Eighth Grade Education - POETRY

[Steve]

---  "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Steve wrote: 
> > One of my favorites is "The Drummer-Boy's Burial" by 
> > Anonymous from "The Illustrated Library of World Poetry".
> > 
> > All day long the storm of battle through the startled valley
> > swept;
> > All night long the stars in heaven o'vr the slain sad vigils
> > kept.
> > 
> > O the ghastly upturned faces gleaming whitely through the
> > night!
> > O the heaps of mangled corses in that dim sepulchral light!
> > 
> > ...
> > 
> > I find poems about war very moving for some reason. 
> > 
> > Steve/bluewizard
> >
> Carol responds:
> 
> I hope I don't ruin it for you, then, but the rhyme scheme is
> couplets (AA, BB) and the meter is trochaic heptameter (just 
> like "the Raven" but with one less trochee per line). Like 
> "The Raven, it's very regular but lacks the internal rhyme. 
> This kind of poem can sound very monotonous, especially today
> when so many poets write in free verse no rhyme or identifiable
> meter).
> 
> If you like war poetry, I'd recommend either Walt Whitman or
> Wilfred Owen.
> 
> ...

bboyminn:

Thanks for the Poems, both with very vivid imagery.

My problem isn't know about the internal structure and rhythm
of poetry. It is that the teachers I have in my many small
town schools never took it beyond that. When teaching rhythm
and metre of poems, the "...strict da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM
da-DUM rhythm..." was so heavily emphasize and never countered
by the same poem in natural voice, that it is totally ingrained
in my head. Which means I can't read a poem without reverting
back to the primitive overemphasized 'da-DUM da-DUM', and it 
makes it difficult to understand the poem when it isn't in
natural flowing language. 

It also doesn't help that poems in books are written in short
phrased, when long sentences would lend themselves to a more
natural flow. Poetry when read my a master, such as the 'Raven'
read by James Earl Jones, do have the flow of natural language
while not ignoring the also natural rhythm of the verse. 

So, in my case, John Lithgow to the rescue, though still
difficult, it helps to hear the poem read by a professional
even if the professional only exists in my imagination.

I think part of this is the result of teacher who really had
no appreciation of poetry. It was just part of their job, and
they did their job in the least possible manner. We all managed
to 'pass the test', but none of us was instilled with a love
of poetry, because we never heard it read in natural language.

So, despite a growing 'like' for poetry, reading it is a 
struggle because I can't get that infernal rigid staccato
'da-DUM da-DUM' out of my head. Further compounded by the
poetry being printed in short disconnected phrases. 

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.

Steve/bluewizard