You may not associate poetry with technology. But many poems and songs have been written about people's relationship with technology and machines. This lesson invites you to explore a few selected poems and song lyrics. You may find that you want to explore more poems and songs by one or more of these writers in preparation for an individual oral or HL Essay.

1. Get into 5 groups. Assign each group a text from below (Texts 1-5). In your group, draw a 'see, think, wonder' diagram, like the one below, on a large piece of paper. Read your group's poem or song and discuss it, using the three questions from the diagram. Record your answers on the table and present your poem or song and your 'see, think, wonder' diagram to your classmates.   
   



See	Think	Wonder
What do see, when you read this poem? What images come to mind?	What does this poem make you think about? What kinds of ideas come to mind?	What do you still wonder? What questions do you have? What would you like to know in order to understand this poem better?




Text 1: 'The Secret of Machines' by Rudyard Kipling, 1943

(MODERN MACHINERY)


We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,   


   We were melted in the furnace and the pit—   


We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,   


   We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.   


Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,


   And a thousandth of an inch to give us play:   


And now, if you will set us to our task,


   We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!





      We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive,   


      We can print and plough and weave and heat and light,


      We can run and race and swim and fly and dive,   


      We can see and hear and count and read and write!





Would you call a friend from half across the world?


   If you’ll let us have his name and town and state,


You shall see and hear your crackling question hurled


   Across the arch of heaven while you wait.   


Has he answered? Does he need you at his side?


   You can start this very evening if you choose,   


And take the Western Ocean in the stride


   Of seventy thousand horses and some screws!





      The boat-express is waiting your command!   


      You will find the Mauretania at the quay,


      Till her captain turns the lever ’neath his hand,   


      And the monstrous nine-decked city goes to sea.





Do you wish to make the mountains bare their head   


   And lay their new-cut forests at your feet?   


Do you want to turn a river in its bed,


   Or plant a barren wilderness with wheat?


Shall we pipe aloft and bring you water down


   From the never-failing cisterns of the snows,   


To work the mills and tramways in your town,


   And irrigate your orchards as it flows?





      It is easy! Give us dynamite and drills!


      Watch the iron-shouldered rocks lie down and quake   


      As the thirsty desert-level floods and fills,


      And the valley we have dammed becomes a lake.





But remember, please, the Law by which we live,   


   We are not built to comprehend a lie,


We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.


   If you make a slip in handling us you die!   


We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings—


   Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!-


Our touch can alter all created things,


   We are everything on earth—except The Gods!





      Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,


      It will vanish and the stars will shine again,


      Because, for all our power and weight and size,   


      We are nothing more than children of your brain!

Text 2: 'Ground control to Major Tom' by David Bowie, 1973

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground Control to Major Tom (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)
Commencing countdown, engines on (five, four, three)
Check ignition and may God's love be with you (two, one, liftoff)

This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
"This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much she knows
Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you "Here am I floating 'round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do"

Text 3: 'Jimmy Jet' by Shel Silverstein, 1974

I'll tell you the story of Jimmy Jet--
And you know what I tell you is true.
He loved to watch his TV set
Almost as much as you.

He watched all day, he watched all night
Till he grew pale and lean,
From 'The Early Show' to 'The Late Show'
And all the shows in between.

He watched till his eyes were frozen wide,
And his bottom grew into his chair.
And his chin turned into a tuning dial,
And antennae grew out of his hair.

And his brains turned into TV tubes,
And his face to a TV screen.
And two knobs saying 'vert.' and 'horiz.'
Grew where his ears had been.

And he grew a plug that looked like a tail
So we plugged in little Jim.
And now instead of him watching TV
We all sit around and watch him.



Text 4: 'The Boy in the Bubble' by Paul Simon, 1986

It was a slow day
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio




These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all




The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry, baby, don't cry
Don't cry




It was a dry wind
And it swept across the desert
And it curled into the circle of birth
And the dead sand
Falling on the children
The mothers and the fathers
And the automatic earth




These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all, oh yeah




The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby, don't cry
Don't cry




It's a turn-around jump shot
It's everybody jump start
It's every generation throws a hero up the pop charts
Medicine is magical and magical is art
Think of the boy in the bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart




And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle
Lasers in the jungle somewhere
Staccato signals of constant information
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby




These are the days of miracle and wonder
This is the long distance call
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all, oh yeah




The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby, don't cry
Don't cry, don't cry

Text 5: 'The Robots are Coming' by Kyle Dargan, 2015

with clear-cased woofers for heads,


no eyes. They see us as a bat sees


a mosquito—a fleshy echo,


a morsel of sound. You've heard


their intergalactic tour busses


purring at our stratosphere's curb.


They await counterintelligence


transmissions from our laptops


and our blue teeth, await word


of humanity's critical mass,


our ripening. How many times


have we dreamed it this way:


the Age of the Machines,


postindustrial terrors whose


tempered paws—five welded fingers


—wrench back our roofs,


siderophilic tongues seeking blood,


licking the crumbs of us from our beds.


O, great nation, it won't be pretty.


What land will we now barter


for our lives ? A treaty inked


in advance of the metal ones' footfall.


Give them Gary. Give them Detroit,


Pittsburgh, Braddock—those forgotten


nurseries of girders and axels.


Tell the machines we honor their dead,


distant cousins. Tell them


we tendered those cities to repose


out of respect for welded steel's


bygone era. Tell them Ford


and Carnegie were giant men, that war


glazed their palms with gold.


Tell them we soft beings mourn


manufacture's death as our own.


2. After listening to each group present their poem or song, get into new groups, based on the poem or song lyrics that you would like to explore in more depth. In your new group discuss how the meaning of your text is constructed through the author's use of imagery, narrative technique, structure or any other stylistic devices you would like to explore. Do an online search to find out more about the poet and the poem. As a group make poster on your poem or song lyrics, with the text in the middle of the poster and interesting 'shout outs' in the margins. Present your poster and hang it in you room. 


3. After the poster presentations, make a list of global issues that are related to technology. Look at the 'see, think, wonder' diagrams and the posters to inform your list.


4. Looking at your list of global issues, discuss how they relate to and deepen your understanding of the seven concepts from this course: representation, transformation, creativity, communication, culture, perspective and identity.