fenton subvert our expectations of Paris and romantic poetry in stanza four? Look at the language he uses. Could this be a metaphor? • Fenton increasingly repeats the word “Paris” over these two stanzas – why? What do you think is the difference in the connotations of “Paris” here as compared to the specific locations mentioned in stanza 3? Group 6 • “”I’m in Paris with your eyes, your mouth” – is the narrator just giving us a geographical statement here? If not, what other meanings are at work? • “I’m in Paris with. . . all points south” – Fenton chooses to use euphemism here. Has his reason changed from the euphemisms of stanza three? What is the effect on the reader? • What is your overall impression of the speaker’s relationship? Refer to the whole poem.

Is this a love poem? If not, why not?

Introduction to the Final Assessment For your Assessment in this unit, you will produce: 1: Your own Love Poem ↖ You could use one of the poems you have already written in this Unit as a starting point, but you will need to develop this further ↖ The poem could be about either a positive or negative relationship. ↖ Think about the language and imagery in your poem- you could include, for example, an extended metaphor or linked ideas. ↖ If you really want to push yourself, you could decide to write either a Shakespearean or Petrarchan Sonnet, sticking to the Sonnet structure! 2: A fully annotated copy of your own poem, discussing: ↖ The language techniques/ imagery ↖ The Rhyme Scheme/ Structure ↖ Overall message and intended effect on the audience