Module 4 Lessons: Sharing Experience

1. Sharing Experience

Lesson 47

Sharing Experience

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Have you ever wondered why poetry continues to be one of the most popular literary forms of expression? What is it about poetry that compels people to create it and read it to the extent that they do?

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that poetry is a natural mode of expression. The rhythms of poetry are the rhythms of life. You speak and think poetically, and when you need to share your deepest thoughts and strongest emotions, you more often than not do so in a poetic form.

To read a poem is to hear it with our eyes;
to hear it is to see it with our ears.

—Octavio Paz (1914_1998), Mexican poet, writer, and diplomat

Mr. Haas: How many of you have ever written a poem without being asked by a teacher? What prompted you to write your poems?

Chelsea: I just enjoy rhyming and playing with words.

Dominic: When I was a kid, I believed I'd be a famous poet. I wrote short rhyming poems almost every day. I recently reread them. Were they ever bad!

Mr. Haas: Did you throw them away?

Dominic: Are you kidding? They're precious to me. They were what I was during those days. I would never throw them away.

Brandon: On days when I'm sad, I'll write poetry to help me get through the day by expressing how I feel. I also write poetry to celebrate my life when I'm feeling especially happy.

Mr. Haas: Do you ever share those poems with an audience?

Brandon: No way. I just need to write the poems. I don't want to share them.

Mr. Haas: Most of you have written poems, and that helps to explain the continuing popularity of poetry.

What better way is there to express your feelings?

A poem is never a put-up job, so to speak. It begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a love sickness. It is never a thought to begin with.

—Robert Frost (1874_1963), American poet

Purposes of Poetry

Poetry can do many things—describe a sunset, capture an early spring morning, record the song of a lark, and free the spirit. When you feel strongly about something and you wish to share your thoughts and emotions, would you consider writing a novel, essay, or short story? Not likely. But you might consider writing a poem or a song. Whether or not you share your writing is not important. It's the process of creating the poem that makes you feel better or helps you celebrate.

Journal Entry

In your journal, explore your poetry-writing experiences. Consider the following:

Have you ever written poems? If so, discuss when and why you did so.
Did you share your poems with anyone? Why or why not?
Have any of your friends or family members written poetry? If so, who? Describe their poems.
How do you feel when you're asked to write poetry as a class assignment? Explain.
Did You Know?

Did you know that the word poetry comes from the Greek word poiein, which translates as to make or to create. How appropriate! When you make a poem, aren't you being creative?

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The Inuit word for making poetry is the same as the word for to breathe. This word is believed to be derived from the Inuktitut word for the soul, amerca. This, too, suggests how people feel about the origins and sources of poetry.

Personal Connection

Mr. Haas: Let's explore your reactions to poetry.

Lin: That poem you assigned yesterday was the worst. It was so boring!

Brandon: Are you serious? That poem was great. I liked it so much that I put it on my mirror.

Chelsea: People respond in different ways to the same poem. Some may love it, and others hate it. Some may be bored by it, while others find it totally absorbing. It depends on how you relate to it.

Mr. Haas: Exactly. Your response is often determined by whether or not you can personally connect to a poem. Sometimes, there's little that you can personally identify with, and so you feel bored by a poem. However, another reader may connect in many ways and so find the same poem fascinating.

Ways You Can Connect to a Poem

There are many ways you can personally connect to a poem. Here are several:

similarities between yourself and the speaker
similarities between people you know and characters in the poem
the situation, conflict, or circumstance described
the emotions expressed
the mood created in you
a memory evoked by the poem
an image created in your mind
the ideas developed (whether you agree or not)
an appreciation of the style or craft of the poet

Now read a poem that you'll very likely be able to connect to. It's called "Loneliness" and is found on page 95 of Sightlines 10.

Journal Entry

Write a brief paragraph discussing your personal connections to the poem "Loneliness." What specifically were you able to connect with? What did you like or dislike about it?

To get the most out of a poem, you need to identify who or what the speaker is and then determine the dramatic context.

Do not assume that the speaker is the poet. Sometimes, a male poet will use a female speaker as the voice of the poem and vice versa. Sometimes, a teenaged poet will write from the point of view of an older adult.

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To identify the speaker, you need to determine the person's

approximate age and gender
social role or status, for example, father, younger sister, retired teacher, or unemployed worker
dominant emotion

The dramatic context of a poem refers to the time, place, or circumstance depicted. What is happening, has just happened, or is about to happen in the poem?

1. Who do you imagine the speaker to be in the poem "Loneliness"? What do you think prompted the writing of this poem?

How to Read a Poem

You may think the ability to read poetry does not need to be worked on. You know how to read, and besides, poetry is a personal thing. But the fact remains, students sometimes find poetry difficult to understand and appreciate. This difficulty may be a result of poor poetry-reading habits.

2. By now, you should have a few ideas about what readers of poems should and should not do. In your notebook, make lists of "dos and don'ts" for a good reader of poetry. You might set your lists up like this:

a. A good reader of poetry does . . .
b. A good reader of poetry does not . . .

Read the following advice written by the Canadian poet Ken Norris, and answer the questions based on it.

¹ Ken Norris, "You Are Reading This Too Fast," in Whirlwinds (Montreal: Guernica Editions Inc., 1983). Reproduced by permission.

