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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 4:05 am Post subject: Sasha's poetry corner |
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How many of us use poetry in the classroom? Wordsworth? Haiku? How do we exploit poems for EFL learners? Do students appreciate this, or not? It's an area I'm interested in, so I hope some other tender souls are too, and a discussion can develop.
To start off, here's a poem I like to use with some of my groups:
HAD I the heavens� embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats
Language points here are modals, conditionals etc., but students seem to respond very well to discussions based on the theme - i.e. dreams and hopes for the future, relationships. Only a few words need pre-teaching, 'embroidered'; 'enwrought'. Funnily enough, nobody seems to see the poem's rhyme is very simple, yet effective - 'light' rhymes with... 'light'! Feet with feet etc. |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 4:12 am Post subject: |
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My Russian teacher used this poem by Esenin in one of our lessons. Can't remember the aim of the lesson, but do remember enjoying it. : )
БЕРЕЗА
Белая береза
Под моим окном
Принакрылась снегом,
Точно серебром.
На пушистых ветках
Снежною каймой
Распустились кисти
Белой бахромой.
И стоит береза
В сонной тишине,
И горят снежинки
В золотом огне.
А заря, лениво
Обходя кругом,
Обсыпает ветки
Новым серебром.
THE BIRCH-TREE
Just below My window
Stands a birch-tree White,
Under Snow in Winter
gleaming Bright Silver.
On the fluffy branches
in a row Sparkling
Dangle Tassels Pretty
Of the purest Snow.
There the birch in Silence
Slumbers all day Long
And the Snow gleams Brightly
In the Golden sun.
And the dawn demurely
Going on it's Rounds
With a Silver mantle
Decks again the boughs. |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 11:52 am Post subject: |
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This elicits all types of reactions from students in Moscow. Good discussions follow.
kumrads die because they're told)
kumrads die because they're told)
kumrads die before they're old
(kumrads aren't afraid to die
kumrads don't
and kumrads won't
believe in life)and death knows whie
(all good kumrads you can tell
by their altruistic smell
moscow pipes good kumrads dance)
kumrads enjoy
s.freud knows whoy
the hope that you may mess your pance
every kumrad is a bit
of quite unmitigated hate
(travelling in a futile groove
god knows why)
and so do i
(because they are afraid to love |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Sasha,
Don't want you to get too lonely here:
The Other
I saw a flower in the dirt,
lying where it once had grown
and wondered why I should feel hurt
for something I had never known.
I saw a fish upon the land;
it struggled and it fought for breath
then, when its mouth was stopped with sand,
I was diminished by its death
I saw a bird upon the wing
fall suddenly out of the sky
its death seemed such a little thing
until I felt my own self die
I saw another cry in pain,
it made me turn away to run
but then I stopped to look again
and knew I was the other one.
Regards,
John |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:39 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Johnslat
Excellent! Thanks very much.
Who's the poet? We'd better attribute them. I always forgot to do so with the e e cummings poem above, tsk tsk.
But perhaps yours was self-penned?
S |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:02 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Sasha,
"But perhaps yours was self-penned?" Yup
Regards,
John |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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Dear Johnslat
Well then we are doubly privileged, and doubly grateful.
Evidence of Russian soul in those lines - you sure you don't have any blood of the Motherland in your veins...?
S |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:55 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: |
How many of us use poetry in the classroom? Wordsworth? Haiku? How do we exploit poems for EFL learners? Do students appreciate this, or not? It's an area I'm interested in, so I hope some other tender souls are too, and a discussion can develop. |
I've never had an opportunity to use poetry in a classroom, but I wonder whether it would make a neat and interesting gap-fill creative exercise. A sort of skeletal framework could be quite helpful with teaching adjectives or emotive language, for example: what words could you choose to fill in that would create a sad/nostalgic/philosophical/adventurous/humourous mood for the piece? Then, students could go on to find (and perhaps write) their own examples, thereby learning more about how language and expressing mood are linked... |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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Dear spiral78,
I use poetry in every Transitions (high-level) class, often Robert Frost, or, if I'm feeling mean Emily Dickinson, and a few others.
Here's one of my favorites; I think I may use it this semester:
The Waking (1953)
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
Theodore Roethke
Regards,
John |
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Phil_K
Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 5:55 pm Post subject: |
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I used this poem with a student, along with "I wandered lonely as a cloud" by Wordsworth. The student preferred this one! I'll leave you to guess the poet.
�Twas fate that brought me to this land
Or else, the will of God's great hand
To speak the truth that you hold dear
A precious chance to flourish here
And that will is a beauteous thing
Whose golden rhyme the angels sing
To ease the weary traveler�s load
And set him on a straighter road.
Though troubled times may burden me
And ties that bind won't set me free
Your love is constant, fair and true
My every breath, I owe to you
To keep and hold you, as I vowed
Beneath the cross, in voice aloud
For rich or poor, when ailments strike
For better, worse, two states alike.
When evening falls, the chill will bite
But love�s awake, a potent light
The flame may flicker in the breeze
To bring the lovers to their knees
But that we have will make us tall
And let us see the demons fall
When morning comes, we rise above
The gath'ring rain-clouds, buoyed by love.
And so, when daggers pierce your heart
We, being together, feel apart
Remember dear, the angel�s song
That keeps us close and rights the wrong
A godly gift bestowed by chance
A living dream, a courtly dance
And when the angels go to sleep
Their gift is yours and mine to keep. |
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johnslat
Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 13859 Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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Bravo! |
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Phil_K
Joined: 25 Jan 2007 Posts: 2041 Location: A World of my Own
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 12:42 am Post subject: |
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Muchas thanks! I just dabble. But if you're interested, follow johnslat's link above, click on my name and you'll find an archive with 80 more! |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:33 am Post subject: |
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Post a few more up, with any details of their classroom use. If you are happy to do so, of course. |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 6:48 am Post subject: |
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I recite this one to myself after a hard day at school while opening a bottle of the water of life.
Don't fuss, don't act with worried zest!..
Let madness seek, let folly rage;
Cure daily wounds with sleep and rest,
And let each morrow fill its page.
Live, and be able to outlive
Both grief and joy, and all you've got.
What to desire? For what to grieve?
A day is over - and thank God!
- F. I. Tyutchev
Не рассуждай, не хлопочи!..
Безумство ищет, глупость судит;
Дневные раны сном лечи,
А завтра быть чему, то будет.
Живя, умей все пережить:
Печаль, и радость, и тревогу.
Чего желать? О чем тужить?
День пережит - и слава богу!
- Федор Иванович Тютчев |
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