Powerful poetic voices

POWERFUL POETIC VOICES Taking issue and changing minds – the pen is mightier than the sword

This Unit contains an Indigenous perspective ENGLISH: Later Adolescence Band of Development, YEAR 10, 5 - 6 WEEKS

This unit looks at the power of poetry as social comment and as a way of understanding other people’s experiences. Students will be encouraged to look at poems across cultures/nations and to pursue their interests. However, a significant thread is that of understanding Australia’s indigenous poets and their writing. Aboriginal history, since invasion and colonisation, has been marked by injustice, misunderstanding and heartache and many voices, both indigenous and non-indigenous, have been raised in protest. This experience echoes other periods of history where injustices have happened.

In setting up the resources, and in addressing the need for students to be aware of Aboriginal poetic voices, there needs to be a very wide range of poems available to the students. The teacher also needs to convey a deep understanding, in particular, of Aboriginal history and the poems that reflect that.

DESIRED OUTCOMES: students developing understanding about some big ideas –

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  that powerful, high quality poetry can move people to change their views and develop their thinking, understanding and empathy
  
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  that poets craft their words to achieve profound effects – it doesn’t usually happen by accident, but by skill
  

During this unit each student will develop an anthology of poems that say something strong and urgent about emotions, social issues, or situations people have faced, and that express those ideas well. In choosing and appreciating these poems the students will demonstrate how the poets achieve their impact.

The anthology should be set out as follows:

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  The anthology must have 15 poems (no more than 2 by any one poet).
  
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  While students can choose poets from any period and nationality, at least two must by Aboriginal poets.
  
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  10 of the poems should each be accompanied by a short reflection on the poem, including mention of theme and language. In these reflections the students can write in the first person and make personal comments. An example of such a reflection is included at the end of this unit.
  
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  5 of the poems should each be accompanied by a full ‘appreciation’ – a formal essay of approx 800 - 1000 words, exploring the poem in depth. Of these 5 at least one must be about a poem written by an Aboriginal poet. These appreciations will follow essay writing conventions and be written in the third person.
  
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  A brief introduction to each poet should be included (1 or 2 paragraphs), explaining when and where he/she lived and what was the issue that concerned the poet.
  
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  The anthology should have an Introduction where the student reflects on what they have learnt about the power of poetry and the skill of poets.
  
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  The students should write their own poem, about an issue of concern and demonstrating poetic writing skill.
  

Students will need to demonstrate:

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  understanding of figurative/poetic language and poetic devices, giving examples
  
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  understanding of the themes of the poems discussed in class and the poems included in their anthologies
  
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  understanding of the structure/styles/genres within poetry, commenting on them in class discussions about poems being considered and giving examples from the poems they choose.
  

The assignment task is also the unit content. Significant lesson time is for students to read poems (similar to a wide reading program, but here there is wide reading of poems not novels). Therefore the teacher needs to have collected a great number of poetry books (mass loan from the library, plus one’s own anthologies), plus use any poetry text books available. An excellent resource is The Untamed Fire, poetry for secondary students edited by Sadler, Hayllar and Powell, published Macmillan Education Australian Pty Ltd, 1997.

The Greek poet Euripides, who died about 406 B.C. said, "The tongue is mightier than the blade."

In the Bible, in the Epistle to the Hebrews it reads: "Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.”

The Islamic prophet Muhammad is quoted as saying "The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr".

In 1600 Shakespeare had Rosencrantz in Hamlet say that "... many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills." In 1621 Robert Burton wrote The Anatomy of Melancholy, in which he stated: "From this it is clear how much more cruel the pen may be than the sword." Thomas Jefferson, who in 1796 sent a letter to Thomas Paine in which he wrote: "Go on doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword."

Who actually said the exact words? Edward Bulwer-Lytton. When: 1839

The story behind it: In Act II of Bulwer-Lytton's play Richelieu, Cardinal Richelieu learns of a plot against him contrived by a friend and confidant, the monk Joseph. Since as a priest he could not challenge the monk to physical combat, Richelieu issued a written statement which contains the following:

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

The pen is mightier than the sword.

Step 2: visiting the known, being introduced to the new; class discussion; modelling approaches to poetry appreciation (discuss why this form of literary study is called an ‘appreciation’ – what are the connotations? Is it more than a commentary? When possibly looking at some of Geoff Pages commentaries later in the unit this question could be revisited – are his commentaries really ‘appreciations’?)

