Features: Literature

… TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

This is the first of a series of articles in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom.

Introduction We also believe that students’ engagement with poetry Poetry is something every pupil or student has a right should begin in Y7 and build from there. Of course, for to. It should be part of every young person’s experience fortunate students, the building will be on good at school: something which brings enjoyment in the foundations from KS 1 and 2. widest sense, something which enhances life. If this seems a long way from the experiences of your Y10 and 11 students and, perhaps, from your own experience, “The experience of a number read on. Please, read on, anyway! of schools suggests that Because of its part in high stakes testing at KS4, poetry has become a hurdle to be leapt over or a holistic and integrated scrambled across, rather than an intrinsic and rewarding part of English teaching and learning. However, the approach to poetry works not experience of a number of schools where a different only to engage students but attitude has been adopted suggests that a holistic approach works not only to engage students but also to also to improve exam results.” improve exam results. This approach means students becoming involved In the same issue of Teaching English, Peter Kahn, with poetry, becoming participants rather than introduces a ‘new poetic form’, the ‘Golden Shovel’, onlookers. In his perceptive article ‘Enjoyment and in which students select a line from an existing poem. Understanding? Poetry pedagogy for student They then create their own poem using those words as engagement’ (in issue 14 of Teaching English), Daniel the final words of their lines. This idea is very much in Xerri tackles the disjunction which has arisen the spirit of these 39 Steps which are really thirty-nine between enjoyment and understanding, arguing for ideas to engage students with poems through writing. a ‘pedagogy for engagement’ … ‘in which students’ These steps comprise a wide range of activities which opinions matter as much as those of the teacher.’ What aim to give everyone a way of getting started with their he does not make explicit is the need, in our view, for writing and some support in finding ways to continue students to write poetry as well as to read and enjoy it. and complete it.

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 16 | 29 39 Steps … to Engaging with Poetry – Active approaches for the English classroom

“These 39 steps Step 1 comprise a Making a List wide range A shopping list, a ‘to do’ list – it’s such a familiar way to write and it can be the basis of a satisfying poem, too. It might be a list of personal likes or dislikes, or it could be a way of describing a person or an abstract of activities concept. which aim to Rupert Brooke’s ‘These I Have Loved’ is in fact the middle section of his longer poem ‘The Great Lover’ give everyone but it can stand alone quite well. a way of These I have loved: getting started White plates and cups, clean-gleaming, Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust; with their Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust writing and Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food; some support Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood; And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers; in finding And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours, ways to Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon; continue and Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon complete it.” Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen Unpassioned beauty of a great machine; The benison of hot water; furs to touch; The good smell of old clothes; and other such-- The comfortable smell of friendly fingers, Hair’s fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers About dead leaves and last year’s ferns. . . .

The complete poem can be found here: www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/great-lover

Adrian Mitchell’s ‘I Like That Stuff’ is another list of personal choices and also provides an interesting template. www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/13623

Teaching Tips You can start with a topic or start with a sense (or a series of senses), e.g.,’ I like the smell of…’. Something concrete usually works best such as ‘Back to school / First day of school’ or ‘Seaside Memories’. Encourage students to think of the small things that evoke memories, e.g. ‘sand between my toes’ rather than ‘the sandy beach’ or ‘the smell of socks in the changing room’ rather than ‘PE lessons’. They should try to accumulate a bank of ideas before trying to put them into any shape. Model the approach with a shared attempt or, if you dare, a personal interpretation of, say, ‘The Staff Room’.

Here’s another kind of pattern which might prove useful. ‘After Christmas’ Sorted: baubles, balls and stars, January appointments Removed: batteries from lights, wreaths from doors, notes from wallet Recycled: cards, wrapping paper, some bits of string, wishes Coiled: tinsel, tree light cables, heart-strings Boxed: a golden bird, games, memories Binned: the poor poinsettia, ragged wrappings, my old address book Remaining: candles, cake, goodwill

30 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 16 Features: Literature

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Freeze Frame Top and Tail Like a video when you have hit the pause button, many poems try to capture a This pattern lets you create a meaning-sandwich. moment – and this is something students can try also. It can be a moment from You introduce a word or phrase or line at the the past or the current lived experience. beginning of the piece, and you come back to the same word or phrase towards the end of the There are a number of well-known poems that capture a moment in time poem. Choruses work in a similar way. and one of the most famous is Wordsworth’s ‘On Westminster Bridge’. In this example, Tennyson’s ‘Break, Break, Earth has not anything to show more fair: Break’, the repeated phrase has extra resonance Dull would he be of soul who could pass by when encountered at the beginning of the A sight so touching in its majesty: final stanza, evoking echoes of heart-break. This City now doth, like a garment, wear Break, break, break, The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie And I would that my tongue could utter Open unto the fields, and to the sky; The thoughts that arise in me. All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautifully steep O, well for the fisherman’s boy, In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill; That he shouts with his sister at play! Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! O, well for the sailor lad, The river glideth at his own sweet will: That he sings in his boat on the bay! Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; And the stately ships go on And all that mighty heart is lying still! To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand, ‘Eden Rock’ by Charles Causley is another good example. It’s in one of the GCSE And the sound of a voice that is still! anthologies and can be found here: www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/great-lover Break, break, break Adrian Mitchell’s ‘I Like That Stuff’ is another list of personal choices and At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! also provides an interesting template. https://www.poetryarchive.org/ But the tender grace of a day that is dead poem/eden-rock Will never come back to me.

‘A Poet’s Guide to Britain’ edited by Owen Sheers has many examples and ‘I Shall Return’ by Claude McKay https://www. is a collection well worth having. Frances Cornford’s ‘The Coast: Norfolk’ poemhunter.com/poem/i-shall-return/ uses (p310) is a short accessible poem capturing a moment in a few lines. the repeated phrase throughout the poem, which is also effective. Teaching Tips If students are going to describe experience ‘now’, then the advice ‘observation, The villanelle form takes the meaning observation, observation’ is more apt than ever. Notes from all the senses need sandwich to a whole other level and it might be to be jotted down and then sifted and arranged. Poems of this type often end with a worth introducing students to Dylan Thomas’s different kind of observation – a personal reflection about the writer’s feelings. ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ (or If students are writing about the past, one technique is the ‘blind writing’ idea other examples) without the need to analyse. which I have described and demonstrated many times. Ask students to recall an event that they remember vividly and then ‘freeze frame’ the memory at a Teaching Tips crucial point. With their eyes closed they focus on that moment and write brief Coming up with the ‘meaningful phrase’ will be answers to questions you pose. Choose from the following/add others: where a challenge for many students. As with any topic, are you, who are you with, what are you wearing/what is the weather like/what a period of ‘free-association’ and jotting is useful. is your pose (standing, lying, etc.,)/what are you holding or touching/what can From a jumble of words and phrases something you see/what can you hear/what (if anything) was said/what are your emotions? usually emerges. Sometimes it takes another Students as young as seven can write perfectly well with their eyes shut. It also student or the teacher to spot it. Having that works with a word processor, font colour turned to white. The resulting words starting point does then help the writer to get and phrases can form the final poem or become the basis for one. going; nor does the poem have to be long. Alternatively, you might provide them with a selection of starting and finishing lines which they can use or adapt. An Index of First Lines can also be a rewarding area to scavenge. I have just looked at one at random and my eyes fell on: ‘The days have closed behind my back’ which seems an intriguing place to start (and end…).

