The Pleasure of Teaching English Poetry
Luke P. M. Chan & Liu Hsiao-FangFooyin University of Technology
ABSTRCT
Students in Fooyin do not show much in studying English poetry. If they have a chance to select between English Poetry and some other courses, most of them would rather like some other courses, instead of English Poetry. Hence, how to create a better atmosphere of learning and develop the pleasure of learning in the classroom is the most concerned in the teaching of poetry. Are there any ways for teachers to use in the process of teaching English poetry? In solving this problem, the writer of this paper presents the following three ways: (1) Using English songs, (2) Access to Network, and (3) Classroom Activities.
Songs are considered as a very useful supplementary tool in raising students’ interest in learning. Therefore, it is a good way to teach English Poetry by using English songs. There are so many resources and materials related to English Poetry, which can be found in a variety of websites. With the help of these websites, teachers of English Poetry can enhance their teaching capabilities and qualities and increase students’ interest in studying poetry. As for the classroom activities, students’ participation is highly emphasized. The classroom activities include Games, Paraphrasing, Recitation, Dictation, Group Discussion and a name poem.
Poetry can function as a media between the poet and the reader; it can also function as a media between the teacher and students. If teachers of English poetry can find a good way to increase students’ interest in learning poetry, both teachers and students will like this “magic media”. If teachers can employ active ways to teach students, students will find learning English poetry enjoyable. And teachers will find that teaching poetry is no longer a burden.
Introduction
Reading poetry gives us pleasure, as Laurence Perrine said in Sound and Sense, “People have read it or listened to it or recited it because they liked it, because it gave them enjoyment.”1 Poetry gives readers pleasure in two ways: audio and visual pleasure. In the sense of audio pleasure, reading a poem is really pleasurable, for a poem intimately connected with music and sound, and the beauty of a poem lies in the musical sound of words in the poem, as a poem is defined as “a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their beauty and sound and are carefully arranged.”2 Most poets compose their poems by using sound and rhythm. The sound of a poem can create some mood or feelings. The rhythm is the alternation between the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem like the beating of a heart or the “breathe in” and “breathe out” of our breath. The sound and rhythm of a poem produce a pleasing effect. Besides, poetry also gives readers a visual pleasure. Some poets, such as George Herbert, John Hollander, and Dorthi Charles3, like to create their poems by arranging words in the shape of a picture like artists and sculptors by using their paints or clay. The pictures are of various shapes, including a house, a tree, an altar, a fish, a cat, a smoke, a swan, etc. These kinds of poetry are called picture poems or visual poems. Some examples of these picture poems are shown in Appendix A.
However, students in Fooyin do not show much interest in studying English Poetry. If they have a chance to select between English Poetry and some other courses, most of them would rather like Tourism and Hospitality English or some others, instead of English Poetry. Hence, how to increase students’ interest in learning English Poetry is most concerned of the teachers of literature. It is also the main purpose of writing this paper. The thesis of this paper is to enhance students’ motivation of studying English Poetry and create a better atmosphere of learning and develop the pleasure of learning in the classroom. Under this situation, the teachers of literature can find their enjoyment in teaching English Poetry. They don’t think that teaching English Poetry is a very boring and tedious job.
Facing students without any interest in learning poetry, teachers of literature will probably ask, “Are there any teaching strategies for teachers to use in the process of teaching English Poetry?” The writer of this paper presents the following three ways: (1) Using songs, (2) Access to Network, and (3) Classroom Activities.
(1) Using Songs:
1 Laurence Perrine, Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry (New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc., 1973), p. 3.
2 “Poem,” Collins Cobuild, 2003 ed.
3 See X.J. Kennedy, & Dana Gioia, An Introduction to Poetry, 9th ed. (New York: Addison Wesley
Songs are considered a very useful supplementary tool in raising students’ interest in learning English. Therefore, it is also a good way to teach English Poetry by using songs since songs are likely to reflect the resonance of students. With the help of Network, I find so many English poems set to music and sung by people for many years. Among them, the most popular are Scottish, Irish and British folk songs. Following are examples I would choose to share with students in the course of Selected English Verses:
1. Folk Songs of Scotland: “Blue Bells of Scotland” “Loch Lomond”
“My Bonnie lies over the Ocean” “Will Ye No Come Back Again?” 2. William Shakespeare’s Songs: “Sigh No More, Ladies”
“O Mistress Mine”
“It was a Lover and His Lass”
“Shall I Compare Thee with a Summer Day?”
