Poem Selections and Background
The district in which I work is moving toward theme-based instruction. The premise for this is that when given an overarching theme to consider, students are not flying blindly into new material. Use of themes helps students to access prior knowledge, which helps students analyze new material more efficiently. For this reason, I have chosen the theme of perseverance. Either the poet selected had led a tumultuous life and persevered, like Jimmy Santiago Baca, for example, or the poem is reflective of personal or societal unrest and resolution. In most of the poem selections, the notion of auditory perseverance is also demonstrated through the consistent pattern of sounds that are created by the poet's careful selection of words and use of devices. The following section has been compiled in the order of which I feel it should be presented to the students.
Teacher-Written Selection
"Logical Limerick"
Study of Meter and Rhyme
Although the primary focus of this unit is on free verse poetry, it would be beneficial for students to compare the seemingly non-structured free verse poems with the visually structured, such as in a Limerick. Read the Limerick aloud:
Here's a riddle for you to ponder.
It is on the board over yonder.
It is really not hard.
Just think like a bard
Or time you will certainly squander!
An entire class thought of the matter:
If you say my name I will shatter.
A battle broke out!
What's this riddle about?
You're doing it now as you chatter!!
A Limerick is in stark contrast to the other poems that are presented in this unit, yet all of the poems in this unit, including the Limerick, contain similar devices. Since many students first experience with poetry includes rhyme, limericks are a good place to begin our journey-the will be exposed to rhyme, rhythm, meter, and message. The students can explore these poems to learn how to note rhyme schemes and uncover and cite metrical structure.
Limericks are usually vulgar or absurd, as the poem form is thought to have originated in Ireland as drinking songs as created by soldiers. Regardless of content, the traditional poem has five lines in length, contains aabba rhyme scheme, and is to be written and spoken in anapestic meter, with lines 1, 2, and 5 using three feet and lines 3 and 4 using 2 feet. Each anapestic foot has three syllables. The first two syllables are unstressed and the third is stressed. A non-traditional Limerick follows all of the forms rules, except that it may contain multiple stanzas.
An important point of discussion involves the use of end-rhyme. When rhyme is used, expectancy is created within the reader. The aabba rhyme scheme encapsulates the poem, thus the reader senses the upcoming fulfillment of rhyme. When the final line comes, a sense of closure is granted.
Another important aspect is the lack of an actual syllable in the last foot of lines 3 and 4 of the second stanza. Since this poem form requires 2 feet in each of these lines, why does this poem not contain the completing syllables? In order to complete the requirements for this line, the reader must utilize their knowledge of anapestic meter and add a pause in place of the absent syllable - this pause is called caesura. Not only does this create the missing syllable, but it also adds a dramatic moment of silence, or rest, just a composer would use to fulfill the requirements for a measure of music.
Jimmy Santiago Baca
"Set This Book On Fire"
Study of Enjambment, Alliteration (Consonance), and Auditory Imagery
A contemporary poet from New Mexico, Jimmy Santiago Baca was orphaned and, for a period, lived on the streets. He battled with drug addiction and was illiterate until he taught himself to read while in jail. He often chooses to write about the struggles of others, especially those of his ancestors, the Mayan and Navajo. In his book, Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio, he discusses the burden of carrying "la marca," or the mark, which is his reason for writing of perseverance (Baca, 157).
In discussing the power of language Baca has stated, "I thoroughly believe that metaphor and simile can pierce steel" (Copeland, 44). He has described his reason for writing poetry with a metaphor: "If an infant cries in the dark, you pick it up" (Baca, 148). Even when writing prose, Baca manages to create sound, as with his use of the auditory image of an infant's cries penetrating silence. His ability to render seemingly tangible auditory metaphors is astounding. Students need to be able to identify as well as learn how to construct metaphors.
This poem will be used to expose students to idea of carefully choosing words that fit and sustain mood or attitude in a piece of writing. His free verse poem "Set this Book on Fire" is aimed at those who are creating poetry. It is a call to let writing be true for truth's sake - not to earn accolades. The poem, which is also the title of the book in which it was published, begins with an enjambed line in a singular trochee: "Rising," which immediately slows the momentum of the poem and holds the reader temporarily captive. The sound perseveres, lingering and lifting slowly. The second line, "in the glow of the embers," is end-stopped by the comma and is used to give rise to the smoldering metaphor for superficiality. His words create images and his images support his message.
