Eighth Grade Education - POETRY

[Steve]

---  "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Steve bboyminn wrote in
> > <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/38724>:
> > 
> > << Still, I do find poems that I like and wish I had more 
> > resources for good poetry. But poetry is like modern music,
> > I can't afford to buy tons of crap just to find a few scraps
> > of grace. >>
> > 
> > There are poetry archives on-line. One is at
> > <http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/59>. Another is at
> > <http://www.bartleby.com/verse/>.
> >
> Carol responds:
> 
> Very true, but where should a person start if he wants to 
> learn to like poetry as an adult? He needs to know the names
> of at least some major poets and have at least a general idea
> of what he likes, which is why I suggested Whitman and Wilfred
> Owen for war poetry. 
> 
> ... I'd recommend Keats's "Ode to a  Nightingale" to anybody.
> I once read it as a substitute teacher to a class of rowdy 
> fifteen-year-olds and, to my astonishment, saw them held 
> spellbound by the beauty and imagery. ...
> 
> ...

Excellent, thanks to all for the responses. It is nice to find
a lot of public domain poetry on-line, but it is difficult to
lay down in bed before I sleep and read on-line. Still the
price is right, so I'm not complaining. 

I find two passages from "Henry V" very moving. The first is
the Act 3:Scene 1 - "Once more unto the breach, dear friends,
once more; or close up the wall with our English dead. ...."

Also, from the same play, the "St. Crispan's Day' speech -

In part - 

"...We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition; ..." 

You can find YouTube videos with Kenneth Branagh (Prof.
Lockhart in HP) reading both speeches; very moving.

Carol, if you read to "Ode to a Nightingale" to 15 year
olds and they listened, that must mean you are very good
at reading poetry. 

And that brings me to my previous point. If you can't hear
the poetry in natural language, then, likely, you can't hear
it at all. That is, if it is read in short disconnected 
phrases in a ridged staccato rhythm, then no one is going
to get it, because it is not going to make sense.

Consider this line from "Ode to a Nightingale" as it is
written in verse -

"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, ..."

Read as I was taught by my many English teacher to read it,
it is two disconnected phrases -

"My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains"

And 

"My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, ..."

If you stick rigidly to the rhythm, metre, and stanzas,
it is very disjointed. What does "My sense, as though of
hemlock I had drunk.." mean?

But if restructure, it has a more natural flow -

""My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains my sense, as though
of hemlock I had drunk, ..."

I think that is the key to good oral poetry, being able to 
break away from the rigidness of form, and breaking into the
more natural and real flow of spoken language. 

Taking it a step above natural language, is to really 
understand what is being said, and being able to convey the 
mood of the verse to those listening. To have a dramatic
inflection that really conveys the message accurately. This
is the difference between hearing verse read, and hearing it
performed. Both of which are far better than having
poetry simply recited. 

So, even when I read to myself, I try to force the verse into 
an natural flow of language, something that is very difficult
thanks to my small town English teachers. Which is why, when
I read, it is better to hear it in my head in John Lithgow's
voice. Again, no idea why my imagination choose Johm Lithgow. 

For anyone interested in reading "The Drummer Boy's Burial", 
it is in the Google Library in scanned format. The printing
isn't very clear, but it is readable. This is a very simple
poem that is a very simple story of "The Drummer Boy's Burial",
but there is something about it that never fails to touch me.

http://books.google.com/books?id=VOdqExsG27sC&pg=RA1-PA528&lpg=RA1-PA528&dq=Poetry+%22The+Drummer+Boy's+Burial%22&source=web&ots=NCuhpoI4oH&sig=uF8H0B2U5rCt7r0KHC_Vlr002s8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result#PRA1-PA528,M1

It starts in the middle of the column on the right, continues
on the same page on the column on the left, the concludes on
the column on the left on the next page. 

Another good poem is "Old Matthew" by W. Wordsworth. It is
about a young boy and an old man who are friends. The poem 
start under a tree from which a spring flows. 

"We talked with open heart, and tongue affectionate and true,
a pair of friends, though I was young, and Matthew seventy-two."

And I find this line touching -

"'And, Matthew, for thy children dead I'll be a son to thee!'
At this he grasped my hand and said, 'Alas! That can not be.'" 

And, "We Are Seven" by William Wordsworth.

As a last and final note, Dan Radcliffe was asked what his 
most favorite word and least favorite words were. "Verdurous",
meaning lush and green, was his favorite, and he acknowledge
that it came from Keats "Ode to a Nightingale" -

"Already with thee! tender is the night, 
And haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne,
Cluster'd around by all her starry Fays;
But here there is no light,
Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown 
Through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways."


So, my underlying point, and this probably just applies to my
small town upbringing, is that my teachers relied more on
form than function, and years of despising poetry were the
result. 

Hey...I'm just saying.

Steve/bluewizard