William Shakespeare was not only a poet and a playwright, but also a songwriter. Most of his songs are drawn from his plays. For example, “Sigh No More, Ladies,” “O, Mistress Mine” and “It Was a Lover and His Lass” are drawn from Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Nights, and As You Like It respectively. The most common theme of these songs is concerned about love. Besides, Shakespeare’s sonnets are popular and also set to music and have become songs. “Shall I Compare Thee with a Summer Day?” is one of the best examples. Most of these melodious songs can be found in the following websites:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/02/19_helmsm_bardso ngs/ http://www.banchchieri.hu/music/live/vasion/mistress.mp3 http://www.bessbonnier.com/listen, http://www.musicanet.org/en/CDC/aug01en.htm http://www.pythagorean.org/k-c/music,htm 3. Ben Jonson’s “Song to Celia”
Ben Jonson’s “Song to Celia” is known to millions of people as “Drink to Me with Thine Eyes.” Jonson skillfully quoted the famous line, “Drink to me with thine eyes only,” from the love letters of the Greek writer, Philostratus, and wrote it into his classic lyric. In the following website, we can find the song
which was sung by Linda Maguire:
http://www.lindamaguire.com/audio/audioclips.html
4. Robert Burns’ “Auld Lang Syne”
“My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose”
“Auld Lang Syne”, a poem by Robert Burns, is one of the best known songs in English-speaking counties and some of South-East Asian countries. The melody of this song is traditional Irish folk music. It is generally sung at the end of a convivial evening and at New Year all over the world. The music of “Auld Lang Syne” can be found in the following websites:
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/langsyne.html http://web.ripnet.com/~nimmos/auld_lang_syne.html http://www.robertburns.plus.com/Auldls.htm
And the song of “Auld Lang Syne”, which was sung by Kenneth McKellar, can be found in the following website:
http://www.maybole.org/community/celebrations/christmas/greetings/AuldL angSyne2.mp3
Like “Auld Lang Syne,” “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose” is also one of the most famous poems of Robert Burns. Based upon traditional sources, Burns wrote this poem-song in 1794. The song can be found in the following
websites:
http://sop1.kaist.ac.kr/~gari/music/Izzy%20Ascolta/03%20-%20My %20Love%20is%20like%20a%20red%20red%20Rose.mp3 and
http://www.la-nef.com/html/6extras/mp3/red-red-rose/My%20Love%20Is %20Like%20A%20Red,%20Red.mp3
5. W. B. Yeats’s “Down by Sally Gardens”
“Down by Sally Gardens” is an Irish song, but the lyrics were written by the poet William Butler Yeats. According to Yeats, this poem was originally
entitled “An Old Song Resung.” He explained that “this is an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballysodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself.”4 We can find this song in some websites, which was sung by different singers. In the website, http://www.folkmusic.com.tw/article.htm, the singer is emi fujita, whereas in a Korean website, http://sop1.kaist.ac.kr/~gari/music.html, the singer
4 See John, J. Deeney & Yen Yuan-shu & Chi Ch’iu-lang, English Literature Anthology for Chinese Student, Volume 2, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Taipei: Wen Lao Publications, 1977), p. 1165.
is Izzy Ascolta.
7. A. E. Housman’s “When I Was One-and-Twenty”
“When I Was One-and-Twenty” is Housman’s most familiar poem, number XIII from A Shropshire Lad, a collection of 63 poems, which he published at his own expense in 1896. The song which we find in the following website was sung by Bryn Terfel: http://www.klassikakzente.de/product.jsp?