Trevor Millum and Chris Warren are the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 16 | 31 … TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

The second instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores shape poems, memory poems, and poems with a final punch.

20 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 17 News and Views

“The final Step 4 lines of a Taking Shape poem carry The shape of the words on the page, including the spaces left blank, always forms part of the impact or extra weight. impression a poem makes. Sometimes the visual shape of the poem on the page reflects the meaning of the poem. This may be obvious if the subject of the poem is something physical, such as a worm or a butterfly. The ending Students usually enjoy creating shape poems about the concrete; it’s a greater challenge for them to interpret the abstract. A poem about something abstract requires a more subtle or indirect approach. of any text However, you can begin with something quite physical, such as a balloon or a ball, and use it as a stepping off is important point for reflections on feelings – for example, being bouncy, cheerful and lively. but the brevity of most This example, ‘Earthworm’ by Leonard Clark (www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/junior/literacy-hour/year-3/ shape-poems) is aimed at a Primary audience. However, it is a clever use of the technique and well worth poems makes sharing, along with other seemingly simple examples. There are some further examples on this site: the ending https://qwiklit.com/2014/05/27/10-poems-that-look-like-what-they-mean/ It is a short step from words in the shape of something to calligraphic poems like this, written by a proportionally Japanese student many years ago: more significant.”

Teaching Tips As you will notice from ‘Butterfly’, and indeed from the other examples, the fact that appearance is going to be a prominent feature should not detract from the importance of the words. It’s disappointing to find an attractive looking poem only to read it and discover something quite banal. So, the motivation, if you like, is the attractive presentation, but the words need to be attractive too. In the writing, you are looking for quality, not quantity, though the writer does need as sufficient number of words to make the shape he or she has in mind. Some suggestions for starting points: • scissors or other cutting implements: the shape is quite simple and the words can easily have deeper meanings (lost friendships, sharp remarks...) • weather – sunshine, rain, storm, etc., – fits well with various emotions • boats – especially simple sailing boats – connections with arriving, leaving, distances

Finally, a tip if you are using Word. You can create a watermark in a given shape which allows you to then write on top of it and make the words fit the outline relatively easily. Page layout > Watermark > Custom watermark and select a picture (a line drawing works well from clip art or Google images).

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Final Lines I Remember The final lines of a poem carry extra weight. The ending of any text is Poems about memories are common. The mark of a important but the brevity of most poems makes the ending successful poem about a personal memory is that it will proportionally more significant. Some poets use the final lines to have impact and meaning for someone else, someone underline or clarify the message of a poem, others may use it as a other than the person writing. The poem needs to be challenge, adding something which makes the reader think again. In written with sufficient detail to create the picture yet other cases, the writer uses the final lines for comic effect, the (including the emotions) without over-burdening the equivalent of the punch line of a joke. reader. In essence, this is true of most writing! The feelings, the emotions can often be conveyed without This example, ‘Song’ by Arthur Waley, provides a nice, stating them explicitly. straightforward example: Here we are focusing on memories from some time I had a bicycle called ‘Splendid’, ago, from childhood or young adulthood. ‘Crossing A cricket bat called ‘The Rajah’, the Loch’ by Kathleen Jamie is a good example and Eight box-kites and Scots soldiers can be found in the AQA anthology ‘Moon on the With kilts and red guns. I had an album of postmarks, Tides’. The first stanza is one long question, beginning A Longfellow with pictures, ‘Remember how we…?’ and the writer goes on to say Corduroy trousers that creaked, that she has forgotten certain things. This gives the A pencil with three colours. poem an honesty, for we all have gaps of recall even in powerful memories. Where do old things go to? Wordsworth’s ‘The Prelude’ is one of the best Could a cricket bat be thrown away? known poems of memory and, coincidentally, one of Where do the years go to? the most quoted extracts also concerns a boat on the water. Here is a short sample: The Longfellow would presumably be ‘The Song of Hiawatha’. I dipped my oars into the silent lake, You can easily imagine these childhood possessions and the And as I rose upon the stroke, my boat realisation that you don’t know where they are. ‘Whatever Went heaving through the water like a swan; happened to…?’ The poet adds an extra weight with the last line When, from behind that craggy steep till then which extends the thought into a more philosophical area. The horizon’s bound, a huge peak, black and huge, It should not be difficult to find other examples of significant As if with voluntary power instinct, endings – the last lines of Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on Upreared its head. a Snowy Evening’, for example, or, to take a poem which may appeal to some students even if they don’t fully understand it, Another helpful example is Thomas Hood’s melancholic Yeats’ wonderful ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ which little poem, ‘I Remember, I Remember’, which begins: ends ‘Tread softly, for you tread on my dreams.’ Finally, here is a good example of a poem which uses the last I remember, I remember, line as a punch line: The house where I was born, ‘Distracted, the Mother said to her Boy’ by Gregory Harrison The little window where the sun (the second poem at http://inquiryunlimited.org/lit/poetry/ Came peeping in at morn; child_fam_poems.html). He never came a wink too soon, Nor brought too long a day, But now, I often wish the night Teaching Tips Had borne my breath away! Those looking for a subject could emulate Waley and use a list as the main content. The final lines do not have to be questions, they could The three poems mentioned include free verse (Jamie), be statements or even exclamations: ‘I never found out…’ , ‘I wonder…’ . blank verse (Wordsworth) and regular rhyming verse Nor does the list have to be of things that have been lost: it could be (Hood), which should provide evidence that each can any list which is then followed by a ‘But…’ – a list of favourite foods, be used effectively. for example, ending with ‘But I hate … chocolate fudge dessert’ (or equivalent). Teaching Tips Moving on from this approach, students could be encouraged to A starting point for many students might be the ‘I describe a scene from childhood (the past) and then finish it with a remember, I remember’ pattern, which does not have to thought, looking back (the present). It might be a regret (‘I wish I had continue ‘the house where I was born’ but could lead in said sorry to…’) or relief (‘I’m glad I don’t have to ….. any more’) or a other directions, for example, ‘the street where I used number of other emotions. to play’, ‘the playground of the school’, ‘the journey to my…..’ and so on. Every student should be able to manage one stanza at least – and it sometimes works to combine stanzas from several different students.