3. In the poem "You Are Reading This Too Fast," what do you think the word spirit refers to in lines 5 and 12? Explain.

Journal Entry

Imagine you're writing a letter to a friend who has entered a poetry-reading contest. Offer your friend detailed advice on how to prepare for and present an effective reading of a poem.

A good poem is a contribution to reality.
The world is never the same
once a good poem has been added to it.
A good poem helps to change
the shape of the universe,
helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him.¹

—Dylan Thomas (1914_1953)
¹ Dylan Thomas, quote. Reproduced by permission of David Higham Associates.

4. Treat the following series of questions as a prereading exercise for the next poem. If you can, get together with another person or group of students and discuss the questions. If you're working on your own, do this task as a journal entry.

Is there anyone that you envy? Is there someone that you're jealous of?
What is it about this person that you're jealous of? Clothes? Looks? Money? Friends? Marks?
How do you express your jealousy? Describe an event in your life that involves reacting to or expressing jealousy.

Now read the poem "Envy" on pages 41 and 42 of Sightlines 10.

Journal Entry

Explore your reaction to this poem. Did you like or dislike it? Explain. Were you confused by the way the words were broken up on the page? Explore why the poet arranged the words the way he did.

5. The speaker in the poem compares himself constantly to the boy he envies. Compare the characteristics of the two boys. Do so in the form of a chart similar to the one that follows. The chart has been started for you:

The Speaker	The Other Boy
envies	is envied
is not guileless and bold	can fight well—is guileless and bold

6. What does the speaker see as his future? What does he decide to do?

Personal Response

In Lesson 6 (Module One), you learned how to write a personal response to a poem. You may wish to review this material before proceeding.

When you first encounter any literary text, whether a novel or a feature film, you don't immediately begin to analyse it. Instead, you express how you feel about it.

In the same way, a personal response to a poem should record your initial and automatic reaction. Did you like or dislike the poem? Did it remind you of something else that you may have read or experienced in your life?

Mr. Haas: I'm going to read the first verse of a poem called "The Cape" by Katie Pollis. As you listen, keep track of your thoughts and feelings.

¹ Katie Pollis, "The Cape," in Sightlines 10 (St. John's: Breakwater Books, n.d.), 376. Reproduced by permission.

Lin: You read that in a spooky manner, as if you were telling a ghost story.

Mr. Haas: I read it that way because I know the poem well, and I wanted my voice to create a particular mood. But before we get to the words that help create that mood, describe your first impressions of the poem. What did you feel or think or see? Did you like what you heard, or were you merely confused?

Dominic: I liked what I heard. I saw a series of images—a stretch of land and the ocean.

Brandon: I saw fog covering water so that it looked like land—a fluffy meadow.

Chelsea: I was on a ship once, and the windows were small and fogged up. Iguess that's what the speaker meant by "the window that should be a ship's."

Mr. Haas: Those are excellent personal responses to the poem. You're identifying the mood created. You're sharing the images evoked. You're also recalling previous experiences to help make sense of what you heard. But how did you feel? Did you like what you heard?

Lin: I was curious about what was going on. I wanted to know more.

Chelsea: I was confused by the part about the horse going home and the speaker imagining it "lying upended in the rain."

Brandon: I can't get that picture out of my head. I can see that horse with its legs sticking straight up in the air.

Mr. Haas: How does that make you feel? Be specific.

Brandon: Nervous. Uncomfortable. Afraid.

Mr. Haas: Excellent. Now read the rest of the poem on your own. Read it at least twice before completing the questions that come after.

Journal Entry

Read "The Cape" by Katie Pollis on page 376 of Sightlines 10.

Write a personal response to the poem "The Cape." In your entry, consider these questions:

Do you like or dislike the poem? Explain.

What words, phrases, or images did you find that were particularly effective or interesting?

What other literary texts—poems, stories, films, pictures—do some of the lines or images in the poem remind you of? Explore the similarities or differences.

Do any of the lines or descriptions remind you of a personal experience or something that occurred to someone you know? Explain.

What does this poem make you think about or feel?

In this lesson, you explored the power and continuing popularity of poetry. You also learned that poetry serves a variety of purposes. Identifying the speaker and the dramatic context can help you to better understand and appreciate what a poem is attempting to accomplish.

Much of this lesson focused on helping you personally connect to poetry. You also reviewed how to write a personal response to a poem.

Lesson Glossary

dramatic context: the time, place, or circumstance depicted in a poem
personal response: a reaction to a text that expresses a personal opinion and considers the text in light of previous personal, literary, or real experience
speaker: the voice through which a poet speaks

The Speaker	The Other Boy
envies	is envied
is not guileless and bold	can fight well—is guileless and bold
cannot laugh	can laugh
has avoided anything that might hurt him	is not afraid of getting bumps and bruises
is not a perceptive reader—misses a lot	does not miss important passages in books
is not as strong as the other boy	is strong
will forgive evil if it does good	is blunt and honest—will forgive no evil
cannot unravel or cut through knots	is decisive and effective—will cut through a knot he cannot unravel
keeps falling in and out of love	is steadfast in love
pretends to be something other than what he is—smiles and pretends to be a simple soul	is honest and himself
is not an achiever	is an achiever