eanPrefix=00289&articleNo=4775336&mode=productDetails&name=Silent+N oon
8. Thomas Moore’s “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms” Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Last Rose of Summer. He was also a good musician and skillful writer of songs, which he set to Irish tunes. “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms” is one of his best known songs. According to the following website, http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/believe.html, it is said “Moore wrote the lyrics for the wife of the Duke of Wellington when she suffered facial scars from smallpox, though there is some doubt that this is true, as they were married in 1806, and their relationship was known not to be an affectionate one. Another theory is that Moore wrote it for his own wife.” This beautiful song can be found in the following website, http://www.folkmusic.com.tw/article.htm. 9. Christina Rossetti’s “When I am Dead”
Christina Rossetti, a poetess in the nineteenth century, was a devout High Church Anglican. On two occasions, Christina broke off her plans for marriage for religious principles. Most of her love lyrics are records of frustration and parting. The poem “When I am Dead, My Dearest” was one of them. Although I couldn’t find the song made into music directly from this poem, I can find a Chinese song, which was translated by a famous writer Hsu Chi-More from Rossetti’s lyric “When I am Dead, My Dearest”. The singer is Lin Ching-Hsar, and the composer is Lo Ta-Yiu.
Advantages of Using Songs to Teach English Poetry (1) Practicing English Sentence Pattern
The repetition of the lyrics or words of songs can contribute to students’ understanding and practicing of English sentences patterns.
(2) Cultivating students’ cultural awareness
Hence, students can be aware of American and British culture through learning the folk songs.
(2) Access to Network
In Network, there are so many resources and materials concerning English Poetry. Most of these websites provide detailed information about the life and works of English poets and the texts of their poems. Some websites even give readers the historical background of certain poems and critical essays on them. Through the access to Network, we find all these materials are very useful to teachers of literature who want to improve their teaching qualities and enhance students’ interest in studying English poetry. Some websites provide us with some useful methods of how to teach poetry and how to hold poetry activities. Following are some examples:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/sl/kazakhstan-english-teachers-resources.htm http://www.poetryteachers.com/ http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html http://teacher2b.com/creative/poetryl.htm http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePlan.do?planId=887 http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/poetry_beast/index.html In some websites, we find some native speakers read their own poems and the poems by some other poets. All these readings are good models for students to follow. Following are a few of them:
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/laura_lee_parrotti.htm, http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/ richard_stevens. htm, http://www.eaglesweb.com http://www.nlu.edu/~eller/amlit/focus/gothic/poegoth.htm, http://www.mathcs.duq.edu/~tobin/PR_Critic/Audio.html, http://www.aoxy91.dsl.pipex.com/spokenpoems1.htm http://www.poetrytheatre.org/main.htm
In some websites, we find some poems presented through videos, such as http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=597
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/index.html How to Use Network to Teach English Poetry?
With the help of Network, we play the poem recordings in the classroom and we encourage students to listen to English poems read by such native speakers as Walter Rufus Eagles, Richard Stevens, Laura Lee Parrotti, Edward Eller and others. Walter Rufus Eagles was a poet himself. In his personal website “Eaglesweb.com,” Eagles not only read his own poems, but also read the poems by some other poets. His readings are totally six hundred traditional poems and modern poems on the site. Richard Stevens reads his favorite classic English poems. Laura Lee Parrotti read most of Emily Dickinson’s poems. And Edward Eller read Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee.”
2. Singing the Song after Learning the Poem
Not only listening to the poem, students will also have a chance to sing the song. We will play the song for students to sing together in class after they learn the poem. For example, after they learn Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory,” we will play the song for them to sing.
3. Watching Videos about Poets and Poems
Besides, we also play some videos for students in the audio-video classroom or the computer classroom. Some websites offer some good programs or projects to help us in presenting videos. ”The Favorite Poems Project” is one of them. It was founded by Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States. The Favorite Poem Project collects 45 short videos of Americans reading and speaking personally about poems they love. Here are some of the examples:
My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke
read by William Van Fields Retired Corporate Executive Stockton, CA
A Psalm of Life
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
read by Rev. Michael Haynes Roxbury, MA
#288 ("I'm nobody! Who are you?") by Emily Dickinson
read by Yina Liang Student
Decatur, GA
"OUT, OUT—“ by Robert Frost
read by Elizabeth Wojtusik Teacher
Humarock, MA
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
read by Jessie Alpaugh Student
Berkeley, CA
On a Quiet Night by Li Po
read by Hui Xia Chin Hong Student
Elmhurst, NY
Sonnet 29
by William Shakespeare
read by Daniel McCall Retired Anthropologist Boston, MA
Block City
by Robert Louis Stevenson
read by Andrew Toporoff Student
Yorktown Heights, NY
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
Writer Hull, MA
Advantages of Getting Access to Network:
(1) With the help of the Web, teachers can save much time of preparing teaching materials.
