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I am teaching a group poetry (reading, not writing) class next month to adult English students of varying proficiency levels. I've taught text classes before, on prose readings and song lyrics, but this is my, and their, first attempt at English poetry. So far my list of possibilities contains Frost ("Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Road Not Taken"), Yeats ("A Deep-Sworn Vow" and "When You Are Old" for sure, few others to look at), Auden, possibly Browning's "My Last Duchess." I'd like to put in some Donne or Shakespeare if I could find something not too complicated (wishful thinking).
What I'm looking for is more suggestions - what would you teach to adults reading their first English poetry? What poems do you love? What poet writes beautiful (or significant, interesting, discussion-sparking) poetry that is at the same time accessible enough for students of English? Children's or YA poetry is ok (list is currently long on classics), as long as it doesn't insult their intelligence too much. "Casey at the Bat," for example, would be fun...if the students only knew the rules of baseball... Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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Lady Mary Wortley Montague Edna St. Vincent Milay
They both have natural language and powerful themes. Plus, I love them.
Dorothy Parker, for kicks
William Wordsworth, for the romantics Edgar Allen Poe! "Eldorado", "Israfel", "The Bells", and "Annabel Lee" are all wonderful.
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Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" is the perfect way to talk about villanelles if you want to get into that.
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Poe is a good idea, I'll have to reread some of his.
I must share that I had considered the opening of the Canterbury Tales (had to memorize in high school). I would hand out the text in Middle English, watch everyone panic as they think "I don't speak French!" or "I thought I understood English better than this!!" for a minute or two before handing out a modern English "translation" for actual reading and discussion. The question is, would they come back??
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No. That's just mean. I would get really, really intimidated and confused. Depending on what level thier English is. I'm thinking of my own experience in a French class when I didn't understand the teacher's explanation of the HW assignment- we weren't supposed to understand all the slang, and I gave up and ended up dreading that class pretty much every day.
I don't know. The main difficulty I have with poems in other languages is all the connotative idioms and culturally/linguistically significant terms. For that reason I'd avoid Poe. Go with the Romantics. They're very straightforward for the most part.
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PL - I know, I have a minor, unfulfilled sadistic side. You did catch that they would actually (in this fantasy set-up) read the modern English one, though, right?
Tom - that didn't stop me from including Frost...
A slightly more reasonable version of that idea was the first sentence of Paradise Lost. Horribly complicated at first read, but when you go through it slowly you see that it makes sense after all. Did that once in an English class (as a student). I thought it could be a fun beginning to take an intimidating, famous work of literature and show everyone that it isn't that intimidating after all. But it's still on a little too high of a level.
Lisa - Jabberwocky would be another cruel one! I like it! I have the Loreena McKennitt CD, do love the song, and if I played it before and after could take up 1/3 of my class time. *puts in notes for when doesn't feel like preparing actual lesson* I did consider doing LM's "Fear No More" as a music/Shakespeare connection for one of my classes last year. Still might someday. Dylan Thomas is great idea.
My husband's reaction to both "Jabberwocky" and The Canterbury Tales was "This is English? ... Are you sure?"
Thanks for great suggestions so far! (except for Tom, who gets a *pie* for lack of positive recommendation) Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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Anything from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" is a great way to get them into Eliot. Elizabeth Jennings is conversational and easy to read, but there is lots to discuss themes-wise. Try "Italian Light" or "About These Things." Benjamin Zephaniah or John Agard would be good for performance poetry.
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Yes, that can go in my women-killing themed class. Complemented by Donne's "Go and catch a falling star."
Seriously, though, I wonder if that one would be a better discussion piece than "My Last Duchess," Belle. Such horrible poems. *shudder* Might use it, thanks Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I don't get this joke. In any case, the Henry Huggins books were written by Beverly Cleary, and "Make Way for Ducklings" is by Robert McCloskey.
So Lissande, how are you going to convince your students that poetry matters?