Trevor Millum and Chris Warren are the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee

22 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 17 … TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

The third instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores observational poems, personification poems, and inclusive poems.

68 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 18 Features: Creative English

“Here we Step 7 wish to Eyes that see encourage the Looking and seeing is different to just looking. Sometimes we notice something which catches our attention in penetrating a particular way. The examples provided below are not intended to mirror the long and detailed observations and sketches made by the landscape painter or portrait artist. Here we wish to encourage the penetrating glance that glance that enables us to make a mental note of something seen or heard – which we can then attempt to recapture in words. enables us to make a

‘Nettles’, by Edward Thomas, is one of his best-known short poems which focuses on something mental note usually overlooked or not thought worthy of attention. of something Tall nettles cover up as they have done seen or heard These many springs, the rusty harrow, the plough Long worn out, and the roller made of stone: – which we can Only the elm butt tops the nettles now. then attempt to recapture This corner of the farmyard I like most As well as any bloom upon a flower in words.” I like the dust on the nettles, never lost Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.

The poem is not at all ‘flowery’: it tells what is there and how he feels about it. However, not all is as straightforward as might appear. Thomas has taken great care over the phrasing, the line length and the almost inconspicuous rhyme. Read aloud, your students may not notice that there is a rhyme. On the page, it is a little more obvious.

John Betjeman builds up his description of ‘A Bay in Anglesey’ with a simple list: Here at my feet in the short cliff grass Are shells, dried bladderwrack, broken glass, Pale blue squills and yellow rock roses…

The following extracts are notable for the simple things observed – mud, TV aerials – and for the images which bring them vividly to life. Television aerials, Chinese characters In the lower sky, wave gently in the smoke. (from ‘On Roofs of Terry Street’ by Douglas Dunn)

This shore looks back to England: two hundred yards Of tide, and the boats fratching on their leashes Like dogs that sniff a stranger. … The tide Turns and slides back, and banks of mud Heave up like waking sleepers pushing the sheets aside… (from ‘Walney Island’ by Norman Nicholson)

Teaching Tips Clearly, this kind of writing cannot be achieved without some observation. As a homework, simply ask students to pick a subject, preferably a seemingly ordinary, everyday one, and jot down five or six things about it. If a comparison occurs to them, so much the better but it is not essential, as we have seen. Brevity is the key here so when they come to write their poem, insist that it be short!

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It’s Personal We begin Personification, unlike some literary terms (onomatopoeia…), is easy to It is a simple idea to take a word which is unusual to find spell and says what it is. Students will have encountered the term way at the start of a poem and, well, use it to begin a poem. back in KS2 but may need reminding. It’s a device that is easy to recognise What word could be simpler than ‘We’? Yet there are very in prose and in poetry and one which most students enjoy using. In this few poems which start that way as a browse through Step, we are focusing on personifying the weather – a good example of an Index of First Lines will reveal. So, it’s a challenge – how one can take something very familiar and make it fresh. but one which we can make more approachable by offering a model: ‘We are the Music Makers’ by Arthur Here is the first third of ‘The Wind in a Frolic’ by William Howitt O’Shaughnessy, originally simply titled ‘Ode’. (1792–1879). The whole poem can be found online, for example here: www.bartleby.com/360/1/104.html The first two lines are quite famous; the rest of the The wind one morning sprang up from sleep, poem less so. Here is the first stanza: Saying, “Now for a frolic! Now for a leap! We are the music makers, Now for a mad-cap galloping chase! And we are the dreamers of dreams, I’ll make a commotion in every place!” Wandering by lone sea-breakers, So it swept with a bustle right through a great town, And sitting by desolate streams;— Creaking the signs, and scattering down World-losers and world-forsakers, Shutters; and whisking, with merciless squalls, On whom the pale moon gleams: Old women’s bonnets and gingerbread stalls: Yet we are the movers and shakers There never was heard a much lustier shout, Of the world for ever, it seems. As the apples and oranges tumbled about; And the urchins, that stand with their thievish eyes It is also, I believe, the origin of the term ‘movers Forever on watch, ran off each with a prize. and shakers’. The poem can be found on a number Then away to the field it went blustering and humming, of sites, though often only the first three stanzas are And the cattle all wondered whatever was coming; reproduced, as here: www.poetryfoundation.org/ It plucked by the tails the grave matronly cows, poems/54933/ode And tossed the colts’ manes all over their brows, The complete ‘Ode’: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ode_ Till, offended at such a familiar salute, (O%27Shaughnessy) They all turned their backs and stood sulkily mute. One may also be reminded of the speech from Henry V (This is a good poem to read aloud and, as it is about 60 lines long, can which does not, however begin with this extract. be divided up between the members of a class, two lines each. Two lines is not too much to learn and it makes a satisfying end to a lesson We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; – especially if you can entice a visitor into the room – to go through For he to-day that sheds his blood with me the whole thing without looking at the words. You need to practice…) Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: James Stephens’ ‘The Wind’ has a less playful feel: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, The wind stood up and gave a shout. And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks He whistled on his fingers and That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day. Kicked the withered leaves about And thumped the branches with his hand And said he’d kill and kill and kill, Teaching Tips And so he will! And so he will! Regardless of how much of the poem you decide to share with the class, focus on the first two lines and ask students Another type of weather that lends itself to personification is fog, as to come up with variants of their own. You might start in Carl Sandburg’s poem which begins ‘The fog comes/on little cat feet’. the ball rolling with something like We are the setters of tests / We are the markers of books Teaching Tips A challenge for students is to find another type of weather to personify. They could write from their own perspectives (‘We are For those who struggle to get started, push some ideas around as a class. the kickers of footballs…) or from those of other people or ‘How can we personify rain? Tears are obvious but can we come up even animals (‘We are the chasers of cats…’). They should with something fresh – the clouds sowing seeds, perhaps? Sunshine is aim for at least four lines and perhaps try to write from often seen as benevolent and can be personified as a loving mother, for at least two different viewpoints. O’Shaughnessy’ poem instance, beaming, warming, caressing the earth. However, too much has a very distinct rhyme but a verse on this theme will sunshine can be bad. The sun becomes a tyrant’ …and so on. be effective without. The underlying beat, though, is They do not have to create a long poem (see how short Sandburg’s something they should notice and try to incorporate. is). One strong image is often enough, as many a haiku demonstrates. Alternatively, you can aim to create a class poem, combining a number of suggestions. This might lead to a two part poem with, for example, the first verse being positive about sun or rain or snow and the second verse beginning ‘But…’ and presenting the opposite point of view. Trevor Millum and Chris Warren are the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee.

