Going to be teaching this next week, so some help please...

Language features: euphemism, check; metaphor, check; slang/colloquialism, check; idiom, check; cliche, check; assonance, check, rhyme, check... any I've missed?

Please... Don't want to look a fool using Prince and messing it all up in front of these youngsters!

check rythmical meter. Syllabic count.

Well, you can say that what there is not much of is alliteration; the only obvious one is "...truly dies, oh, why, oh why, Sign of the times" towards the end. (and possibly "...reefer for the very first time..." but that's a stretch)

A lot better than doing old style poetry like we did!!!

What meter? The lines are chopped and his pronunciation elogates the vowel to help rhmye.

foreshadowing - Adore, It's Gonna be a Beautiful Night, Hot Thing Flashback- Starfish and Coffee and Dorothy Parker.

Check for other poetry styles like Limerick, Haiku -Table to the Chair rap

allusion (to the Bible & w/e else you can pick out)

I wish my teachers would bring Prince up in class....I'd be so happy.

thank u thank u thank u for your help... hope my kids enjoy the lesson!

Well, that was fun. The kids were really engaged by the song... a couple of them knew it was Prince too... amazing, considering I'd already told them they'd get the pleasure of listening to Prince during this lesson... Was was most amusing, however, was one of the boys who raised a hand and asked how could he take a man seriously who had removed his lower ribs to be able to felate himself... Surprisingly, it was most of the other boys who laughed more than me... said pupil shut up.

When you get into this song, it is such a beautifully crafted piece of work. The language features Prince uses from the town cryer allusion at the start to the cliche of love/married/baby its a brilliantly composed song... the boys were swept away... moreso, however, was another member of our English faculty, who learnt of my intended lesson and nicked it and taught it before me. He reckoned it was one of the best he'd done - for this particular purpose...

Marvellous.

BoySimon said:

using prince to mould young minds

i wish id had teachers like u when i took english.....all those yrs ago