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"The Wasteland" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (if you are going to do Eliot, do Eliot)
Naomi Nye
Roethke's "The Waking"
"Imperial Adam" by Hope
"Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorem est" by Owen
A good English-language tranlation of "Les fleurs du Mal" espc, if you only have time for one, L'Albatros.
Catullus, espc. the Lesbia poems (these need to be read in Latin as well as in translation to catch the rhythms, does anyone in your class speak Classical Latin?)
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Wilfred Owen, that's another one I want to do. In fact, I'm looking for other war poets too, so I can do a themed lesson or perhaps even a whole course someday. More suggestions on war poets? I like one whose title currently escapes me by I think Randall Jerrell (sp?), and another one ak posted once about a classically educated guy who dies pointlessly in battle (don't you love my specificity?).
And...I'm going to bet on no Latin speakers. The best we can do is a couple German speakers and maybe French or Russian.
Omega, that's a good question, but the truth is that I'll be happy if everyone goes home knowing what the poem was about. I'm more concerned at the present with convincing my students that reading poetry in English is actually possible, period.
The trick to these group classes is that I never know who will come. There are some regulars, but in general I don't know if I'll have three or ten, and whether they'll be proficient speakers or more lower-intermediate. Makes lesson planning, and balancing class participation, VERY tricky. *grumble*
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Owen is largely over-rated; if you're going to do him, I suggest "Disabled." Other important WWI poets might include Sassoon, Graves, Hardy, Brooke, and maybe Kipling, Edward Thomas, etc.
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"Dover Beach" by Arnold "Psalm of Life" by Longfellow "She Walks in Beauty" by Byron I have a personal affinity for Gerard Manly Hopkins <edit> but can't think of anything specific or significant </edit>.
Seconds (or thirds or whatever) for Shakespearean Sonnets (esp. LX and CXLI) "Ulysses" by Tennyson "..Prufrock" by Eliot (best poem ever) "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Owens "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Thomas
..and if you're going the Loreena McKennit route I highly recommend "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes; you could also have a multimedia extravaganza and show the clip of Anne's recitation from Anne of Avonlea (or was it Green Gables).
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hehe, "Charge of the Light Brigade" by Kipling. Cannons to the right of them! Cannons to the left...into the valley of death rode the 600...theirs was not to question why, theirs was but to do and die...
I don't know why it makes me chuckle. It's just so imperial I guess.
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quote:Originally posted by Omega M.: I don't get this joke. In any case, the Henry Huggins books were written by Beverly Cleary, and "Make Way for Ducklings" is by Robert McCloskey.
[The woman who transcribed that made a small mistake, putting "based" instead of "base" in the second to last stanza.]
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Lissa, the tricky part here--which you've noted, but which I think some of those who have responded here have not--is that "the best poetry" is seldom the best poetry for those learning English. I mean, yeah, Eliot is fantastic, but can you imagine someone who's trying to learn English reading The Waste Land ("Tut tut, jug jug, so rudely forc'd, Tereu, the young man carbuncular--what the hell?!")? And not only are most of the students coming without knowledge of English poetry, a lot probably don't have a big background in poetry of any kind. Milk before meat, guys.
Another part of the problem is that English changes--and has changed--really quickly. It's markedly easier for a non-native speaker of Italian, for example, to read Dante or Petrarch than it is for a non-native speaker of English to read Chaucer (even though he was a generation or two later) or even Shakespeare.
So what you'll want to focus on is more modern stuff or older stuff that doesn't use a lot of weird diction, spelling, etc. That (and other things) makes Donne hard, but maybe one of the Holy Sonnets would work. For sound Hopkins is amazing--"The Windhover" is one of my favorite sonnets--but for meaning, grammar, and usage it would be a nightmare.
Length is another issue. "My Last Duchess" is great but probably way too long for non-native speakers (heck, I just hesitated for a few seconds trying to decide if it was quoted or italicized).
