HSC English First Paper | Unit: 12, Lesson: 1 | Peace and Conflict | Definition, Causes and Types of Conflict

1. Warm up activity:

□ What is your view of peace and conflict? Write five words that come to your mind when you think of peace and five more when you think of conflict.

Here are two poems that speak of man's desire for peace and the inevitability of conflict or war. W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet whose early poetry showed a yearning for love and peace, and who found in nature a refuge from the ugliness of city life. 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' gives him the promise of some peace of mind. W. H. Auden (1907-1973) was an Anglo-American poet who became famous for his stylistic and technical achievements and for poems (and plays) of exceptional depth and feelings. He wrote about love, war, religion, politics and the problems of modem man. 'September 1, 1939' is an indictment of all wars, particularly one that was looming over the world in 1939.

2. Read the poems and answer the questions that follow:

A. 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' by W.B. Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, 

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; 

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee 

And live alone in the bee loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet's wings

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart's core.

3. Describe the island in Yeats' poem. What does 'bee loud glade' mean?

4. What does the poet mean when he says 'for peace comes dropping slow'?

5. Why does the poet desire peace so much? Can such an island really offer him peace?

B. From 'September 1,1939' by W. H. Auden

I sit on one of the dives

On Fifty-second Street

Uncertain and afraid

As the clever hopes expire.

Of a low dishonest decade:

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth,

Obsessing our private lives;

The unmentionable odour of death

Offends the September night.

6. Discuss the nature of the conflict one finds in cities such as the one the poet lives in.

7. Auden's poem has as its setting the city of New York. How does the city contribute to the conflict in the poet's mind?

8. How does Auden describe the impending war? What effect does a war have on people?

9. Why does the poet feel 'uncertain and afraid'?

10. Why does the poet mean when he says 'Waves of anger and fear/Circulate over the bright/ And darkened lands of the earth'?

11. Can you explain what the poet means by 'The unmentionable odour of death'?

12. Write a brief summary of each of the poems.

13. What is the meaning of each of the following words?

a. wattle

b. veil

c. glimmer

d. linnet

e. lapping

f. expire

g. obsession

h. offend.

If you want to read the next lesson of this unit please click the link below:
Lesson-2: What is Conflict?