70 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 18 … TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

The fourth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores rhyme, characterisation and form.

20 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 19 News and Views

“Form echo Step 10 poems borrow Form Echo the structure Form echo poems borrow the structure and some of the words from other examples of writing, echo or and some of copy some of their features, but aim to do something new. So you may write a poem in the form of a recipe, or a diary entry, or an obituary, or a Lonely Hearts letter and so on. the words They are sometimes quite funny, sometimes ironic, sometimes deadly serious. Readers enjoy spotting where the form comes from and that adds to the pleasure they get out of the poem. from other Of course, style, mode and register will be explored further in English Language studies. Form Echo examples allows student to play with the ideas without getting bogged down in terminology. of writing, echo or copy Examples include Edwin Morgan: “Little Mr Lonely Hearts”, and Peter Porter: “Your Attention Please”. Here’s a 1940s Glenn Miller hit song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e42mD7OW4U some of their

Moonlight Cocktail features, but Couple of jiggers of moonlight Cool it in the summer breeze; aim to do And add a star Serve it in the starlight something Pour in the blue of a June night Underneath the trees; And one guitar You’ll discover tricks like these new. They are Mix in a couple of dreamers Are sure to make sometimes And there you are: Your moonlight cocktail please quite funny, Lovers hail the moonlight cocktail Follow the simple directions sometimes Now add a couple of flowers, And they will bring ironic, A drop of dew; Life of another complexion Stir for a couple of hours Where you’ll be keen; sometimes Till dreams come true; You’ll awake in the morning deadly serious.” As to the number of kisses And start to sing: It’s up to you - Moonlight cocktails are the thing! Moonlight cocktails need a few!

Writing Suggestions Why not try echoing the form of these types of writing? • A menu • A recipe • A government document • An article from a tabloid newspaper • Instructions for a game • A problem page letter – or the reply to one • Book cover blurb • Book review • Safety warnings • A shopping list • Adverts of one kind or another • Writing on gravestones or other memorials

Teaching Tips You could ask the class to write a poem that echoes the form of menu, an invitation to a party or a recipe. But the recipe might be the perfect recipe for romance (nothing to do with food, but echoing the style used by recipe writers). Do you see the idea? What might be the recipe for War or a recipe for Peace? Form echo poems are amazingly good fun to write, especially if you can think of a good twist.

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 19 | 21 39 Steps … to Engaging with Poetry – Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

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Mentriloquism Clever Patterns Ventriloquism is the art of throwing the voice. This is an activity suitable for students in Y7 or 8, though the ideas could A ventriloquist can make a puppet seem as though be applied elsewhere. it’s alive and talking. If they think about it at all, students tend to view the organisation of Mentriloquism is a made-up word – it means the poems as words in ragged lines or in neat couplets or four line verses. art of throwing the mind. A mentriloquist imagines However, the variety of forms used by poets is something worth exploring what someone else is thinking and makes that person – and enjoying. come alive as fully believable. Or picks an inanimate object and makes it talk. It’s a very common trick with dramatists, who The example here, ‘The Snail’, manages to employ an unusual have to create a great range of characters, some of pattern. The rhyme scheme incorporates three successive rhymes them very, very different from the writer. as well as a rhyme which is echoed in the preceding or succeeding Mentriloquism is popular in poetry too. You verse. Some of the words (betides, chattels) might need explaining. invent characters, concentrating on their thoughts Word order is also something to look at: verbs (for instance) moved and emotions, and then make them say or do things to the end of lines to allow a rhyme can sometimes confuse readers in line with the personality you’ve created. It isn’t and is a trick used less often by contemporary writers. exactly like a play (though it can be very dramatic) To grass, or leaf, or fruit, or wall, because in a poem you’re sometimes trying to say something extra – make a point or argue an idea that The snail sticks close, nor fears to fall, isn’t said easily without poetry. As if he grew there, house and all These poems usually focus on one character. Together. Within that house secure he hides, Some examples: When danger imminent betides Duffy: Education for Leisure; Stealing Of storm, or other harm besides Armitage: Hitcher Of weather. Browning: His Last Duchess Plath: The Mirror Give but his horns the slightest touch, His self-collecting power is such, He shrinks into his house, with much Writing Suggestions Displeasure. Invent a character very different from yourself. Where’er he dwells, he dwells alone, • Rich or poor Except himself has chattels none, • Good or evil Well satisfied to be his own Whole treasure. • Old or young • Troubled or carefree Thus, hermit-like, his life he leads, • Male or female Nor partner of his banquet needs, And if he meets one, only feeds Take an everyday object and give it a voice. The faster. For instance: Who seeks him must be worse than blind, • a crushed beer can (He and his house are so combined,) • an angle-poise lamp If, finding it, he fails to find • a pair of scissors Its master. • a reel of sticky tape William Cowper (pronounced Cooper)

Teaching Tips Find as many examples as you can and enjoy them Teaching Tips with the class. Give students a free rein in inventing Have some anthologies or, if there is internet access, a site such as Poem characters or characteristics but explain that there’s Hunter available, so that students can research different verse patterns. only one rule – don’t completely make up the details. There might be a competition for those who can come up with the most Everything invented should be based on something unusual. Now ask them to write a poem of at least two verses using a they’ve felt themselves or seen in other people. They specific pattern of their own invention. It may include a rhyme scheme can distort it or exaggerate it, but it still needs to be but does not have to: rhythm / syllable count can be sufficient to define a based on something real. If this rule is not kept, it’ll pattern. If they are stuck for a topic, suggest focusing on another creature be like watching a useless ventriloquist – the magic – hedgehog, mouse, caterpillar, moth… just doesn’t happen. For a poem of this type to work, the audience has to believe in the character. The trick to creating ‘believability’ is to keep the connections Trevor Millum and Chris Warren with reality, even if they are stretched a long way! are the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee

22 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 19 … TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

The fifth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores observations, negatives and powerful phrases.

