H1
text type: poem
Assignments
1.
Sketch the content of each of the five stanzas.
20%
2.
Analyse the means and strategies Gorman employs to create empathy for the ocean as well as to spread a message of unity and hope.
40%
3.
Choose one of the following tasks:
3.1
On their website, the organisation Lonely Whale asks for contributions below a video with Amanda Gorman reciting her Ode to our Ocean. The poem inspires you to write a blog entry entitled “Simple Acts to Save our Planet”, in which you show ways the individual can contribute to protecting the planet, discuss reasons why people are reluctant to do so and call for action.
Write the blog entry, using the poem as a starting point. Include your background knowledge.
3.2
Discuss the potential of movements like Fridays for Future to initiate a profound change in society.
40%
Ode to Our Ocean
by Amanda Gorman
Introductory note Amanda Gorman, the first to be named National Youth Poet Laureate of the U.S., wrote the following poem for the World Ocean Day in 2020.
1
The sea sings out to its many saviors:
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Teenagers with fists thrust into the air at climate strikes,
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Scientists converging around their data,
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A child who stoops to scoop up a piece of trash.
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The sea sings out for its singular subjects:
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Arching whales that wave from their waves,
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Turtles that teeter down their shining shores,
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Coral reefs shining brightly as cities.
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The sea sings out its suffering,
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Knowing too much of waste, screeching sounds
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And pernicious poison, its depths bruised, by
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Atrocities in the Atlantic,
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Misery in the Mediterranean,
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Its tides the preservers of time past.
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The story of the ocean and the story of humanity
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Are one and the same, a Great River that
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Knows no borders and notes no lines,
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Only ripples.
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While we might call it the Seven Seas,
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Today we sing out your true name:
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The one ocean.
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For no matter how we try to separate your waters,
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You are the colossus that connects us.
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Water makes up 70% of Earth,
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70% of the human heart,
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And 70% of the human being,
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All of us, bodies of water,
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For we, too are oceans,
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Or at least beings bobbing in the same boat.
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To stand up for our ocean
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Is to stand up for our own ship
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The sea is a restless, strong collective of many pieces.
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So are we.
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The ocean can recover.
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And so will we.
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Let us not divide the tides,
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But discover all they have to teach us –
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Green meadows of sea grass that survive pathogens,
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Blue-bloodied marine snails that can fight off viruses.
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There are more lessons to learn,
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Still more work to be done.
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So we lift our faces to the sun.
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May the seas help us see healing and hope,
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May we sing out the ocean’s survival and revival.
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Being the people of this blue planet is our most
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Profound privilege and power,
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For if we be the ocean’s saviors,
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Then it is surely ours.
(351 words)
"Ode To Our Ocean" by Amanda Gorman.