Class 1: 1. Poetry from the cradle to the grave. 1.1. What is poetry?

Reflection task: Is this a poem? 567 246 657 496 88 Poems which take poetry to its limits should challenge our most deeply held assumptions about poetry. Asking whether what is before us is a poem should make us become self conscious about the ways that we read and think about poetry, to realize that although we may hesitate to write down a definition of poetry, we effectively carry a definition around with us, however unarticulated that may be. Is this a poem? We might observe that since it has rhyme and can be read so that it has rhythm it fulfils some of the requirements of formal poetry. Whether it has a subject is debatable, but if we recall the way in which the reader might generate meanings and a subject for a poem, then it cannot be said that the numbers are meaningless, since different readers will produce different meanings. For instance, I might see that the poem is about the way that in a technological society people are being represented more and more by numbers, and therefore this poem represents this fact by generating meaning in numbers rather than in words. Even if we said the poem had no 'meaning', this might not disqualify it as a poem. If we think of the ideas of Eliot and Pater concerning the music of poetry, we could say that the poem approaches the ideal of pure sound without reference; the poem might be heard and enjoyed just because of varied vowel sounds in it and not for any reductive meaning that they represent. We listen for once to the music of numbers rather than think of their referents. The divergent ways that poetry can move towards pure sound or towards graphic art can highlight conventional ways that we think about poetry and what it is.

TASK Analyse the following poems and find out how these divergent ways are expressed.

Meditation by Emmett William

Im ape by Karma Wilson

In what ways are these poems similar and different?

Sometimes, the apparently new in poetry which seems to bring poetry to its limits is actually a revival of an older tradition or idiom. A good contemporary example of this would be the performance of poetry, which can be as varied as a small poetry reading or a rap concert or a gig by Benjamin Zephaniah or the experiencing of poems which exist solely as performance. Poetry readings grew in popularity from the 1950s onwards and certainly by now there are poets who are primarily live performers and whose work simply cannot exist in the stabilizing medium of print. Performance poets are often avant-garde and, again, may seem to touch the limits of what we think of as poetry, but largely they are returning poetry to its roots in song and restoring its dimension as a communal, a public, activity rather than a private one through the act of individual silent reading. The emergence of print culture and of private reading practices may have obscured the existence of this tradition, but it remains a vital one. TASK 1: What is poetry? What does Michael Rosen, a very well known poet of childrens poetry say? How does he answer this question?

Some people think poetry is made strictly for brainy college students, professors and bookstore clerks. Not true! Poems can be enjoyed by everybody, and nursery rhymes are a great example. The first poem you ever heard was probably a nursery rhyme. These poems are usually brief, fun and silly, with easy rhymes that just anyone can follow. They often contain wacky images like dogs wearing clothes and families living in shoes.

TASK 2: Read one of Michael Rosens best known poems: Were going on a bear hunt. Why is this poetry interesting for our context of teaching? In what ways is it poetry as defined by himself?

What do teachers think about poetry and its definition? Sharon Gill (2007) says :
As a teacher of children (and of teachers), however, I am more concerned that students understand what poetry is, enjoy reading it, feel the desire and ability to participate in writing it, and appreciate what makes one poem better than another. I believe that central to helping children enjoy poetry is helping them understand what poetry is that poetry is more than just a body of great works written long ago or forms (narrative vs. lyric) and

terms (iambic pentameter and onomatopoeia) to memorize. Poetry is something people do. Huck, Hepler, and Hickman (1993) described poetry as the distillation of experience that captures the essence of an object, feeling or thought (p. 452); above all else, children need to know that people write poems to share their experiences. Huck et al.s definition of poetry also helps us appreciate what makes one poem better than another: Each word must be chosen with care, for both its sounds and meaning, since poetry is language in its most connotative and concentrated form.... Poetry does delight children, but it also helps them develop new insights, new ways of sensing their world. (p. 452) Temple, Martinez, Yokota, and Naylor (2002) offered a useful definition of childrens poetry: a concise and memorable case of language, with intense feeling, imagery, and qualities of sound that bounce pleasingly off the tongue, tickle the ear, and leave the mind something to ponder. Lukens (2003) described the characteristics of poetry, including conciseness, emotional intensity, imagery, insight, and elements of sound. Working with these definitions of poetry, teachers can design lessons to help students understand what poetry is and to appreciate and enjoy it. One lesson I use with both children and adults illustrates the idea that people write poetry to capture their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

1.2. The meaning of form in poetry.

The meaning of form

It is impossible to discuss poetry, or even to understand it, without some knowledge of poetic form. Form is, or should be, the starting-point of any analysis of poetry, because its form distinguishes poetry from other kinds of writing or communication. Whilst students are occasionally even now required to memorize and have a basic working knowledge of metrical forms - the iamb, dactyl or spondee - and are certainly required to recognize the basic specific forms of poetry - a sonnet, blank verse, an ode, free verse - nevertheless, the meaning of poetic form, why a poem looks the way it does, and what significance this might have for the poem, may not be subjects frequently addressed in the classroom or seminar. Poetic form is sometimes considered an abstruse subject, difficult to understand; in extreme cases it may be considered a distraction, an unnecessary complexity, a barrier between reader and text, or else as an index of a kind of old-fashioned education, drilling students in Latin grammar or the mysteries of Renaissance prosody - perhaps seen as an irrelevance to many contemporary readers or students. The content of poetry (what is often mistakenly called its meaning), conversely, is often thought of as easy to understand, and therefore as sufficient in itself, all we need to know about a poem: poetry is its content. This is an inherently reductive view, which
can lead to meaningless generalizations of what poems are 'about', ignoring what they are, or what they do. (Materson and Jones, 2000)

TASK: Listen to poet Michael Rosen talking about meaning in techniques. In what ways does Michael Rosen explain and expand Materson and Jonesidea? What devices does he mention?