20 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 20 News and Views

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Life Drawing Just Say No Life drawing poems mean literally that. They are not done A Just Say No poem defines things through negatives. Instead of from memory. Writers sit in front of the object, or experience saying what a thing IS, you say what it is NOT. Simple as that. This the feelings and sensations, as they write. It means picking can lead to quite complicated and interesting pieces of writing. up a notebook and going out to look at a river if we want to write a poem about a river. Look. Listen. Absorb all the sensation you can. Think Example: Philip Larkin – ‘If My Darling’ hard. Then write. Take down notes, words, or phrases and let If My Darling (extract) the ideas flow. Keep writing. If my darling were once to decide Not to stop at my eyes, Examples include: But to jump, like Alice, with floating skirt into my head, • Hopkins: ‘The Windhover’, or any sample from his notebooks (the description of the bubbling brook is She would find no table and chairs, especially good.) No mahogany claw-footed sideboards, • Lawrence: plenty of examples – e.g., Mosquito No undisturbed embers;

• Larkin: ‘Whitsun Weddings’ The tantalus would not be filled, nor the fender-seat cosy, Nor the shelves stuffed with small-printed books for the Sabbath, Nor the butler bibulous, the housemaids lazy: Extracts from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ notebook …the moon outside was roughing the lake with silver and She would find herself looped with the creep of varying light, dinting and tooling it with sparkling holes. Monkey-brown, fish grey, a string of infected circles DAY bright. Sea calm, with little walking wavelets Loitering like bullies, about to coagulate; …

Looking down into the thick ice of our pond I found the imprisoned air-bubbles nothing at random but starting from Teaching Tips centres and in particular one most beautifully regular white As an introduction, perhaps, play this game: describe a mystery brush of them, each spur of it a curving string of beaded and object with one rule – you can’t say anywhere what the object is diminishing bubbles. directly; you just describe what it is not like. Can your audience guess the identity of the object? FIRST fine; then on the road a thunderstorm with hard rain, the thunder musical and like gongs and rolling in great floors Read the poem. Put emphasis on the argument, as you read of sound. it, stressing “not” “no” and “nor”, then stress “would find”, “she would also”. Ask class to investigate the basic structure of the DROPS of rain hanging on rails etc. seen with only the lower poem – what is it about? Draw as many responses as you can. rim lighted like nails (of fingers). Finally try to direct the attention to: a) the images and what they imply Writing Suggestions b) the positive and negative definitions of personality, based on Go out and sit under a tree. Look very, very carefully misguided expectations at it. What’s the bark like? What is its colour? What sound is it making, if any (trees can be very noisy in the Ask the class to write a poem about another person entering wind)? Record little incidents (a leaf suddenly falls; a their minds – mother, brother, sister, beloved, father etc. The bird, disturbed, flies off in a panic; a fly lands on your first part of the poem will be about what that person will not find, notebook). All that directly observed writing is part of the second part will be about what the person will find (and some life-drawing. things in the dream-like world of the mind will be distinctly strange! Surrealist art could be used here.) Stress that the approach should be through images and Teaching Tips metaphors (look at the original). If it isn’t feasible to take a class out into the field to write, you may wish to set this task as a homework challenge. Perhaps a visit to a favourite place. But the key thing is that Writing Suggestions the writing needs to be done there, and not recalled in Imagine, like Larkin, that someone has got into your head. First tranquillity after the event. Notebook and pen, or Dictaphone, say what that person would NOT find. This could reveal what the essential equipment. person is expecting to find – their prejudices or assumptions about you. You could finish the poem by say what’s really there, and it could be startling or strange.

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 20 | 21 39 Steps … to Engaging with Poetry – Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

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Setting a Jewel A lovely way to write spin-off poems from almost any text you are studying. The technique goes like this: choose an especially numinous phrase (the jewel) from a poem or other text and put it into a poem of your own (the setting). The subject of your new poem can be completely different from the original.

Example: Powerful phrases can be found in a The jewel in this example is ‘What is the meaning wide range of texts and what strikes one person as of trees’. Below I use the same word-patterns as Gaerard Manley Hopkins special may leave someone else indifferent. It’s a the poet, but alter the subject. I marked with a blue personal choice. For illustration purposes, I have and yellow highlighter the patterns I wanted to chosen a phrase from ‘Hurricane Hits England’ by recreate in my setting: Grace Nichols. What is the meaning of flies Hurricane Hits England (extract) buzzing frantic as bees What is the meaning of trees their furry legs Falling heavy as whales their feverish wings? Their crusted roots Their cratered graves? What is the meaning of clouds sailing white as sheep Their fluffy locks Philip Larkin Their fleecy loneliness?

Writing Suggestions You don’t need to take anything more from the original poem than the special phrase you have chosen, but you may, like me, want to copy the way that the poet used the phrase, but with words of your own. It’s open to you!

Teaching Tips Sometimes when we read a text a word or a phrase jumps out and resonates very strongly. We can’t always explain why the words are attractive. They just are. This technique celebrates, and allows focus on, these special, almost magical verbal encounters. A way into it might be to choose a poem where there are a number of lovely turns of phrase, then ask students in pairs to identify the ones they especially like. A gentle discussion of ‘why?’ could follow, always Grace Nichols allowing the response that it cannot be explained. Then each student takes their chosen phrase and writes a poem inspired by it, and including it.

Trevor Millum and Chris Warren are the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee

22 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 20 … TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

The sixth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores questions and answers, compound words, and ‘plus and minus’ lists.

42 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 21 Features: Creative Reading

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Compound words Compound words are created when two words are joined together to do a new job. They are most commonly joined by a hyphen, but sometimes poets decide to hide the join, and they spell the two words as one long new word. It’s like marrying words! You can generate hundreds of new words this way. Simply grab two unsuspecting partners, put them together, and bingo, they give birth to a whole new idea, with both parents’ genes mixed in. Compound words team up, like a pair of yoked oxen, to do the work you want them to. Sometimes the words don’t get on with each other, like partners in an unhappy marriage, and then sparks fly. Compounds like this are sometimes oxymorons, where the meanings of the words fight and you have a mental paradox to deal with – ‘the sharp-soft grass’. Making compound words is addictive and fun. Some well-known poets and writers are especially fond of them. You can spot thousands of compounds in Shakespeare and Dickens. GM Hopkins, Ted Hughes and James Joyce were all addicts too.