(2) Owing to the abundant resources in the Web, teachers can enhance their teaching capabilities and qualities by getting access to network.
(3) The classroom will become animated with music and songs after bringing the Web into the classroom.
(4) Students’ attention will be secured and they will focus more attention on their lessons than before when teachers present audio and video clips.
(3) Classroom Activities: 1. Games
Games are always considered as a good device for teachers to use to motivate students in study, no matter whether they teach English language or English poetry. Games not only enhance students’ understanding of a poem, they also help students cooperate each other in the processes of playing the games.
Game 1: Ordering the lines of a poem
1. The class can be divided into several groups. 2. Every group consists of four or five students.
3. Every group will be given some pieces of slips with some lines from a poem. 4. Each group will be asked to arrange the order of lines
Sample:
Following is a poem by William Wordsworth. Students will be asked to put all these lines into good order so that it becomes a complete poem.
1. ( ) And I could wish my days to be 2. ( ) A rainbow in the sky:
3. ( ) Bound each to each by natural piety. 4. ( ) The Child is father of the Man, 5. ( ) So be it when I shall grow old, 6. ( ) Or let me die!
7. ( ) My heart leaps up when I behold 8. ( ) So is it now I am a man,
9. ( ) So was it when my life began,
Game 2: Completing the poem
1. Every student is given a piece of paper with an incomplete poem on. 2. Students will be asked to complete the poem.
Sample 1:
Directions: Complete the following poem with the suitable expressions: O My Luve is ______________, a. ten thousand mile
That’s newly sprung in June; b. the sands o’ life O my Luve is ________________, c. like a red, red rose
That’s sweetly played in tune. d. melt wi’ the sun e. like the melodie As fair art thou, ______________, f. my bonnie lass So deep in luve am I: g. a’ the seas gand dry And I will luve thee still, my dear, h. fare thee weel awhile
Till ____________________. Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks ____________ O I will luve thee still, my dear,
While __________ shall run. And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And ___________________ And I will come again, my luve,
Tho’ it were ____________. Sample 2:
Directions: Choose the suitable adjective for each blank space of the following poem.
grey loud yellow sea-scented
fiery black lighted pushing
blue sharp slushy startled
The 1____ sea and the long 2____ land; And the 3____ half-moon large and low;
And the 4____ little waves that leap In 5____ ringlets from their sleep, As I gain the cove with 6____ prow, And quench its speed i' the 7____ sand. Then a mile of warm 8_____ beach; Three fields to cross till a farm appears; A tap at the pane, the quick 9____ scratch And 10____ spurt of a 11____ match,
And a voice less 12____, thro' its joys and fears, Than the two hearts beating each to each! 2. Paraphrasing
Procedure: Step One:
I write down the following stanza on the blackboard and ask one student to paraphrase:
“Mak Haste, mak haste, my mirry men all Our guid schip sails the morne.”
“O say na sae, my master deir, For I feir a deadlie shorme.” Step Two:
The student paraphrases as follows: “Hurry up, hurry up, all my happy men,
Our good ships have started sailing in the morning.” “Oh no, don’t say that, my dear master,
For I’m afraid of a terrible storm.” Step Three:
Students will be asked to compare the original text with the student’s paraphrase. Through paraphrasing, students will not only understand what the poem means, but also realize the style between poetry and prose.
3. Reciting Poems: Procedure:
a. Ten students will be chosen to recite the poem. b. These ten students can be divided into two groups.
c. Each group of five students will stand face to face in front of the class. d. The first students of each group will start to recite the first lines of the poem e. The second ones will continue to recite the second line.
f. If any one student of the group cannot continue, that will fail. 4. Dictating:
In “Dictation as a Language Learning Device,”5 Scott Alkire, English Teacher of San Jose City College, California, presents twenty-two advantages of dictation in language learning. Although Alkire didn’t mention about dictation as a tool for teaching English poetry, I like to try it on English poetry teaching. Sometimes, I will ask students to dictate the poem after they learn it.
5. Group Discussion:
Group discussion is an essential activity in my course. Students will be divided into several groups; each group consists of four or five students. Each of them will be given some questions. After they finish discussing, each group will choose one student to present the results of discussing on the stage.
