Year 12 Literature students took "close analysis" to a whole new level, scalpels included. In a unique, hands-on activity, students were asked to literally dissect a poem. Each student carefully removed a specific quotation using a scalpel before returning to their desks to analyse it in the context of the complete text.

The task encouraged students to look closely, much more closely than usual, at the language and structural techniques embedded within their selected lines. By isolating a quotation, they were able to examine how the poet's individual choices contribute to the construction of meaning across the entire work.

The room buzzed with focused energy as students made connections between the tiny excerpt in their hands and the poem's larger thematic concerns. The tactile nature of the activity made the normally abstract world of literary analysis feel immediate, creative, and engaging.

It proved that Literature isn't just about reading—it's about investigating, questioning, and sometimes cutting right to the heart of what a text is trying to say.