Examples: ‘Inversnaid’ – Gerard Manley Hopkins This darksome burn, horseback brown, Degged with dew, dappled with dew His rollrock highroad roaring down, Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through, In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern, Flutes and low to the lake falls home. And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth What would the world be, once bereft Turns and twindles over the broth Of wet and of wilderness? Let them be left, Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning, O let them be left, wildness and wet; It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning. Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Ulysses – James Joyce. Here Joyce describes a giant: The figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower was that of a broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed redhaired freelyfreckled shaggybearded widemouthed largenosed longheaded deepvoiced barekneed brawnyhanded hairylegged ruddyfaced sinewyarmed hero.

Writing Suggestions Do a bit of research. Make a list of compound words: a) in everyday use b) in poetry you are studying What features do they have in common? What word-classes are used to create the most common compound words? Look at the Hopkins poem and analyse these. Try loading a large chunk of text into a Word document (a novel, grabbed from the Internet?) and then search for the hyphens. Some will be in the middle of compound words. There isn’t an easy way to search for compounds that are spelled as one word, except careful reading. Try some of the patterns you have found through your research. For instance, you may want to experiment with NounAdjective compound words, or NounNouns. When you make a compound word, you can decide what work it will do. You can force it to do the job of the main word classes – Verb, Noun, Adjective. For example, when Hopkins uses the phrase ‘horseback brown’ he uses a common compound (Noun+Noun=horse+back=horseback) to define the exact colour of the stream. Brilliant! Gerard Manley Hopkins Now try using compound words in a poem of your own.

Teaching Tips A good place to start might be with oxymorons, since they are great fun to create, and the word itself has amusing appeal. Oxymorons show the power of paradox and opposites; they snap the mind from one pole to the other, making a spark jump across the terminals with a sudden jolt of energy. As with the Hopkins example, a piece of creative writing describing a scene from nature – an insect, or a stream, or an ancient tree – gives plenty of scope for inventive uses of language, and the generation of brand-new compound words! Or you could use the James Joyce example – a string of new compound words to describe a single person or thing.

James Joyce

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 21 | 43 39 Steps … to Engaging with Poetry – Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

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Question and Answer Plus and Minus A poem that asks itself a series of questions and then answers them. A poem Poems that weigh up the positives and negatives where the poem has a conversation with itself. of something.

Examples: Example: ‘What Were They Like’, Denise Levertov ‘Poem’ – Simon Armitage (an extract) Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 3 – where Juliet contemplates drinking And if it snowed and snow covered the drive the potion He took a spade and tossed it to one side. In Act 4, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet will do anything to avoid the And always tucked his daughter up at night arranged marriage, set for the following day. She’s desperate to the point of And slippered her the one time that she lied. suicide. Friar Lawrence has come up with a plan involving a sleeping potion. And every week he tipped up half his wage. She asks herself a series of questions. Is she being tricked? Is the potion really a poison? She tries to answer the questions to help herself decide, and And what he didn’t spend each week he saved to calm her nerves And praised his wife for every meal she made What if this mixture do not work at all? And once, for laughing, punched her in the face. Shall I be married then to-morrow morning? No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there. Writing Suggestions [Laying down her dagger] Try using the same model as the example: What if it be a poison, which the friar • Write a poem about someone’s actions Subtly hath ministered to have me dead, • 4 lines per verse, all starting with the Lest in this marriage he should be dishonoured, word ‘and’ Because he married me before to Romeo? • Alternate lines rhyme I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not, • Two or three positive comments with a last For he hath still been tried a holy man. line that suggests something negative. How if, when I am laid into the tomb, Or you could try two or three negative actions I wake before the time that Romeo with one redeeming positive. Come to redeem me? there’s a fearful point! Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault, To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, Teaching Tips The model example talks about a man’s role as And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? a father, husband and son. It has the feel of an honest appraisal of a life, perhaps at a funeral – the theme being ‘everyone has a mixed record; Writing Suggestions no one is perfect.’ In the Levertov example there are six numbered questions, followed by six Students could write about sportsmen and numbered answers. This is an excellent model to follow. Once you get the idea, women, politicians, singers, or celebrities. you might want to vary the pattern, but to begin with try a numbered set of They could point up the flaws in otherwise questions, and then a set of answers to your own questions. excellent careers. Or they could tackle a You may want to imagine a conversation with a reporter (as in ‘What Were mother’s record. Or perhaps the redeeming They Like’), so that the questions are in one voice and the answers in another good actions in a life of crime. They could character’s voice. Perhaps the questioner doesn’t really know and the answerer perhaps take the perspective of looking back knows more than he or she is saying. In the Shakespeare example the questions on a life, listing good deeds and bad, as if and answers are all inside Juliet and explore her deep fears. remembering someone who has gone. Imagine a visitor from another planet were to ask six questions about Earth. What would be the answers? Or imagine an Interview with someone who doesn’t know you or who has misguided ideas about you.

Trevor Millum Teaching Tips and Chris Warren • The Shakespeare extract shows the power of this form to explore internal are the authors of Unlocking dialogue. Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the • The questions can be about some universal worry, or something deeply NATE ICT Committee personal. • Once writers have generated the questions, the answers will flow.

44 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 21 Features: English – The Big Picture

… TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

The seventh instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores poems with a twist, poems with an unusual perspective, and poems that exploit compressed expression.