Considering what Materson and Jones and Michael Rosen say, we can say that poetry means both through its content and form in unique ways, and this is why it is so powerful as a teaching resource. The meaning in form is primarily conveyed through a number of devices that poets use. Let us analyse what these devices are.

As Johnson (2006) says, Poetry in preliterate societies was passed from generation to generation by a strong oral tradition. Poetic devices such as the ones listed below helped the performers, including troubadours and minstrels, remember the structure and words of the poems they recited.

Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds, usually consonant sounds, at the beginning of words or stressed syllables. Some examples of alliteration are: cute cats; the sounds of silence; my mother made marshmallow cookies.

Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, especially in stressed syllables, with different consonant sounds between them. Example: This chicken is similar to that one. Imagery is the use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. A poem has effective imagery when its words allow you to imagine that you can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste the things the poem describes. Kennings are compound, figurative phrases used in place of a name or noun, especially in Old English and Old Norse poetry. For example, the sea was often called the whale road and a sword might be called a battle friend. Metaphors are comparisons of two unlike things made without using like or as. The two things being compared are usually linked by a form of the verb to be. Examples: I am a rock. You are my sunshine. Onomatopoeia is the use of sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. For example, the word buzz sounds like the sound a bee makes. The word hiss sounds like a snake and the word chirp makes the sound of a bird. Using such words in a poem about these subjects creates a link between sound and meaning and allows the reader (or listener) to experience the poem more richly. Personification is the assignment of human qualities, actions, or form to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. Examples: The wind coughed. The house groaned in the night. Love knocked on my door. Rhyme is the repetition of the same sound in two different words. Poems do not have to rhyme, but they often do. Example: Words that rhyme with rose are toes, nose, goes, foes, throws, shows. Similes are comparisons of two unlike things, usually using like or as. Example: My love is like a red, red rose.

These are just some of the well known tools that poets use to write poetry. In fact there are certain tools that focus on expressing feelings and experiences

through visual and sensory tools while others focus on expressing feelings and experiences through auditory, musical and rhythms tools
Which are these tools?

Poetry Toolboxes Tools to Help Craft Poetry that poets use I Meaning Expressing feelings and experiences through visual and sensory tools; revision techniques Image

Metaphor Simile Personification Words Line-Breaks Beginnings/Endings Titles Observation II Music Expressing feelings and experiences through auditory, musical and rhythms tools Rhyme Repetition/Patterns Rhythm Alliteration Words Line-Breaks Onomatopoeia Assonance Consonance

TASK: Analyse the following poems and find out in what ways they make use of these tools

By Karla Kuskin

Angry
Rosen

by Michael

Here comes the man With the angry dog. Here comes the dog With the angry man. Angry dog Angry man Angry man Angry dog.

Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Filley of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adders fork, and blindworms sting, Lizards leg, and howlets wingFor a charm of pow`ful trouble, Like a hell broth boil and bubble. Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble From Macbeth by William Shakespeare

The Apple by S. C. Rigg

Baa Baa Black sheep (Track 2) Baa Baa Black sheep Have you any wool? Yes, sir, Yes, sir Three bags full One for the master And one for the dame One for the little boy who lives down the lane Anonymous traditional English song
t e m apple apple apple apple apple yum apple yum apple yum apple juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy crunchy crunchy crunchy crunchy crunchy crunchy red yellow green red yellow green red yellow green red apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple yum delicious yum delicious yum delicious yum delicious yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum delicious yum delicious yum delicious yum apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple red yellow green red yellow crunchy crunchy crunchy juicy juicy juicy juicy apple apple s

Molly Malone (track 16)

In Dublin's fair city where the girls are so pretty Twas there that I first met sweet Molly Malone She drove her wheelbarrow Through street broad and narrow Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh" Alive, alive oh, alive, alive oh, Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh" She was a fishmonger and that wasnt wonder

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Her mother and father were fishmongers too And they wheeled their barrows Through streets broad and narrow Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh" She died of the fever and nothing could save her And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone Now her ghost drives her barrow Through streets broad and narrow Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh

(Traditional Irish Song)

TASK: The purpose of these questions is to discuss: 1. In what ways are these poems wonderful examples to work with in class? Why do they lend themselves for different contexts and different purposes? 2. What content of the curriculum design could these poems be used to work with? Could all of them be used? Why? 3. Which ones are interesting from a linguistic perspective? 4. Which ones are interesting from a cultural perspective?

TASK Situation: 1. Juana is teaching a group of 11 year old children in 6 EP in a school in San Martn. She is deciding what poetry materials to use for different projects throughout the year. Below you will find a sketch of the projects, that is, the topic and the final tasks that students will carry out through the projects. 1. Which poems could be used for each project? Why? 2. What tasks could be carried out with each poem inside the project to aid final production? 3. What content do you think children will have learned by the end of the year? (use the curriculum design to help you)

Sketch Plan of projects

Topic Natural changes round the year Pets Magic Spells

Final Task A powerpoint presentation to load on the school blog on natural changes in different seasons (together with Natural Science teacher) Write a poetry book called: our friends: the animals Act out a mini play in English based on the story The Witches by Roal Dahl (that students have read with the Spanish teacher).

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Fears

Folk stories round the world

Exhibition with Art teacher on famous horror film scenes. Students write down bilingual captions for each scene that they reproduce through their own art work. Write a book library of folk stories for other children to read (each child will write and illustrate the story for other courses in the school to read).

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