CHAPTER:04 TEACHING OF POETRY

CHAPTER:04

Teaching of Poetry

This Chapter Deals with

Introduction

Definition of Poetry

Characteristics of Teaching Poetry

Argument against Teaching Poetry

Aims of Teaching Poetry

General aims of teaching poetry

Specific aims of teaching Poetry

Aims of Teaching Poetry at different levels

Methods of teaching Poetry

Procedures and steps of teaching Poetry

Advantages of Teaching Poetry

Disadvantages of Teaching Poetry

Difference between Prose and Poetry

Conclusion

 “Poetry is made out of life, belongs to life and exists for life” 

Introduction: Poetry and Prose reveal the glimpses of English literature. Teaching of prose is an intensive study of language, structures and vocabulary. It develops language ability of the students, where poetry is that part of language which is used for getting pleasure and enjoyment. Poetry is “a thing of beauty” and “a joy forever”. Poetry is a thing of beauty, beauty of thought, and beauty of form, mood and feelings. Teaching poetry leads to an all round development of the whole personality of pupils particularly the emotional, imaginative, intellectual, aesthetic and intuitive sides. The study of poetry offers a great opportunity for those aspects of personality to develop, which may remain underdeveloped in a purely intellect curriculum. Poetry is the best words in their best rhythmical order. It is a musical and metrical form of language. Poetry is the best form of English literature without which literature is worthless and tasteless.

Definition of Poetry: Poetry is sound than sight. It appeals principally to the ear and heart than eye. It is not so much seen but heard. Poetry can be caught but cannot be taught. Let us know what poetry is in the words of great scholars -:

 “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.”

Woodworth,

“Poetry is truth dwelling in beauty.”

Gilfillan,

 “All that is worth remembering of life is the poetry of it.”

William Hazlitt

 “The rhythmical creation of thought”

E.Allen

 “Poetry is simple, sensuous and passionate”

Milton

 “Poetry is the criticism of life”

Mathew

 “Poetry is an expression of imagination”

Shelly

Characteristics of Teaching Poetry: On the light of the above definitions the following characteristics and advantages of teaching poetry have been indicated -:

v  Poetry is the best words in their best rhythmical order.

v  It is a musical and metrical form of language.

v  Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and emotions.

v  Poetry is a thing of beauty of form, beauty and ideas, thought and emotions.

v  It is the rhythmical creation of thoughts in best words.

v  Poetry is the best form of compositions for expressing feelings, thoughts and emotions.

v  Poetry is the criticism and appreciation of life.

v  Poetry has three aspects i.e. Rhythm, emotions and imaginations.

v   Poetry is the best form of English literature.

v  Poetry is the sources of enjoyment and encouragement.

v  The soul of literature is poetry.

v  It helps for developing a healthy personality.

v  It helps in developing aesthetic sense and pleasure in students.

v  It develops understanding and imagination power of the students.

v  It helps in educating the emotion of the students.

v  It helps in creating love for English literature.

v  Poetry is simple, sensuous and appreciation of life.

v  Poetry is made out of life, belongs to life and exists for life.

v  It helps in educating our feelings and emotions.

v  Poetry is more memorable than prose.

v  Poetry is the clear picture of human life and his problems.

v  It enriches the vocabulary and structures of the students.

v  It helps in improving pronunciation of the students.

v  It is the best means for acquiring experiences.

v  It helps to acquire speech.

v  It brings variety in the English courses.

Argument against Teaching Poetry: Groups of thinkers are of the view that English poetry should not be included in the school syllabus. They think teaching poetry as redundant and unnecessary. Despite the above the some educationists are of the view that teaching of poetry in a foreign language is a fruitless exercise. They harp on the following arguments-:

v  As English is a foreign language for Indian pupils, it is very difficult to understand and appreciate the beauty of English poetry.

v  It is not facilitate the linguistic aims of teaching English.

v  It does not help in increasing vocabulary because the words used in poetry are generally not used in day-today life.

v  Pupils have to face vague idea, unusual words and different word order.

v  The foreign environment described in poems is unfamiliar to Indian students.

v  Similes and metaphors used in poetry are beyond pupils understandings.

v  The ungrammatical, weird words and vague ideas used by the poet sometimes confuse the students.

v  The use of idioms and phrases especially in their usage of figures of speech are very difficult to comprehend as they pertain to different cultures and social milieu, which is quite different from that of our culture.

v  Lack of good teacher.

v  It is not helpful in acquiring mastery over the different skills of language.                                  