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 22 | 61 39 Steps … to Engaging with Poetry – Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

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Distillation Life seen from another angle One of the ways of looking at poetry is to see it as a compressed form of Poems can offer a way of looking at life from an unusual expression, in which every word that is not absolutely necessary has been perspective. For example, from the point of view of an squeezed out. Thinking of the poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins, you animal or an outsider. The ultimate outsider is the alien can see where this might lead: sometimes a compression so severe that or a robot. it is hard to comprehend. Nevertheless, the idea of distilling sentences or thoughts until they become more focused and intense is a useful way Examples of talking about poems with students, especially if they don’t ‘get’ poetry. Craig Raine’s ‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’ is one of the most well-known and can easily be found on- Example line. It begins: Here’s an example from a Y9 student: Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings My cat and some are treasured for their markings -- is as vain as a film star they cause the eyes to melt her green eyes shine or the body to shriek without pain. like emeralds I have never seen one fly, but she dribbles in contentment sometimes they perch on the hand. lazy as a cow The poem becomes a series of metaphors to unravel but graceful as a ballerina or, really, riddles to solve. Students shouldn’t leave it she’s a tightrope walker at that, though. Get them to discuss how successful on padded paws they think the comparisons are. Are some better my furry thought out than others? (‘…cause the eyes to melt’ fat cat might be deemed effective whereas ‘snores’ might be questioned in the lines ‘a haunted apparatus sleeps, / You can see how the poem has been distilled from a much longer that snores when you pick it up.’) The next stage would description: be to invent some descriptions of their own. For My cat is as vain as a film star or a queen like Cleopatra. She purrs like she has example, ‘Bright metal capsules eat their owners and an engine deep down in her throat or her chest and her evil green eyes shine in hurry along dry river beds’. her face like emeralds. She meows pathetically and gets ignored or fed. But later The poem that begins ‘Now I lay me down to sleep, / behind her half-closed eyelids she dribbles in contentment. She sleeps all day, The king-size bed is soft and deep... / I sleep right in the lazy as a cow but I suppose she’s as gentle and as graceful as a ballerina when centre groove / My human can hardly move!’ is variously she wants to be. When she walks along the wall it’s as if she’s a tightrope walker titled ‘A Cat’s Prayer’ and ‘A Dog’s Prayer’. Either way, it on padded paws. When she’s asleep she’s just like any other furry fat cat. sees the world from the point of view of an animal. Can students find others written from an animal’s point of view? Teaching tips Set students a homework task to observe an animal, whether it be a pet, a bird in the garden or even an insect on the window pane. They Writing Suggestions should write down everything they see or hear: what it looks like, what Students generally find it enjoyable to write from the it does, how it moves, what it reminds them of… These notes are to be point of view of an animal but may need help in order to brought back and written up into a short descriptive passage. These give the poem structure. ‘A day in the life of…’ or ‘Five descriptions can be shared in groups with group members underlining things I dislike about my human’ provide plenty of or highlighting phrases they like. The descriptions are then returned opportunities for an unusual take on life and for humour, to their authors to whom it is suggested they remove all the words that of course. Humour would be replaced by serious message have not been highlighted and see what is left. Further small edits can if the animal in question was an endangered one, for be made but the aim should be concision. Arrange each phrase on a new instance. Alternatively, they might like to consider line and the result will almost certainly be a poem. themselves robots. ‘Beep beep / I wake / voice calls / I eat’ This activity should not only produce some interesting writing but – and so on through a school day with bells determining act as an eye-opener with regard to the nature of poetry. Many poems one’s actions. appear to have gone through such a process, whether literally or in the mind of the poet. Think of Edward Thomas’s ‘Tall Nettles’ for example. Teaching Tips Use this opportunity to discuss the notion of persona. Writing Suggestions We all tend to assume that, if written in the first person, In addition to the approach described above, students could take an the voice of the poem is the voice of the poet and this, existing passage of fiction or non-fiction and select the phrases that of course, is often not the case. The use of a Martian appeal to them, copying them out and arranging them as they think voice, or a dog’s voice makes it clear that the poet can most effective. The description of the Red Room from Jane Eyre write from any viewpoint. Some poems are not so would be one powerful passage to use. Do not exclude non-fiction. obvious, especially when the poet is employing irony. Travel books and even cookery books can provide some rich material! If appropriate, seek out and discuss one or two of these.

62 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 22 Features: English – The Big Picture

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A Bit of a Twist These poems seem to be going in one direction and then at the end, there’s a twist, something unexpected.

Examples: – from the sublime to the ridiculous:

‘Remember’ – Christina Rossetti ‘My Seven Days of Dieting’ Remember me when I am gone away, On the first day of dieting Gone far away into the silent land; The only thing I ate When you can no more hold me by the hand, Was a piece of crispy rye bread Christina Rossetti. Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. … Remember me when no more, day by day, On the sixth day of dieting You tell me of our future that you planned: The only things I ate Only remember me; you understand Were 6 grated carrots It will be late to counsel then or pray. 5 lettuce leaves Yet if you should forget me for a while 4 chopped-up walnuts And afterwards remember, do not grieve: 3 natural yoghurts For if the darkness and corruption leave 2 tubs of coleslaw A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, and a piece of crispy rye bread Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad. On the seventh day of dieting The only things I ate

Were 7 choc-chip cookies Craig Raine. 6 white bread sarnies 5 jam doughnuts 4 English muffins 3 Eccles cakes 2 chip butties and no bloody crispy rye bread.

Rossetti’s poem seems to be heading in an obvious direction and then in the last few lines, she switches, with powerful effect. ‘My Seven Days of Dieting’ employs a switch for comic effect, which is a more common use of the technique. In ‘My Seven Days of Dieting’, the last verse is also a relief from the repetition of the previous ones. (It’s a poem which is best read aloud as there needs to be variation through the verses.) (See also Leigh Hunt’s ‘Abou Ben Adhem’ and Louis Macneice’s ‘Prayer Before Birth’.)

Writing Suggestions To create a poem with a twist at the end, try this simple pattern, which can be applied to almost any topic, for example, Winter. ‘I hate the way the cold nips at my toes; / I hate the way I can’t see the ball at night …’ and so on until ‘But I love the cosy evening firelight.’ Or the reverse, of course. Or the description of a person. ‘X was no good at …, X couldn’t ever …’ and so on until ‘But X saved my cat from next door’s dog.’ This simple form can be used with serious effect to tackle stereotypes, for instance.

Teaching Tips Take any of the poems mentioned above and read them aloud until the point where the poem changes. Alternatively give students a copy with the last lines omitted. In each case ask how they think the poem might be finished. They could try writing a few lines or simply suggest the kind of ending.

Trevor Millum and Chris Warren are the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 22 | 63 Reviews and Columns

… TO ENGAGING WITH POETRY Reading and writing poems in the English classroom

The eighth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores parodies and homages, settings, and narratives.

