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PROGRAMME MATERIALS:
THE LEARNING AND TEACHING OF POETRY IN THE LITERATURE IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM
Aim of PDP: not to provide “model answers” to examinable texts;
not a session on reading poetry/literature;
a sharing session on learning and teaching of poetry (with practical implications for the classroom)
INTRODUCTION: TEXTUAL VS CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF POETRY
Guiding Questions: i) What sort of knowledge/insights can we obtain from poetry?
ii) How does a poem convey knowledge/insights?
“Poesy, therefore, is an art of imitation; for so Aristotle termeth it in the word … that is to say, a representing, counterfeiting, or figuring forth: to speak metaphorically, a speaking picture, with this end, to teach and delight.” (From Philip Sidney’s An Apologie For Poetrie)
Teaching (around) set texts; e.g. historical background to Romantic and Modern Poetry Romantic Movement
aesthetic, intellectual, political movement in Europe
reaction against Industrial Revolution: rationality, alienation
city: urban, man-made, place of alienation, not “natural”, corruption
nature: natural, made by God, innocence, simplicity, purity, spirituality
primacy of emotion, individual motivations
romantic nationalism
artist/poet as solitary, unique genius: singular inner experience
Modern Poetry
distinctions/overlaps between “modern”, “modernism”, “modernity”
city as a place of spiritual/social alienation
pace of life, fragmented experiences, incomplete meaning/understanding
finding meaning in mundane/fleeting moments
role of language/poetry in modern times
aesthetic innovation (Ezra Pound: “Make it new”)
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Understanding key distinctions between Romantic and Modern Poetry via visual texts;
understanding poetry and literature as part of a larger aesthetic/intellectual culture
o Image of Romantic Painting: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, 1818
From William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey”
Five years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs With a sweet inland murmur.—Once again Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, Which on a wild secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
o Photographs as examples of modern aesthetic:
Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “Last Days of the Kuomintang, 1948”
Martin Parr’s “New Brighton, 1983”
Saul Leiter’s “New York, 1960“
Saul Leiter’s “Reflection, 1958”
Daido Moriyama’s “Stray Dog, 1971”
Ezra Pound: “In the Station of the Metro”
William Carlos Williams: “The Red Wheelbarrow”
From T. S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
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STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE ANALYSIS AND APPRECIATION OF POETRY
“A poem is a small (or large) machine made out of words.” (William Carlos Williams)
Note: Obviously, the various elements of poetry work together and are dealt with discretely only as a way of identifying poetic features.
HOW A THEME/MEANING EMERGES FROM A POEM: IMAGERY, LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
William Blake: “The Sick Rose”
Other EGs: Blake’s “Ah, Sunflower”, Allen Ginsberg’s Sunflower Sutra”, Robert Frost’s
“Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
POETRY AS A FORM OF ARGUMENT: FORM AND PERSUASION Shakespeare: “Sonnet 18”
Shakespeare: “Sonnet 130: ”
HOW VOICE SHAPES A POEM: LANGUAGE AND TONE Aphra Behn: “Love Armed”
Other EGs: Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”, “Lady Lazarus”
Note:
i) Students must be able to identify and discuss the various elements of poetry.
ii) In essays, it’s important for the students to be able to discuss the meaning of poems in relation to the elements (of voice, language, imagery, form, etc).
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HANDS-ON POETRY WRITING ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE POETRY APPRECIATION
EXERCISE 1: FREE ASSOCIATION
1. Consider the following words. What does each word remind you of?
ice poem blue shiny
book bottle school happy
lightning cake friend sleep
cockroach pink arm noodle
2. Write a poem using one of the words in each line.
EXERCISE 2: LIMITED ASSOCIATIONS
1. Look at the words in the two columns.2. Write a poem – each line of your poem must use one word from Column A and one word from Column B.
3. Example: “childhood” and “grass”:
Childhood is like grass, because we are growing and growing although no one can see us growing.
Column A Column B
sad water
pain grass
wild cold
joy clock
Hong Kong building
study flower
words table
childhood tiger
adult rabbit
change siew mai
good nose
bored door
teach silver
thin sofa
EXERCISE 3: ONE MOMENT
1. Look around and observe the things and people around you.
2. Describe 3 objects as if they are animals. What are they doing?
3. Describe 3 persons around you: associate them with a colour and an animal.
4. Describe yourself as if you are an animal.
Page 5 of 8 Example:
I am sitting on the floor.
A book is yawning on the table like a cat.
My schoolbag is on the floor, quiet as a rabbit.
The shoes I’m wearing are puppies licking my feet.
Johnny is blue.
He is squirming like a dolphin.
Jim is silver. He is looking at everyone like an eagle.
Jenny is green.
She is blinking her eyes like an owl.
I am a tiger staring and staring
at every single one and every single thing.
To increase students’ appreciation of i) imagery, and ii) relationship between literal and figurative meanings.
The students may write the poems in groups. After having written the poems, students are asked to explain their poems to the class, and explain what the images mean. They would also explain the meaning associated with the images.
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Exercise 4: Writing Between the Lines
[adapted from Behn and Twichell p. 155]1. Write in the spaces between the lines of the following poem.
2. Your writing must make sense in relation to the printed words.
3. Remove the original poem, leaving only your own words.
4. Revise your poem into a coherent poem that makes sense on its own.
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening (by Robert Frost)
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
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To increase students’ appreciation of i) natural imagery, ii) rhyme scheme and iii) voice.
Explain what their own poems mean, with emphasis on how the meaning is related to the rhyme scheme as well as voice (tone/language).
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Reference books on poetry
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms
Behn, Robin and Chase Twichell, eds. The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach.
Hirsch, Edward. Responsive Reading.
Hirsch, Edward. How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry.
Oliver, Mary. A Poetry Handbook.
Sidney, Philip. An Apology for Poetry / The Defence of Poesy.
Poetry books by poets from Singapore and Hong Kong Singapore
Boey, Kim Cheng. Another Place.
Pang, Alvin. City of Rain.
Tan, Paul. Curious Roads.
Hong Kong
Fan, Kit. Paper Scissors Stone.
Ho, Louise. Incense Tree.
Ho, Tammy Lai-ming. Hula Hooping.
McKirdy, David and Peter Gordon, eds. Eight Hong Kong Poets.
Page 8 of 8 McKirdy, David. Accidental Oriental.
Rapatahana, Vaughan, Kate Rogers and Madeleine Slavick, eds. Outloud Too.
Rogers, Kate. Foreign Skin.
Wong, Jennifer. Goldfish.
Wong, Nicholas. Crevasse.
Online resources
Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. [www.asiancha.com]
Poetry Foundation. [www.poetryfoundation.org]
Poetry.Sg [www.poetry.sg]
Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. [www.qlrs.com]
List of regular poetry events in Hong Kong
Kubrick Poetry. [http://kubrickpoems.blogspot.hk/]Peel Street Poetry. [http://peelstreetpoetry.com/]
Poetry Outloud Hong Kong. [https://www.facebook.com/PoetryOutLoudHK/]
