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New Mulberry English Course Poem Explanations: Coursebook 7 Poem 5: Geography Lesson

Explanation of the Geographic Lesson of New Mulberry English Course 7 by Oxford University is attached.

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Rithishvel S S
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2K views

New Mulberry English Course Poem Explanations: Coursebook 7 Poem 5: Geography Lesson

Explanation of the Geographic Lesson of New Mulberry English Course 7 by Oxford University is attached.

Uploaded by

Rithishvel S S
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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New Mulberry English Course

Poem Explanations: Coursebook 7

Poem 5: Geography Lesson

The speaker is a person who travels and has an appreciation for travel. When he
was a student, he had a teacher whose dream it was to sail to places he saw on the
maps. He shared this dream with his students. The teacher could not afford to
travel and he died rather suddenly without ever going to the places he had dreamt
of. He is soon forgotten at the school but the speaker later travels to the places and
thinks of his teacher who inspired his love for travel.

Line by Line Explanation:

The poem begins with the speaker saying that his teacher told his class of students
that one day he would leave the school and his work behind and sail across the
warm blue sea to distant places he had seen on maps. That is what he longed to do
all his life.

Even though his teacher lived in a narrow grey house, probably in a place that was
dull and cold, he imagined buildings with sweet scented jasmine hanging tightly
around the walls and orchards with green leaves shinning on orange trees.

The teacher talked about the places he wished to visit where it was never dull or
cold and the speaker never quite understood why his teacher did not leave his job
and all the responsibilities at the school that held him back. He failed to understand
why his teacher did not travel to all the places he described.

Halfway through the speaker’s final term, the teacher fell ill and never returned to
teach at the school. The speaker said that the teacher did not manage to travel to
places on the maps that he had always imagined, with the green leaves on orange
trees – implying that the teacher passed away without having fulfilled his dreams.

Soon the maps on the classroom walls were changed, and everyone forgot about
the teacher, but a lesson the teacher didn’t know he even taught remained with the
speaker and it is with him to this day – that is the love for travel.
The speaker traveled to those distant places on the map, where the green leaves
burn, where the ocean is as clear as glass and blue, to the places his teacher made
him fall in love with but which he never himself knew of.

Elements of Poetry

1. Theme: The impact of a teacher or an inspirational figure in our lives –


teachers transform lives.
2. Mood: Poignant
3. Purpose: To build an appreciation for those who touch and transform our
lives and sensitivity towards those who dream of things they can never
reach. Also to realize that often we think we may not have achieved much
but we have – the teacher did not realize the great impact he had had on the
life of his student.
4. Poetic Devices:
 Repetition: The poet repeats the image of the green leaves burning on
the orange tree three times in the poem. This image represents all the
places the teacher wished to visit – the ones he saw on the maps.
 Contrast: Phrases in the poem indicate that the life of the teacher was
dull, insignificant, colourless and suffocating: narrow and grey,
classroom walls, stranglehold, drab or cold, faded away, forgotten.
In contrast, the world he wishes to see, but never knew, is represented
by vibrant, warm, expansive images: sailing across a warm blue sea,
sweet-scented jasmine, green leaves burning on an orange tree, the
ocean’s glass-clear and blue.

Good to Know:

1. "I feel that poetry permits us to wake up our memory and association and
view familiar things in a different way. If I was to define poetry, I would say,
'One of the many things a poem can do / Is remind us what we forgot we
knew'" - Brian Patten
2. Here is a link to another poem by Brian Patten – it’s about words.
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=_zyy0A5Mc2UC&pg=PT133&source=
gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
© Oxford University Press

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