So: relatively short, relatively clear poems. This doesn't mean you have to resort to doggerel. Frost, as noted, offers some great possibilities. Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider." Housman. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts." Nemerov's "A Primer of the Daily Round" and "The Historical Judas." Richard Wilbur. Derek Walcott is great though not always accessible. Some of Robert Pinsky. And so on.
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SenojRetep, The Charge of the Light Brigade was by Tennyson. Kippling's lesser-known poem is called "The Last of the Light Brigade" which is critical of the conditions in the Army of the time and contains the memorable closing "Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made - " /And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!
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Just for the fun fun rhythm of it -- these poems want to be read aloud -- how about Jack Prelutsky?
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Thanks for the correction Pelegius. As for Dante's point, I hadn't realized these were ESL students. Of my original recommendations, I think "She Walks in Beauty" is a particularly good choice given that information. It's a great poem, simple in diction and regular in rhythm, with a very universal theme and imagery.
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Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke Queen Elizabeth I Amelia Lanier (I particularly like Eve's Apology in Defense of Women) Anne Bradstreet Aphra Behn (a fascinating woman: English spy and playwright, 1640 - 1689.) Hilda Doolittle Maxine W. Kumin Anne Sexton Adrienne Rich Sylvia Plath Anne Stevenson Kamala Das Susan Griffin (check out I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman)
quote:I like to think of Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman who carried a revolver, who had a scar on her head from a rock thrown by a slave-master (because she talked back), and who had a ransom on her head of thousands of dollars and who was never caught, and who had no use for the law when the law was wrong, who defied the law. I like to think of her. I like to think of her especially when I think of the problem of feeding children.
The legal answer to the problem of feeding children is ten free lunches every month, being equal, in the child's real life, to eating lunch every other day. Monday but not Tuesday. I like to think of the President eating lunch on Monday, but not Tuesday. and when I think of the President and the law, and the problem of feeding children, I like to think of Harriet Tubman and her revolver.
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Langston Hughes "Raisin in the Sun" would be excellent. Modern language and short, but a very powerful poem.
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Why don't you ask them what poets they like, or what periods? English poets are quite popular and I think many of your students have come across one or another at some point (if only at school. I, for one, first read Elliott, Donne and various others at my _Polish_ classes). they might want to read it in original, even if it's difficult. Or, conversely, if you have a lot of students of one nationality, you can find some english translations of their contry's poetry (like Goethe for Germans, and so on).
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"John Anderson" by Keith Douglas would be an excellent war poem with simple language.
Housman has great poems with simple language. "Oh, when I was in love with you" might be a good one (he didn't name most of his, so I'll just quote first lines.) "When I was one and twenty", "With rue my heart is laden". These are all quite short but are just wonderful gems, I think. "From far, from morn and evening" is so great! Lissa, is your email in your profile still good? I'll just mail you all these.
How about some Ogden Nash to lighten things up? They might like the language tricks he plays. "The turtle" is a good one, and "Panther" and "Eels".
For Shakespeare, I think the best sonnet to do would be "When my love swears that she is made of truth". I think the double meanings in the words would be fun to talk about with language students (even though they might pass by most English speakers today.)
I'm currently considering whether Oh, the Places You'll Go! is too long to cover. Surely if they get the vocabulary in advance... I believe in variety.
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I like Robert Herrick, but his language is a bit archaic. Frost is an excellent choice. I'd also consider Dickinson, despite the need to explain her use of slant rhyme.
If these were native speakers of English, I'd go with Jabberwocky and Canterbury Tales and Caedmon's Hymn, but that may be asking a bit much of ESL students, at least at the start. For Shakespeare, sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") might require chewing over, but seems worth it. Also, Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" could work, perhaps paired with one of the responses written by later poets.
Seuss is fun-- my favorite may be "Yertle the Turtle," which can be picked apart for symbolism and metaphor.