In spite of all arguments against poetry teaching, many scholars think it essential keeping in view the various advantages of it. According to Billows, “To leave poetry out of language course is to renounce an extremely effective and labour saving method of absorbing useful language.”

Aims of Teaching Poetry: According to Menon and Patel, “In teaching poetry is not so much to improve the child’s knowledge of English as to add to his joy and increase his power of appreciation of beauty”. According to Dev Singh, “In teaching poetry, the aim is mainly to enjoy the music, rhythm and rhythm of the verse, the beauty and the force of phraseology, the witchcraft of the figures of speech and the emotions of the poet. Learning of words and phrases is incidental only”. Poetry is an important mode of expression in language. Without the study of poetry, a person cannot be considered to be well read in language. Poetry is that aspects of language which fundamentally provides entertainment to the readers. The chief aim of teaching poetry is not so much to improve student’s knowledge of English as to his joy and increase the power of appreciation of beauty and imagination. The teaching of English poetry is pursued with the following general and specific aims-:

General aims of teaching poetry

v  To enables the pupils to appreciate the poem.

v  To enable the students to recite the poem with proper rhythm and intonation etc.

v  To enable the students to enjoy recitation of the poem.

v  To enable the students to understand the thought and imagination of the poet contained in the poem.

v  To create love for English poetry among the students.

v  To develop the students aesthetic sense.

v  To develop all round personality of the students.

v  To develop a taste for poetry reading and writing.

v  To train the emotion of the students.

v  To develop the imaginative power of the students.

v  In the words of Eastman, “To leave the child with a sense of satisfaction that comes from play, from absorption or from a spontaneous activity”.

Specific aims of teaching Poetry: Specific aims of teaching poetry vary with poems because each poem is exclusive in its treatment of situations, feelings and emotions. The following can be the specific aims of teaching poetry-:

v  To enable the students to grasp the exclusive message that the poem/poet want to convey.

v  To enable the students to appreciate the poem.

v  To enable the students to recite the poem with correct pronunciation and rhythm.

v  To enable the students to understand central ideas of the poem.

v  To enable the students about the grammatical deviations that the poet has taken.

Aims of Teaching Poetry at different levels: The aim of teaching poetry is vary in different levels. The aims of teaching poetry in primary, Secondary and higher level is given below-:

Primary Levels

v  To enables the pupils of lower classes to enjoy a poem.

v  To enables the pupils to read aloud the poem with proper rhythm and intonation.

v  To enable the students to enjoy recitation, individual or chorus of the poem.

v  To develop a taste for poetry reading and writing.

Secondary Levels

v  To enable the pupils of secondary classes to enjoy and appreciate the poem and its style.

v  To appreciate music, rhythm and beauty of the poem.

v  To develop the understanding levels of the students.

v  To make the students understand the thought and imagination contained in the poem.

v  To train the emotion of the students.

Higher Secondary Levels

v  To enable the students to appreciate the poem.

v  To appreciate the subject matter of the poem.

v  To appreciate the image that presents the experience.

v  To appreciate the rhythmic and musical touch of the poem.

v  To train the emotion of the students.

v  To develop the imaginative power of the students.

v  To create aesthetic sense among the students.

v  To create love for English literature in them.

v  To help the students for composing small poems base on their thought and their feelings on a particular theme.

Methods of teaching Poetry: The following methods and techniques which can be used for teaching poetry in different levels -:

v  Lecture method.

v  Lecture-cum-song method.

v  Question-answer method.

v  Review method.

v  Meaning and understanding method.

v  Question-answer techniques.

v  Model reading.

v  Explanation techniques.

v  Parallel quotation techniques.

v  Review techniques.

v  Narration techniques.

Procedures and steps of teaching Poetry: No uniform method can be laid down for teaching of poetry. Each poem has to be treated individual. So, a good teacher has to make plans his lesson well before he goes to the classroom. Planning lesson is one of the vital pre-action of a teacher to solve the problems that he may have to face in the class. Not only planning helps the teacher to solve his classroom problems but also it helps in making our teaching more interesting and effective. A poem should be seen as a whole and not in parts. While teaching poetry teacher should be sparing of explanation as it is usually done by our language teachers. According to Max Eastman, “A successful poetry lesson should leave the pupils with some insight into the delight or beauty that is portrayed”. The steps involved in teaching poetry can be enumerated as under-:

STEP-I:          OBJECTIVES.