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 23 | 71 39 Steps to Engaging with Poetry

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Parodies and Homages Places A parody generally uses a well-known poem as the basis for a People and places, what else is there to write about? Feelings, humorous imitation, though sometimes the humour has a serious, perhaps? But they don’t exist without people … Discuss. usually satirical, intention. A poem written as a homage to an The poetry of place is a huge subject and one specifically existing poem recognises the importance of the original and pays covered in many a GCSE Anthology. From ‘Composed upon tribute to it through its employment as an inspiration: imitation is Westminster Bridge’ to ‘Mametz Wood’, places are central to the sincerest form of flattery in this case. The original may be poets’ inspiration. In some cases the poem will simply be an used as a starting point or referenced throughout the parody or evocation of a special place, in others it will serve as a springboard homage. Usually the form sticks closely to the original in order for to other things, memories being the most prevalent. the comparison to be clear and, of course, if the reader or listener is not familiar with the original, the point is pretty much lost! Example Thomas Hardy frequently uses the significance of a place to Examples remind him of past lives and lost loves. Here’s the first stanza of Frost’s well-known poem and Henry Beeny Cliff Beard’s parody of it: O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free – Whose woods these are I think I know. The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here The pale mews plained below us, and the waves seemed far away To watch his woods fill up with snow. In a nether sky, engrossed in saying their ceaseless babbling say, Whose woods these are I think I know As we laughed light-heartedly aloft on that clear-sunned March day.

Sitting by the Fire on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost’s Cat A little cloud then cloaked us, and there flew an irised rain, Whose chair this is I think I know. And the Atlantic dyed its levels with a dull misfeatured stain, He’s somewhere in the forest though; And then the sun burst out again, and purples prinked the main.

He will not see me sitting here Still in all its chasmal beauty bulks old Beeny to the sky, A place I’m not supposed to go. And shall she and I not go there once again now March is nigh, Notice how the parody uses the same form (line length, And the sweet things said in that March say anew there by and by? rhythm and rhyme scheme – and sometimes the exact same rhymes). The collection, Poetry for Cats, contains a What if still in chasmal beauty looms that wild weird western shore, masterful range of parodies from Chaucer to Dylan Thomas The woman now is – elsewhere – whom the ambling pony bore, And nor knows nor cares for Beeny, and will laugh there nevermore. Teaching Tips Reading a parody of a well-known poem can often provide an Teaching Tips insight into the original but writing one is far more effective. There is plenty to discover in this outwardly straightforward The original needs to be studied closely in order for an poem but, to begin, we suggest concentrating on how place and imitation to be written and this can be an engaging way to human feelings interact. bring students closer to a text. Do not worry that the poem Ask students to mark all of the references to weather and beginning ‘Kevin, Kevin, turning right/on the highway late at night’ place and list them. Now organise them in order of how positive (as written by a Y10 student) is somehow going to devalue the or negative they seem. What do we make of the ‘little cloud original. Many serious interests begin in a light-hearted way. that cloaked us’ or ‘a dull misfeatured stain’, both of which are replaced by a burst of sunshine? Are we reading too much into these phrases simply because we know what happened with Writing Suggestions Thomas and Emma? The story of Hardy and his wife Emma is The writing of a parody is not easy, though. It may well be well documented and the significance of Beeny Cliff can easily that you need to provide some starting lines or ideas: be researched – but first, see what students make of the poem ‘My owners kept me from terriers who were tough’ without knowing the context. ‘Eurostar of Gare du Nord from distant Paris/Gliding home to London under the sea/With a cargo of...’ Writing Suggestions ‘Twas the day before term ends, when all through the school/Not Ask students to recall a place that has significance for them. a pupil was stirring, on chair or on stool.’ Let them spend a few minutes with eyes closed, remembering ‘Shall I compare thee to a pot of tea?’ it. Get them to jot down what they recall in terms of the physical aspects of the place, then anything of significance ‘Twas Thursday and the bottom set/Did gyre and gimble in the gym./ that took place there and finally their feelings about it now. All mimsy was Miss Borogrove/And the Head of Maths was grim.’ This could be worked into a poem but might remain as prose, as disjointed as a stream of consciousness. Have fun!

72 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 23 Reviews and Columns

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Telling a Story Narrative poetry has been immensely popular throughout the ages, whether in the form of oral retelling or in written verse. When Longfellow’s ‘Evangeline’ was published in 1847 it sold an amazing 36,000 copies. It’s hard to think of any poem like that today, at least in English. It’s not that we don’t read anymore: novels are as popular as ever, it’s just that the taste for reading stories in verse form has died out. The exception to this is poetry for younger readers where ‘The Highwayman’, ‘The Song of Hiawatha’ and similar poems are still read or listened to with enjoyment.

Examples One of the shorter narrative poems you may have come across is ‘Out, Out’ by Robert Frost. Other exam Robert Frost favourites include ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Tennyson, Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and extracts from Wordsworth’s ‘The Prelude’. Then there’s ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe’, ‘Lamia’ and ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ by John Keats, and Burns’ ‘Tam o’ Shanter’. Plus any of ‘The Canterbury Tales’ of course. Many stories, such as ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ are told in ballad form, which would originally have been sung. For some lighter examples, don’t forget Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ and ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’.

Teaching Tips Share some narrative poems, or extracts, with students. Discuss what, if anything, they have in common besides the fact of telling a story. Do narrative poems tend to tell the same kinds of stories? What about form: ballads and older narrative poems usually have a very regular form, with a definite rhythm and a rhyme pattern. Why was this? Notice any exceptions, such as ‘The Prelude’ and ‘Paradise Lost’.

Writing suggestions Thomas Hardy It might seem a daunting task to write a story in the form of a poem. However, it can be liberating for students who struggle with orthodox sentences and conventional punctuation to write in free verse. Try to find a copy of one or two of these to demonstrate the possibilities: • ‘Switch on the Night’ by Ray Bradbury • ‘The Story of Canobie Dick’ by Libby Houston • ‘Jonah and the Whale’ by Gareth Owen • ‘Annabel and the Witches’ by Mick Gowar • ‘Mary Celeste’ by Judith Nicholls

Don’t discount form altogether. A class of Yr 4 pupils wrote a retelling of the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops in ballad form. Each group of four or five pupils took a bit of the story and created one or two four-line verses which rhymed and scanned. It began: Some sailors coming back from war Decided they needed to eat. They saw an island approaching close And started to imagine fresh meat.

The sailors landed on an island. They were in a hungry mood. They walked round and found a cave And in the cave they found some food.

The result may be simple in content but the learning which accompanies the creation, discussion and editing makes the project worth undertaking for its own sake, to say nothing of the feelings of achievement when the result is shared beyond one classroom.

Trevor Millum and Chris Warren are the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 23 | 73