Sample:
Questions for Group Discussion
(William Butler Yeats, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”)
1. Is the speaker of this poem on the lake isle of Innisfree or in the city when he utters this poem? Why?
2. Why does the speaker want to go to the lake isle of Innifsree? 3. Discuss the changing of time and space in the poem.
4. Talk about the structure of the poem. Is this structure correlated with the theme of the poem?
5. Try to talk about the meaning of the title and its implication within the poem. 6. Writing a “name” poem
A name poem is perhaps not a poem, but it is an assignment that most students can do to begin to write a poem. Some examples are shown as follows:
_________________________________________________________________
5 Scott Alkire posed this article on the following website:
Love thy neighbor as thyself, says He
Is it true, you may ask, He sets me free?
Unselfish, He loves the world, you see.
_________________________________________________________________
Laura, a little angel of mine,
Unlike the other birds, all day for long she sings
Keeping on singing songs line by line,
Ever no more she sings until she has no wings.
_________________________________________________________________
In the world no one loves me as deep as you,
Reading me to sleep and dream when I was young;
In my dreams I’m always missing, missing you,
Sitting by your side and singing the songs unsung.
_________________________________________________________________ In the assignment above, the students spell their names
vertically, first or last names. Use the letters of their names to write a short poem. If the students with longer names, they will have a longer assignment. With the help of a dictionary, students enjoy writing their own name poems.
Advantages of Proceeding with Classroom Activities: (1)Stimulating students’ interest in learning.
(2)Encouraging students’ participation in activities. Conclusion
Poetry has magic. It can touch us and delight us. Sometimes it makes us laugh; sometimes it makes us cry. Poetry functions as a media between the poet and the reader; it also functions as a media between the teacher and students. If teachers of
English poetry can find good ways to stimulate students’ interest in learning poetry, both teachers and students will like this “magic media”. If teachers can employ active ways to teach students how to appreciate poetry, students will find learning English poetry enjoyable. And teachers themselves will find that teaching poetry is no longer a burden.
REFERENCES
Books
Collins Cobuild. 2003 Edition.
Deeney John, J. and Yen, Yuan-shu. and Chi, Ch’iu-lang. (1977). English
Literature Anthology for Chinese Student, Volume 2, Revised and
Enlarged Edition. Taipei: Wen Lao Publications.
Kennedy, X. J., and Gioia, Dana. eds. (1998). An Introduction to Poetry, 9th ed. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Perrine, Laurence. (1973). Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
Websites American gothic – Poe
http://www.nlu.edu/~eller/amlit/focus/gothic/poegoth.htm Annenberg Media Learner
http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=597 Banchieri Singers http://www.banchchieri.hu/music/live/vasion/mistress.mp3 Bess Bonnier http://www.bessbonnier.com/listen, Eagles Web http://www.eaglesweb.com Favorite Piece of August 2001
http://www.musicanet.org/en/CDC/aug01en.htm Favorite Poem Project
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/index.html
Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and America http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/believe.html,
Klassik Akzente
http://www.klassikakzente.de/product.jsp?
