Over the past year I have been teaching a high school class. I titled the course “Essays, Latin, and Literature.” I informed the students on the first day my aims were two-fold. First, I had the desire to help them continue to refine and improve their essay writing skills. The second was to use the writing opportunities, literature experiences, and exposure to Greek and Latin roots to strengthen the students into strong critical thinkers. Thus far, the students have written several essays and read some great literature, including Beowulf and Peace Like a River. Currently they are reading The Screwtape Letters. Last week I introduced them to poetry.
Why poetry, you may ask? Perhaps to begin with it would be beneficial to offer a definition of poetry. While ranging in length from just a line to thousands of lines—such as is exemplified by the epic poem Beowulf—all poetry is crafted to evoke an emotional response from the reader or listener. Short poems, I inform my students, are syntactic and lexical “vitamins.” In a brief span of words and phrases, they cultivate strong images and emotions in the reader. To accomplish this, poets construct language by crafting pictures and cultivating music through language.
The pictures are constructed using carefully crafted tropes. Tropes are figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, repetition, and personification. The music is brought about through a poem’s meter (the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry) and rhyme. Consider this example from Robert Louis Stevenson. The piece is included in the second level of Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization (LDP).
“At the Seaside”
by Robert Louis Stevenson
1 When I was down beside the sea A
2 A wooden spade they gave to me A
3 To dig the sandy shore. B
4 My holes were empty like a cup. C
5 In every hole the sea came up, C
6 ’Till it could come no more. B
This poem features six lines. Lines 1, 2, 4, and 5 have a total of eight syllables that have the pattern of unaccented followed by accented pairs (a.k.a. iambs). Lines 3 and 6 feature six syllables following the same stressed pattern. You can view the rhyme scheme listed to the right of the poem. Lines 1 and 2 rhyme as well as lines 4 and 5. The six-syllable lines (lines 3 and 6) also rhyme with each other.
How does Stevenson’s poem strengthen thinking? Andrew Pudewa describes the power of memorizing poetry in his introduction to Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization, asserting, “Frequently, the sense of accomplishment that accompanies the memorization of poetry builds linguistic and even academic confidence and spills over into other areas. Like performing a piece of music, memorization and artistic recitation of poetry requires a certain level of perfection, which only conscientious effort and consistency can bring.”
There are other ways that poetry strengthens thinking. Anna Ingham, author of The Blended Sound-Sight Program of Learning, states in her presentation about the subject that poetry is a great integrator. A single poem can teach across the curriculum and boost comprehension. Poems build schema. Teachers and parents can read the poem aloud and discuss its meaning. Because poems paint word pictures, readers encounter dynamic vocabulary, which provides opportunities to expand students’ syntax. In the above example, lessons can be crafted to include science and geometry. Students can copy the poem into a poetry notebook and illustrate it, further supporting spelling and comprehension and providing opportunities for penmanship practice and artistic expression.
Poems are useful not just for young students but for older ones as well. In my class students research different poetic forms and locate examples of these various forms to share with their classmates. They learn about the poets who crafted their selections. Finally, they write their own poetry. One of the classic poems they’ve encountered is “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
“Ozymandias”
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Learning opportunities abound from this short piece. Readers need to think. What is the theme of the poem? They can consider the vocabulary. What does visage mean? What about Ozymandias himself? Was he real? Was the statue real? If yes, from what historical period? What could the line “The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed” mean? Why are the words works, mighty, and wreck capitalized? What tropes does the poet include in the piece? Can the students relate the term “King of Kings” to any other historical or religious figure?
Are you interested in integrating more poetry into your classroom or home? Take a look at these materials, which include classic pieces for students to read, reflect on, remember, and recite.
For all ages: Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization
For primary homeschool students (K–2): Primary Arts of Language
For primary school classrooms (K–2): Primary Writing Lessons
For older, experienced IEW Structure and Style students: Structure and Style® for Students: Year 3 Level B
by Jennifer Mauser