Throughout the poem, he often smacks the reader with alliteration. He writes, "The last thing we need is more toothless-tigers". It is not merely the reference to those who are untrue to them selves that is alluring, but rather the choice of double stops. A stop is a speech pathology term defining consonants that are formed by completely stopping the flow of air. The stop made by the letter T is a voiceless alveolar stop, which means that the vocal cords are restricted. These stops cause the reader to spit at the end of each word in "toothless tigers." The consonant T is used intentionally throughout the poem, creating a feeling -and a sound - of disgust. It is the poet's polite way of saying be real, or shut up.
Paul Lawrence Dunbar
"We Wear the Mask"
Cadence, Rhythm, Iambic Tetrameter, Alliteration (Assonance)
Born in Dayton, Ohio to freed Kentucky slaves, Dunbar had a natural talent for interpreting the world around him and capturing it in literary form. He was the editor of his high school newspaper, which was published by Orville Wright. Despite being academically inclined, he was too poor to attend college. He self-published and sold his first book of poems to the people who rode the elevator that he was employed to operate.
The historical context of Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask" is profoundly reflected with in it. It is an excellent example of how condition often guided the poet. Students will be able to research Hughes history to see how the oppression and perseverance of African-Americans is catalogued within the poem.
The mask image within this poem may very well have been a subtle reminder to the African-Americans of the time period that pride stands away from complaint, but the mask also conjures images of the African continent where wearing a mask -which is a full-body suit in the culture- is a symbol of pride and tradition. The man and the mask are inexplicably and inseparably united. Written in iambic tetrameter, one cannot miss the cadence that is created:
It is reminiscent of a heartbeat, a persevering sound often played on a Djembe drum, which is used to call people to gather.
Strong emphasis is also created by the use of rhyme and alliteration. The poem is written in rhyming couplets that create anticipation and expectation. I surmise that the use of assonance at the end of all of the lines (except the refrain), which repeats the long I sound, is intentional - perhaps making the reader point to his or herself as if it were a possessive pronoun. The refrain "We wear the mask" is found three times - once in each stanza. Dunbar uses repetition as a way to punctuate his point - past, present, and future all connected, persevering.
Eloise Greenfield
"Way Down in the Music"
Study of Free Verse, Rhythm, Trochaic Tetrameter, Alliteration (Consonance)
A contemporary African American author of several books, including a "rap" infused novel entitled Nathaniel Talking, Eloise Greenfield cites "I create from real-life composites of real people." She says that adults do not people-watch as much as children tend to do, but as a writer, it is absolutely necessary to continue the habit. She prefers to write from the point-of-view of African American children, depicting perseverance.
Greenfield's poem, "Way Down in the Music," is in free verse, but it certainly is not free - it is responsible, yet spirited. In the first line of Greenfield's poem the stresses create a line of trochaic tetrameter:
This simple reversal of iamb to trochee stands in contrast to Dunbar's poem, which will be discussed with the students. Unlike Dunbar's iambs, the trochaic meter creates an upbeat, soulful swing. Ironically, the accent on "way" drops the voice, conjuring an image and feeling of dancing to the floor, or simply really enjoying the sound. You hear your voice lowering and emphasizing the deepness of the word. Like Dunbar, Greenfield uses alliteration to draw auditory attention to a particular letter. The consonant D is repeated in nearly every line, also creating a drum-like beat. A peaceful, rhythmic perseverance is created, one in which the speaker of the poem demonstrates by dancing straight through to the end.
Langston Hughes
"From Mother to Son"
Study of The Creation of Sound through Dialect
Langston Hughes was born in Missouri and lived most of his childhood with his grandmother. From early childhood, Hughes felt the strain of stereotyping. He graduated from Lincoln University. He wrote in many genres, but is best known for how he cataloged the African-American condition within his poetry. He was considered to be an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance.
When Hughes' poem, "From Mother to Son,"is discussed with students, they will be asked to find the connection to perseverance, which is three-fold. First, Hughes is a poet who faced many challenges. Second, the message of the speaker is encouraging the ‘son' to persevere. Third, the sounds created through the use of dialect stand as a lasting tribute to the lessons taught to him by the ‘mother.'
In "From Mother to Son," Hughes creates a voice for the speaker by using dialect -particularly by using slang and by dropping letters from the ends of words. Hughes is a well-known poet, and I expect that most students will be validated knowing that such a poet would choose to ‘speak' as the students' so often do. The first example of slang, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair." uses ‘ain't' and a lack of the plural form of ‘stair', but it serves to immediately create a voice. It is important for students to think about the purpose of dialect. Dialect creates a familiarity between the speaker and the reader as if the speaker is real and is trusting of the reader. In this poem, a unique juxtaposition is established by the use of dialect. The mother speaks in an uneducated tone, yet she delivers an undeniably wise life message that guides the ‘son'.