STEP-II:         PREPARATION.

STEP-III:       PRESENTATION.

STEP-IV:        ASSIGNMENT.

STEP-V:         BLACK-BOARD WORK.

STEP-I: OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the poem are to written in behavioural terms, the objectives may be vary from poem to poem depending upon the main theme of the poem. Here the English teacher should acquaint himself and to acquaints the students with the general and specific objectives of teaching poetry. Objectives of teaching poetry should be well known before hand as it helps in guiding our teaching learning activities.

STEP-II: PREPARATION

To realize the above aims, it is necessary for the English teacher to prepare material aids for teaching poetry. Preparation of teaching poetry entails the following sub-steps-:

Material Aids:  The English teacher should select a material aid that is suitable for the poem. It can be a picture depicting the scene. Material aids can also be used to explain the difficult words used in the poem. The material aids should be economical.

Previous knowledge: Before teaching the poem, the teacher should know the age, previous experience, mental development and linguistic abilities of the students. The teacher should introduce the new poem on the basis of the pupil’s previous knowledge. Asking previous questions helps the teacher to make a bridge between the past experience and new experiences.

Introduction: The teacher should arouse interest of the students by creating situation for the poem. A poem can be introduced by many ways-:                                              

v  By showing picture and asking questions based on it.

v  By playing music.

v  Recite a parallel poem to the students preferable from the same poet.

v  Explain the gist of the poem and ask relevant questions confirming their comprehension. Here the teacher may use mother tongue if the students do not follow the English language.

v  The life sketch and other interesting incident from the poet’s life can be given.

v  The poem can be played on an audio-video aid so that the students are able to enjoy it.

v  Explain the situation under which the poem was written.

v  If the poem to be learnt is descriptive, a picture can be shown and two or three questions on the picture should be asked.

Statement of the Aim: After introducing the poem, the next step is to give the statement of aim by giving the title of the poem. The aim should not be only passing the examination.

STEP-III: PRESENTATION: Ryburn says, “A good poem is complete whole”. So the poetry should be taught in one unit. Again he rightly says, “A good poem should be taught whole, “if , of course, it is very long, it should divided into units. The presentation stage consists the following points-:

v Model Reading: The teacher reads the poem loudly and the students are instructed to listen carefully in reaction to the model reading by the teacher. The teacher should always remember that the medium of poetry is music and the subject matter is emotion. So, the teacher should recite the poem carefully by which the students can easily follow the musical tone of the poem.

v Gist of the Poem: To make the students familiar with the theme and matter of the poem, the teacher tells the gist of the poem. It is presented in short, generally in few lines. According to Ryburn, “A good poem is a complete whole”. At the time of presenting the gist of the poem, the teacher can use mother tongue if the students needed.

v Pronunciation Drill: In this step, the teacher should derive the meaning of the difficult words and phrases in the poem with the help of material aids such as drawing sketches, pictures or explain the meaning directly. The teacher also conducts pronunciation drill of the difficult words. First he himself pronounces the difficult words one by one and asks the students to pronounce the words correctly. He repeats this exercise till the students learn to pronounce the word correctly.

v Model Reading (II): A second reading should be done by the teacher to create an atmosphere and to respond to the emotions of the poem. When the poem has been fully explained and discussed, the teacher should read the poem once again. This reading will have a great effect on the pupils because much as already been said about the poem. At the time of second model reading by the teacher, the students should be asked to look after their books and listen attentively.

v Reading Aloud: After second model reading by the teacher, two or three students should be asked to read the poem loudly with correct stress and intonation pattern. During the time of loud reading by the students, the teacher should not check them because it will hamper in the rhythm and the flow of the poem. The teacher should encourage the students to recite not to read simple.  

v Silent Reading: After loud reading by the students, now the students should be allowed judicious time for silent reading. The students should be able to enjoy the poem. Silent reading helps the students to grasp the meaning of the poem. During the time of silent reading by the students, the teacher should observe the students in order to know whether the students read the poem carefully or not.

v Comprehension questions: At this stage, the students should be asked questions in order to know whether the students comprehend the poem entirely. The question should be simple and relevant. The number of comprehensive questions depends upon the feelings and ideas of the poem.

v Appreciation questions: Appreciation questions seek to make clear the -: (i) Beauty (ii) feelings and (iii) Main idea of the poem. These questions are used to test the following appreciation.