Weeks 1 - 2, approximately, should be spent:

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  looking at examples of poems, chosen by the teacher, that powerfully present a view, emotion etc.
  
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  revisit previous learning, to do with use of poetic devices and imagery, and make links with opportunities they’ve had to write poems themselves.
  

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  jigsaw group work: each expert group looking at a different poem then new groups formed where each person presents/teaches the poem they have analysed
  
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  photocopy a poem onto A3 sheets for group work, (and also A4 so that every student has their own copy). The poem should be read a couple of times with a few guiding hints about its story (noting the title especially). Students should then work in groups of 3 or 4 and be given one part of the poem to concentrate on. They should work on the A4 sheet, writing lots of notes, using question marks, arrows etc. They should look up words in dictionaries if they’re unsure of meanings. They shouldn’t worry about what they don’t understand, but start with the bits that are clear and go from there. After enough time has been given for this work there should be a sharing of ideas from each group and a growing understanding of the whole poem.
  

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  London by William Blake (1757 – 1827)
  

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  Beach Burial by Kenneth Slessor (1901 – 1971)
  

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  We are going by Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920 – 1993)
  

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  From the Republic of Conscience by Seamus Heaney (1939)
  

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  The Domesticity of Giraffes by Judith Beveridge (b.1956).
  

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  Easter 1916 by W.B. Yeats (1865 – 1939).
  

Students should write a personal response to these poems, as a practice for the their anthologies, both the reflections on their chosen poems and also for their Introductory comment.

In the discussion of these poems there should be revision of how to read and analyse a poem (that is, the skills of ‘appreciating’ a poem) –

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  understanding the subject matter (and exploring what experiences of the poet might impact on the poem and how it is written);
  
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  discovering and reflecting on the theme/s; discerning the mood and emotions of the poem
  
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  looking at the techniques of the poet – word choice, rhyme, rhythm (including enjambment i.e. where lines run on to read and sound lie the rhythms of natural speech) and repetition; tone (e.g. irony); poetic devices – e.g. simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, juxtaposition, allusion, onomatopoeia
  
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  Students should also have the opportunity to revise various forms of poetry – ballads, sonnets, rhyming verse, free verse
  

Please note that there are so many poets that students could investigate, concerning the theme of ‘taking issue’, including: Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Shel Silverstein, Judith Wright, Bruce Dawe, Charmaine Papertalk-Green, Nikki Giovanni and many, many more.

Weeks 3 - 4, approximately, students should

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  read a wide variety of poems during the lessons, many more than the 15 they finally choose. Some of these could form the basis of mini lessons at the beginning of the lesson, again for discussion, revision, clarification. Students need to be able to photocopy poems, or type them up
  
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  talk about the poems with other students
  
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  develop a method of recording the poems they like best (noting where the poem can be found), writing down first impressions, questions and generally using organisational and time-management skills.
  

During the first 4 weeks also, in an unfolding process, lessons should include the process of developing the explicit quality criteria for assessment, according to the above categories. Using examples of excellent appreciations both from published sources and also the teacher’s collection of previous students’ work of high quality, plus examples of his/her own, the class should tease out (in rubric form if desired, but certainly with explicit detail) what a high quality poetry appreciation looks like.

Weeks 4 - 5: the process of drafting and finalising the reflections, Introduction and appreciations. A process for submitting drafts for feedback on the appreciations should be put in place.

For the ten reflections students should include a clear personal response, commenting on why they have chosen the poem and including some points about the way the poet has achieved his/her effects. The teacher and students can decide how long these should be.

For the five main poems – each appreciation should have evidence of the student clearly understanding:

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  subject matter
  
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  theme
  
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  mood
  
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  language
  
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  imagery – literary devices
  
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  sound/rhythm/rhyme
  
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  form/poetic structure
  

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  written expression
  
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  essay structure
  
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  correct use of quotations
  

Resources

Sadler, Hayllar and Powell, The Untamed Fire, poetry for secondary students published Macmillan Education Australian Pty Ltd, 1997.

KGW Cross and DRC Marsh, Poetry reading and understanding by, Cheshire Publishing, 2^nd edition 1966.

Geoff Page, 80 Great Poems from Chaucer to Now, UNSW 2006

Geoff Page, 60 Classic Australian Poems, UNSW 2009