Sylvia Plath
"Daddy"
Study of Dramatic Monologue, Repetition, Allusion through Word and Sound
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath did not lead a privileged life, yet her open-book approached to writing earned her a free ride to Smith College. Her father, Otto, a teacher, died when she was merely 8. Their relationship, as would her relationship with other men, became the driving force behind much of her writing. Although her father wished for her to learn to speak German, Plath never did. Silvia suffered a mental breakdown during college and was admitted into an asylum. She attempted to committed suicide several times, unfortunately being successful.
Plath renders painfully powerful auditory imagery within her poetry. In The Poetry Life: Ten Stories, past Maine Poet Laureate Baron Wormser wrote of this quality: "Saying it broke a silence inside me. Her poetry was a sort of wheedling hurt..." (Wormser, 146). The author's choice to use the word "saying" rather than reading is indicative of the quality of Plath's work. It speaks to you. Her voice is clearly heard.
"Daddy," will be used to compare the difference between using dialect to create familiarity, as Hughes did in "Mother to Son," to the distance that the careful use of foreign words can created, as Plath often did. "Daddy" is a poem in which knowing the poet's background sheds light on the poem's meaning. Plath creates auditory imagery by using subtle German sounds and words to allow the reader to hear her suffering. For example:
I never could talk to you.
The tongue stuck in my jaw.
It stuck in a barb wire snare,
Ich, ich, ich, ich,
Plath's use of ich conjures the image of a struggling German speaker. It is a fitting auditory image, as it emphasizes Plath's desperation and limitations.
Richard Wilbur
"Junk"
Study of Sound Structure as Created by Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Verse
Richard Wilbur was a gifted student who published his first poem at the age of eight. He served in the army during WWII and had attended and taught at many prestigious colleges. He has won two Pulitzer prizes and has also served as a Poet Laureate Consultant.
"Junk" is written in Anglo-Saxon alliterative meter. This type of meter is defined by four stresses within each line, created by the use of alliteration. The poem is structured in two, message-supporting wobbly columns, which seems to be best read from left to right, rather than read in one column and then the other. When read from left to right, an attentive ear will detect the four stresses created in nearly every line, for example:
This poem ties into the concept of perseverance in numerous ways. I expect that students will ascertain the message of the poem -one man's junk is another man's treasure- but what I really would like them to discover is how the use of this type of meter reflects the poem's message. Anglo-Saxon meter is often considered old hat, yet in "Junk" the use of old hat demonstrates a sort of recycling - which is another way of creating a treasure out of something discarded by others.
William Carlos Williams
"To a Poor Old Woman"
Study of Enjambment
Williams was born and educated in the public school system in New Jersey. Both of Williams's parents were immigrants. His father was from England and his mother from Porto Rico. He is credited with a writing style that is "strategically plain" (Longenbach, 16). He became a physician, but claimed to have worked harder while trying to improve his writing abilities.
In The Poetry Life: Ten Stories, Baron Wormser writes of his first experience with Williams's poetry: "The lines didn't go all the way to the right-hand side of the page the way they do in prose...And the lines ended in funny places, like with the word ‘the.' He goes on to say that they idea of focusing on the word "the" made him feel awkward, but appreciative. Williams carefully selected his words - and the structure they took on the page. As Wormser points out, there were never "...words that didn't matter" (Wormser, 34). Williams's effectiveness is due, in part, to his mastery of enjambment.
Line break techniques connect the visual to the auditory. In Williams's poem, "To a Poor Old Woman," the act of breaking the lines creates emphasis or accent on certain words - it works to slow or accelerate momentum. In The Resistance to Poetry, Longenbach says that the enjambment choices are "isolating particular words and forcing us to create a different pattern of emphasis with each repetition" (Longenbach, 18).
The title "To a Poor Old Woman" is a very good place to start. The word "To" serves not as a dedication to the woman, but as a statement of situation. The second stanza readily demonstrates the effectiveness of this notion, using enjambment:
They taste good to her
They taste good
to her. They taste
good to her
The first line reads with a normal speaking rhythm, with the accented falling on "good." The momentum slows as the second line shortens - the accent falling on "taste." The third line's accent falls on "her." It is the only line with punctuation, which halts the progression of the poem. The preceding lines force the reader to emphasize the last, causing the reader to focus on it's meaning - the sustenance is needed.
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