                                         -: beauty of thought

                                         -: beauty of images

                                         -: beauty of emotions

                                         -: beauty of style and language

v  Choral recitation: The students will recite the poem with chorus. It helps them in overcome shyness. Later on they can recite it independently. It also heightens aural effect which is necessary for appreciation. Besides, it helps in emotional release, development of eloquence and fluency. Moreover children find it a source of enjoyment.

v  Assignment: The assignment should be related to some creative work. The teacher may ask to memories the lines of the poem or to write the gist of the poem. The assignment should be relevant and to the knowledge of the students.

Advantages of Teaching Poetry: Teaching of poetry has the certain following advantages -:

v  Poetry helps in all round development of the students. According to S. Subrahmanyam, “The value of teaching poetry in English language course at the secondary school level is immense. It leads to an all round development of the whole personality of pupils, particularly the emotional, imaginative, intellectual, aesthetic and intuitive sides.

v  It enables the students to acquire natural speech rhythm through the rhythm of poetry.

v  Poetry is for enjoyment and pleasure.

v  It helps in increasing the power of imagination.

v  Poetry has cathartic value as it helps in training the emotions.

v  The repetition of certain pattern in a poem helps in learning pattern sentence.

Disadvantages of Teaching Poetry: Teaching of poetry suffers from the following limitations which are given below-:

v  English being a foreign language, the Indian pupils cannot understand and appreciate the beauty of poetry, even the foreign background described in the poems is unfamiliar to them.

v  Poetry does not facilitate the linguistic aims of teaching English.

v  In poetry, pupils have to face vague ideas, unusual words and different word order. The metaphors and similes used in the poem are also not understood.

v  It does not help in increasing vocabulary because the words used in the poems are generally not used in daily conversation.

v  There is a lack of good English teachers who can explain the meaning of the poem clearly.

Difference between Prose and Poetry:  A poem contains the same elements as a prose composition. The differences between the two must therefore consist in a different combination of words. This is because the object proposed is different; the object of the poem may be to give pleasure or simply to aid the memory. Thus the main differences in teaching prose and poetry are as follows-:

v  While prose appeals to the head and poetry appeals to the heart.

v  While prose appeals to the intellect only, poetry is more powerful form of expression. It affects the whole man, his sense, intellect and emotions.

v  Prose is more sight than sound but poetry is more sound than sight. It appeals principally to ear than eye.

v  Unlike prose, poetry is not so much read but sung. It is not so much seen but heard. The poet uses music for expression of his ideas.

v  In poetry, there is peculiar rhythm that is not there in prose.

v  It is a thing of beauty, beauty of language, beauty of thought, beauty of mood and feelings.

v  Prose provides information where as poetry provides delight.

v  While prose is for knowledge and poetry is for appreciation.

v  Prose cannot be sung but read where poetry cannot read but sung.

v  Prose is seen mere where poetry is not seen but heard more.

Conclusion: It is a fact that the aims of teaching and learning English in India are utilitarian. it is true that the language and content of English poetry are unusual yet there is not any justification for excluding poetry from the school English course. Poetry can help all round development of child, if it is taught well in the school. No doubt, there is immense value of teaching poetry in schools. According to Alexander Haddow, “Read each poem twice, give the children time to form their own impressions, invite them to criticize and help them in doing so. Let the poetry period be, as far as possible, a period of joy, a period of pondering over things they love already. Let them choose for themselves the poems they are to learn by heart, each choosing his/her own favourites. Thus, only then can we develop a taste for poetry and train their ear to the variety of beautiful sounds. Thus, only can we rouse in them some idea of the wealth of poetry that lies before them. Remember that we must aim at turning out readers of poetry, not students of poetry.” Menon and Patel says, “The matter and method of teaching poetry to Indian children should be completely re-oriented, if the teaching of poetry is to be of any value to them.”

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CHAPTER:05 TEACHING OF COMPOSITION