Rationale

With the introduction of writing some of the first things that were documented were the songs and rhymes that had lasted in the oral tradition. From the old Druids in the Celtic region to the Māori traditions here in New Zealand, the documenting of the old stories was the first important focus.

Often these stories were long and needed to be remembered from generation from generation. To aid with the memory recall, the story teller would often use rhyme and rhythm to help. Thus, poetry was formulated. The first poems were more of the narrative kind as they told the stories of the group of people, but over time they morphed into small units of literature that use very specific words and phrases to create a really clear image for the reader.

Poems are an interesting art form. There is a fear about them. They are very complicated and can be seen as really difficult. However, before you can analyse a poem you need to learn how to read them. There is a skill to exploring how poems should be read which we will discover in this unit.

This is your first entry into a really analytical approach to this concept called literature. This is an academic response to a piece of writing.

There is no wrong answer, but you do need to justify your answer by using evidence from the text.