51ºÚÁÏ

This 24-slide lesson explores Ian Duhig’s poem ‘The Lammas Hireling’.

After learning about the pagan and folkloric context and the poet’s life and work, students are encouraged to explore the poem’s language and imagery alongside its form, structure and rhyme.

The poem is deconstructed at a high level, with focus on important elements including its confessional tone, homoerotic subtext, and literary influences. Key vocabulary is provided to help facilitate precise and sophisticated analysis.

At the end of the lesson, there are comprehension questions and ideas are given for poems which might make for fruitful comparisons.

This resource includes an editable PowerPoint and a PDF version of the PowerPoint (to retain aesthetic choices).