From: Lbhcove at aol.com <Lbhcove>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 15:10:18 EDT

Okay. Here we go again with the discussion of analyzing poetry.
  I can't reiterate what I say in my professional book PASS THE POETRY, PLEASE! THIRD EDITION (HarperCollins) since it is over 270 pages! I can say that I coined the phrase DAM -- the damn approach to Dissecting, Analyzing, and (forced) Memoriztion of poetry.
  Can't we give it up?
  The adult reader would never pick up a book again, let alone a poem, if they were asked after reading Steele or Grisham or Clarke to read a novel, then spend days, weeks and months filling in work sheets, drilliing plot, characterization, answering multiple choice questions to asses their retention of the material.
  WHY do we do this with our youth? What are we proving? That the mouse's tail in ...DEVERAUX is x-inches long? Or how many 'p' sounds can you find in "Peter Piper Picked A Peck of Pickled Pepper"?
  My philosophy regarding poetry?
  Read a poem -- and shut up! Go on to math!
  There are poems I myself have written that I have no idea as to what they mean? And I DO NOT NEED for anyone to tell me what they mean. I'd rather think about what I'm going to write tomorrow, next week.
  Or as the genius Carl Sandburg once said: "Poetry is a series of explanations of life, falling off into
 horizons too swift for explanations."
  Cant' we move on? Can't we simply -- pass the poetry, PLEASE!
  Lee
  AMERICA AT WAR (McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
_www.simonsays.com_ (http://www.simonsays.com/)



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Received on Fri 04 Apr 2008 02:10:18 PM CDT