Deciphering poetic devices is a fantastic way to hone and improve your students analytical and critical thinking skills. Sadly, poetry by far and large can be overlooked as a text type by some teachers because they believe it would be extremely challenging or uninteresting for their students. While some students believe the stigma of more classic poetry types, it is important that we show our students that poetry doesn’t have to follow the ‘stuffy, uptight, indecipherable’ stereotypes and can be a text type that students can enjoy and even relish in studying. Our attitudes towards these types of texts is also key, why should we expect our students to be excited and enthusiastic to learn about poetry, if we ourselves are not enthusiastic about the prospect? Turnabout is fair play. A good stepping stone into poetry is to explore more modern interpretations of the text, such as song lyrics and more free-verse forms. Consider the following. Paul Kelly is one of the greatest Australian musical story-tellers. His songbook is brimming with possibility to explore themes of relationships, morality, struggle and the challenges of humanity. An excellent example of this to explore with your students is his song, “Everything’s Turning To White” from his album “So Much Water So Close To Home” (1989).
Perhaps even the work of Australian poet Judith Wright, who championed Aboriginal rights and environmental issues could be interesting to explore the text of poetry with your students. Some key poems of interest could include:
Guidelines for Poetry AnalysisWhen conducting an analysis of a poem it would be beneficial to keep the following headings in mind as you read the poem and begin writing your analysis: Topic/Theme - When is it set? Where is it set? Organisation/Structure - What style is used? Are analogies used? Does the poem have an argumentative or narrative organisation? Do patterns of images unify it? Speaker - Is it the poet or another voice that is speaking? Tone/Mood - What prevailing feeling comes through the poem? Techniques - Language/Diction (Poetic Terms), Form (Lyric, Sonnet, etc.), Imagery, Sounds (stressors on words) Overall Effect - What overall impression does the poem leave? Do I relate to the dreams, fears, desires, doubts, or fascinations of the poem? Another excellent form of the poetry text is ‘slam poetry’ or ‘performance poetry’. These forms of poetry are designed to be experienced through performance, an excellent example that you could use with your students is that by Rudy Francisco, "Complainers". The rhythm of the performance of these types of poems are an important facet to interpreting and analysing them. COMPLAINERS - Rudy FranciscoThe following are true stories. May 26th 2003 Aron Ralston was hiking, a boulder fell on his right hand. He waited four days, then amputated his arm with a pocket knife. On New Year’s Eve, a woman was bungee jumping in Zimbabwe. The cord broke, she then fell into a river and had to swim back to land in crocodile infested waters with a broken collarbone. Claire Champlin was smashed in the face by a five pound watermelon being propelled by a slingshot. Matthew Brobst was hit by a javelin. David Striegl was punched in the mouth. By a kangaroo. The most amazing part about these stories is when asked about the experience they all smiled, shrugged, and said “I guess things could have been worse.” So go ahead. Tell me that you’re having a bad day. Tell me about the traffic. Tell me about your boss. Tell me about the job you’ve been trying to quit for the past four years. Tell me the morning is just a town house burning to the ground and the snooze button is a fire extinguisher. Tell me the alarm clock stole the keys to your smile, drove it into 7:00 AM, and the crash totaled your happiness. Tell me! Tell me! Tell me, how blessed are we to have tragedies so small it can fit on the tips of our tongues? You see, when Evan lost his legs he was speechless. When my cousin was assaulted, she didn’t speak for forty eight hours. When my uncle was murdered, we had to send out a search party to find my father’s voice. Most people have no idea that tragedy and silence have the exact same address. When your day is a museum of disappointments hanging from events that were outside of your control, when you find yourself flailing in an ocean of “Why is this happening to me?”, when it feels like your guardian angel put in his two week notice two months ago and just decided not to tell you, when it feels like God is just a babysitter that’s always on the phone, when you get punched in the esophagus by a fistful of life, remember that every year two million people die of dehydration so it doesn’t matter if the glass is half full or half empty, there’s water in the cup. Drink it, and stop complaining. Muscle is created by repeatedly lifting things that have been designed to weigh us down. So when your shoulders feel heavy, stand up straight and lift your chin – call it exercise. When the world crumbles around you, you have to look at the wreckage and then build a new one out of the pieces that are still here. Remember, you are still here. The human heart beats approximately four thousand times per hour. Each pulse, each throb, each palpitation is a trophy engraved with the words “You are still alive”. You are still alive. Act like it. I personally enjoy teaching about poetry as I also enjoy analysing poetry. I enjoy evaluating how the different poetic devices, such as metaphor and analogy, work together in order for the reader to interpret and infer meaning. I appreciate how the different perspectives and mindsets that you take when reading a piece can help you glean new and different interpretations. In that way, I believe that poetry is an even changing and evolving text type and it is this quality that makes it so interesting to study and to teach. For further information about works referenced: Raymond Carver - So Much Water So Close To Home Short Story Jindabyne IMDB Rudy Francisco - Complainers Downloadable Content:
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