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Definitions of and quotations about poetry
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From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:18:40 -0400
I'm so glad Connie Kirk sent that Emily Dickinson quote - I've been trying to remember it ever since this poetry definition thread started.
Here's one I like to use with graduate students in my children's lit. and adolescent lit. classes. It's attributed to e.e. cummings, but I'm not sure of the exact source:
"A poet is somebody who feels and who expresses those feelings through words. This may sound easy it isn't.
A lot of people think or believe or know they feel but that's thinking or believing or knowing, not feeling And poetry is feeling, not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know but not a single human being can be taught to feel Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people, But the moment you feel, you're nobody but yourself . . ."
I've had the same experience that Monica relates about teachers with my graduate education students. Whenever I teach poetry or fantasy, the class usually divides down the middle - those who love it and those who hate it (there seem to be very few who just don't care - feelings are generally strong.) Harry Potter often breaks down the resistance of those who hate fantasy; The Giver is also a big hit. This semester in a YA class, I've had surprising success with M. T. Anderson's Feed - early resistance to reading it because of the science fiction-type setting, and then the best class discussion all semester.
With poetry, I try to introduce them to a variety of old favorites and new voices. With the YA class, Mel Glenn is often an eye-opener for those who "hate" poetry, then I try to expand their horizons. I spread anthologies around the class and ask them to share a few poems that strike them, and even those who resist often find several that touch them deeply in anthologies by LBH, Myra Cohn Livingston, Liz Rosenberg, Naomi Nye, Ruth Gordon (our own Big Grandma, whose "Under all Silences" and "Peeling the Onion" are astounding collections). And then I share my all-time favorite from years ago, Walter de la Mare's "Come Hither," an unwieldy, overgrown fantastic garden of poetry through the ages with a lovely, rambling introduction.
De la Mare's own collection of poems, "Peacock Pie," is also a favorite of mine that I return to over and over, used to read aloud to my own children when they were young and still read to myself. There is an edition that was illustrated in pen and ink by Barbara Cooney, and an older edition I found in a used bookstore in England with W. Heath Robinson's drawings, very different from Cooney's. It's interesting to compare two artists' interpretations of the same poem - they often provide another dimension to the words. In both of these editions, the illustrations are never intrusive, but enhance the text the way Shepard did for Milne.
"Peacock Pie" is a collection a child can grow with - from the early nonsense verse (Ann, Ann!/Come! Quick as you can!/There's a fish that talks/In the frying pan! . . .) to poems of haunting beauty and mystical longing (When Sam goes back in memory,/It is to where the sea/Breaks on the shingle, emerald green,/In white foam, endlessly . .
.). . . .so many wonderful wisps of thought that border on a dream-world. I don't hear De la Mare mentioned often these days - he was of the early 20th century - but he should not be forgotten. He was also the author of a line that is etched in slate at the door of the historical children's book room at my alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh library school: "Only the rarest kind of best in anything is good enough for the young." Isn't that what we are all about in our pursuit of the best literary experiences for children and teens?
Connie
Connie Rockman Children's Literature Consultant/ Adjunct Professor 79 Elmhurst Ave Stratford, CT 06614 connie.rock at snet.net
Received on Tue 19 Apr 2005 02:18:40 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:18:40 -0400
I'm so glad Connie Kirk sent that Emily Dickinson quote - I've been trying to remember it ever since this poetry definition thread started.
Here's one I like to use with graduate students in my children's lit. and adolescent lit. classes. It's attributed to e.e. cummings, but I'm not sure of the exact source:
"A poet is somebody who feels and who expresses those feelings through words. This may sound easy it isn't.
A lot of people think or believe or know they feel but that's thinking or believing or knowing, not feeling And poetry is feeling, not knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know but not a single human being can be taught to feel Why? Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people, But the moment you feel, you're nobody but yourself . . ."
I've had the same experience that Monica relates about teachers with my graduate education students. Whenever I teach poetry or fantasy, the class usually divides down the middle - those who love it and those who hate it (there seem to be very few who just don't care - feelings are generally strong.) Harry Potter often breaks down the resistance of those who hate fantasy; The Giver is also a big hit. This semester in a YA class, I've had surprising success with M. T. Anderson's Feed - early resistance to reading it because of the science fiction-type setting, and then the best class discussion all semester.
With poetry, I try to introduce them to a variety of old favorites and new voices. With the YA class, Mel Glenn is often an eye-opener for those who "hate" poetry, then I try to expand their horizons. I spread anthologies around the class and ask them to share a few poems that strike them, and even those who resist often find several that touch them deeply in anthologies by LBH, Myra Cohn Livingston, Liz Rosenberg, Naomi Nye, Ruth Gordon (our own Big Grandma, whose "Under all Silences" and "Peeling the Onion" are astounding collections). And then I share my all-time favorite from years ago, Walter de la Mare's "Come Hither," an unwieldy, overgrown fantastic garden of poetry through the ages with a lovely, rambling introduction.
De la Mare's own collection of poems, "Peacock Pie," is also a favorite of mine that I return to over and over, used to read aloud to my own children when they were young and still read to myself. There is an edition that was illustrated in pen and ink by Barbara Cooney, and an older edition I found in a used bookstore in England with W. Heath Robinson's drawings, very different from Cooney's. It's interesting to compare two artists' interpretations of the same poem - they often provide another dimension to the words. In both of these editions, the illustrations are never intrusive, but enhance the text the way Shepard did for Milne.
"Peacock Pie" is a collection a child can grow with - from the early nonsense verse (Ann, Ann!/Come! Quick as you can!/There's a fish that talks/In the frying pan! . . .) to poems of haunting beauty and mystical longing (When Sam goes back in memory,/It is to where the sea/Breaks on the shingle, emerald green,/In white foam, endlessly . .
.). . . .so many wonderful wisps of thought that border on a dream-world. I don't hear De la Mare mentioned often these days - he was of the early 20th century - but he should not be forgotten. He was also the author of a line that is etched in slate at the door of the historical children's book room at my alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh library school: "Only the rarest kind of best in anything is good enough for the young." Isn't that what we are all about in our pursuit of the best literary experiences for children and teens?
Connie
Connie Rockman Children's Literature Consultant/ Adjunct Professor 79 Elmhurst Ave Stratford, CT 06614 connie.rock at snet.net
Received on Tue 19 Apr 2005 02:18:40 PM CDT