If you're looking at poetic forms and would like a companion textbook, I highly recommend Rhyme's Reason, by John Hollander, which describes just about every form of poetry using the forms themselves. (That is, there are sonnets about the construction of sonnets, etc.) It also includes an appendix with additional examples of many forms used in practice.
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I think "Oh the Places You'll Go" is a great choice!
It doesn't have any of the condensed language that makes a poem able to convey so much in so few words, but it's got nice music, and is charming and sweet. I bet your students will get a kick out of it, particularly if you explain Dr. Seuss to them, and maybe even show them a bit of "Hop on Pop" or "The Cat in the Hat" to illustrate.
I am still looking for my book that has the poem John Anderson in it. It seems to have temporarily popped out of this spacetime continuum. My stuff does that a lot. Whenever it pops back in, I'll type it in and email it for you. After spending 15 minutes with google, I've convinced myself that it doesn't yet exist on the web.
Though perhaps some of our google-fu masters could find it. It's by Keith Douglas. It's called "John Anderson". Here are some bits of it that I remember.
quote:John Anderson, a scholarly gentleman Advancing with his company in the attack Received some bullets through him as he ran ... he fell back Into the bloody dust... It was a fine day there, and warm... Blood turned his tunic black..
... while past his final stare The other simple soldiers ran And left the hero unaware ...
But I think the last moment of his gaze Beheld the father of gods and men, Zeus ... "Descend, Phoebus, and cleanse the stain of dark blood from the body of John Anderson Give him to the brothers Sleep and Death Who'll bear him as they can Out of the range of darts, to some bright plain Of Lycia, there ..."
And the brothers Sleep and Death lifted up John Anderson at his last breath.
It's an allusion to the death of Sarpedon in the Illiad. Keith Douglas wrote it while at Oxford when he was about 21. He was killed in the invasion of Normandy when he was 24.
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Starlisa you took three of the ones I was going to suggest! (Carroll, Thomas, and Tennyson)
I love Jabberwocky and I think it is great for non-native English students. My seventh graders LOVE it but you certainly would have to walk them through it. The explanation is in Through the Looking Glass, which I always pull out with a flourish after they struggle with the poem for a while. Then I let one of the kids be the expert and tell us what it means. Maybe it would be too young for adults though.
I like Oranges by Gary Soto. It is very nostalgic and the language is easy. Same for Frost's The Runaway. I use both of these to teach symbolism.
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You know what they might enjoy? "Richard Corey", by Edwin Arlington Robinson. Simon and Garfunkel set it to music, too, so they can read it and hear the song.
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If Oh the Places You'll Go is too long, you might try The Shape of Me and Other Stuff since there are a lot of vocabulary type words in there. Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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*bump* I am teaching the equivalent of 7th grade and we are doing a poetry unit at the moment. They have done Jabberwocky and the Ancient Mariner and those lovely poems about cats and mice the author of which I can't remember - the cats one starts: Cats sleep Anywhere Any table Any chair. We've also done some haiku which they really enjoyed. I now have to put together a lesson on using poetry to express emotion. The lesson plan uses a poem called "bruises heal" which is about bullying but which we've already done. I'm trying to think of other highly emotional poems which an 11/12 year old will "get" and identify with. I thought about doing "stop all the clocks" and playing the scene from "four weddings and a funeral" but I can't think of any others.
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I really like "Stop all the clocks" and considered doing it for my class. Then I decided I had too many poems about death already.
So far we've done "The Road Not Taken" from Frost and "When I Have Fears" from Keats. Next week is Yeats probably and the last class will be Dylan Thomas. It's going ok. When the students actually listen ( ) class goes smoothly and they've all gone home knowing what the poem is about, which is the goal at this level. Thanks guys. Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I did consider doing LM's "Fear No More" as a music/Shakespeare connection for one of my classes last year. Still might someday. Dylan Thomas is great idea.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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) class goes smoothly and they've all gone home knowing what the poem is about, which is the goal at this level. Thanks guys. 
