The Maori People - Korero

Rain:

How will I not rely on the powerpoint?

Put the poem up on the board talk it through, ask them to complete a few activities

Plan:

-Start by asking them what the four different types of writing are.

-We were looking at the novel as a type of narrative and descriptive writing and how authors of novels vary their sentences to enhance their work. Who can tell me what the three sentence types were? Get them to do the activities.

-What can you tell me about poetry?

The Maori people have always placed great importance on the ‘korero’ and storytelling, and this is shown especially in the poem “Rain”. There are no instances of punctuation in this poem, and because of this, what is a very profound poem, in its diction and matter is stopped from becoming formal- we feel a connection to the almost conversation-like tone (assisted by the use of poetic apostrophe) of the poem and as such understand the poet’s thoughts and feelings much more comprehensively than we would if the poem had been correctly structured and the matter presented to the readers in a formal setting. We can understand that the use of punctuation in this poem would ‘cage’ the ideas and spirituality of the poem and as such does not fit with the poet’s intentions.^[a]

To further exemplify his connection with the land, Tuwhare acknowledges the rain as a personality- one he is in awe of, much in the way we feel when we talk to people such as war veterans- it astounds us to think of all they have seen in their lifetime. And for Tuwhare the knowledge that the rain has been there since the beginning of time and will continue to be long after he has gone affects him on a spiritual level. He feels his spirituality is connected to the rain- it ‘defines’ him and ‘disperses’ him, even when he ‘should not hear/smell or feel or see you’, giving the idea that his spirituality is not constrained by boundaries, it is ever-reaching even after death

Good. It also shows how insignificant we are in comparison to the timelessness of nature.

Like “Rain” Tuwhare speaks of nature in reverent tones, as something hugely profound that affects him on a spiritual level

The wealth of ideas, language techniques and emotion Hone Tuwhare infuses into his poetry make reading it an… experience. One that remains with the readers long after the conclusion of the poems, especially the messages on nature- what it means to mankind and what we are doing to this beauty that has been gifted us.^[b]

Mood: It has a feeling of longing, love and the fear of losing someone

Content: On the surface it is someone talking about rain but if we look deeper it is about the rain being the symbol for a person and defining the writer.

The language: The language is quite colloquial. Senses are used a lot. Rain is the last word in the first and second stanza which ties the poem together.

Literary devices: Personification gives the rain human qualities. Enjambment.

No use of punctuation. Contrast 5th stanza with the sun and the rain. Alliteration. Repetition, me, you. Onomatopoeia, 4th stanza. Caesura- ending of each line.

TONE is how the author or speaker FEELS about whatever it is he/she is talking about.

So, the MOOD is how THAT TONE made you, the reader, feel; in other words, what “atmosphere” or “environment” is created?

The poem does a terrific job of appealing to all our senses. One way to really bring a poem to alive for the reader is by evoking what something feels like, looks like or sounds like. Its usually easiest to describe what something looks like, and sometimes writers don’t go further than that. The other senses can be just as powerful though in fact Tuwhare leaves out any description of what the rain looks like in this poem. Instead he describes what the rain would if he were missing some of his senses.