eanPrefix=00289&articleNo=4775336&mode=productDetails&name=Silent+Noon Linda Maguire Audio Clips
http://www.lindamaguire.com/audio/audioclips.html
Minnesota Public Radio
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/02/19_helmsm_bardsongs/ Music from the European Renaissance
http://www.pythagorean.org/k-c/music,htm Musical Activities for Young Learners of EFL http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html My Favorite Music
http://sop1.kaist.ac.kr/~gari/music.html Poetry Teachers
http://www.poetryteachers.com/ Sing Love Spoken Poems
http://www.aoxy91.dsl.pipex.com/spokenpoems1.htm Taking a Simple Experience
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePlan.do?planId=887 The All-Purpose Multimedia Poetry Beast
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/poetry_beast/index.html The English Teacher
http://teacher2b.com/creative/poetryl.htm The Pre-Raphaelite Critic
http://www.mathcs.duq.edu/~tobin/PR_Critic/Audio.html Wired for Books
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/laura_lee_parrotti.htm http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/richard_stevens. htm
APPENDIEX A
Picture Poems or Visual Poems
A TALL
A LONELY house OAK TREE Can be tall, WINDS HOWL short, wide or thin, LEAVES SHAKE
with many rooms, or only ACORNS CLATTER
a few. It can be D
home for all the O
family or simply W
me and my pets. N
TO THE DRY GROUND
Smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke ……smoke smoke smoke smoke
………..smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke ……. smoke smoke smoke
…… …… smoke smoke …… …… ……smoke smoke …… …… …… ……smoke smoke …… …… ……smoke …… ……smoke …… ……smoke …… …… ……smoke …… …… …… ……smoke …… …… …… …… ……smoke …… …… …… ……smoke …… …… ……smoke …… ……smoke …… ……fire
Dusk Above the Water hang the
loud flies Here O so gray then
What A pale signal will appear When Soon before its shadow fades Where Here in this pool of opened eye In us No Upon us as at the very edges
of where we take shape in the dark air this object bares its image awakening
ripples of recognition that will brush darkness up into light
Even after this bird this hour both drift by atop the perfect sad instant now already passing out of sight
toward yet-untroubled reflection
this image bears its object darkening into memorial shades Scattered bits of light No of water Or something across water Breaking up No Being regathered soon Yet by then a swan will have
gone Yet out of mind into what vast pale hush of a place past sudden dark as if a swan sang
APPENDIX B
DEMONSTRATION of Teaching English Poetry
1. Content: William Wordsworth’s “The Rainbow” My heart leaps up when I behold
A Rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die!
The Child is father of the man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.
2. Introduction to the Poet: William Wordsworth:
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a major English romantic poet. He was born in Cockermouth in Cumberland, part of the scenic region in northwest England called the Lake District, where he spent most of his boyhood. After graduating from Cambridge, he visited Revolutionary France and supported the Republican movement. Because of Britain’s tension with France, he returned to England and lived with his sister Dorothy in the Lake District. In 1798,
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge co-published Lyrical Ballads. In the autumn of 1798, Wordsworth, Dorothy and Coleridge traveled to Germany, where he wrote several poems including the “Lucy Poems”. During the winter of 1798-1799, Wordsworth began to work on an autobiographical piece later entitled The
Prelude. In 1843 he succeeded Robert Southey as England’s poet laureate, and he
died on April 23, 1850. 3. Analysis of the Poem:
relationship between the man and nature. One of the most consistent concepts in Wordsworth is the idea that man and nature are inseparable; man is an active participant in the natural world, so nature is considered as a guide to the spiritual and moral life of man. On the other hand, Wordsworth thinks that childhood is the most important stage in man’s life, because the child’s emotions are retained in the memory: memory is the major force in the process of growth and it is essential for poetic creation too. In this poem Wordsworth expresses his joy at the sight of a rainbow in the sky when he was a child, he remains his love of it when he grows up, and he hopes never to lose adoration and appreciation of nature until he dies.
This poem is composed of a stanza of nine lines; its rhyme scheme is abccabcdd. In the poem, Wordsworth employs three metrical patterns: di-meter, tri-meter, and tetrameter.
4. Classroom Activities: Pre-reading Activities:
1. Showing the pictures of rainbow to students through the following website. http://www.missouriskies.org/rainbow/february_rainbow_2006.html
2. Encourage students to share with classmates their experience and feelings of beholding a rainbow.
While-reading Activities:
3. Play the poem in the classroom once through the following website: http://www.eaglesweb.com/poets.htm
4. Give an introduction of the poet and explain the theme of the poem. 5. Explain the Biblical allusion of the rainbow.
6. Explain the word usage, phrases, structure of the poem, and symbols. Post-reading activities:
7. Group Discussion:
Give each student a hand-out with the following questions and have them discuss in class:
a. Explain the rhyme scheme of this poem.
b. In the poem Wordsworth employs three metrical patterns. Give these. c. Under what circumstances, Wordsworth says, would he wish for his
own death?
d. The poem considers a human life as being made up of three phases, what are they?
f. Explain the meaning of the phrase “natural piety” (line 9) 8. Homework: Ask students to paraphrase the poem at home. 2. Related Websites: http://www.missouriskies.org/rainbow/february_rainbow_2006.html http://www.eaglesweb.com/Sub_Pages/wordsworth_poems.htm http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww194.html http://www.enter.net/~forester/rainbow.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/wwov.html
