Adventures in poetry

I'm afraid we didn't get very far in "diving deeper" into today's poetry selection. Mostly, today was a lesson in multiple meanings of words. By that, I mean, a word that meant one thing in the mid- to late-1800s (when this poem was written) and the colloquially accepted meanings that kids hear today.First of all, there was quite a bit of twitter about the fact that the poet of our first selection - Emily Dickenson - has a name that makes immature minds go into hysterics. Because, you know, her name has DICK in it. At that point, I knew this selection would be trouble. I just didn't know how much trouble I was in for.Here's the text of the poem:

AUTUMNEmily DickinsonThe morns are meeker than they were,The nuts are getting brown;The berry’s cheek is plumper,The rose is out of town.The maple wears a gayer scarf,The field a scarlet gown.Lest I should be old-fashioned,I’ll put a trinket on.

I anticipated "gayer" would cause a reaction, so I spent some time explaining that "gay" had another meaning when the poet was writing.Of course the little congregation of 9-year old boys at the back corner of the rug thought "nuts are getting brown" was hysterical. They couldn't contain their delight -- definitely wanted to share their unique perspective with all sitting within earshot.Maybe now that we have worked out all the vocabulary minefields, we can study this poem as the curriculum developers intended. Or not.

Poetry.... a little silly

We are beginning a new unit of study in English Language Arts this week - poetry! Going through this new unit I discovered a poem by Emily Dickenson - Autumn. And that reminded me of something Adrien shared with me long ago.You see, you can sing almost every Emily Dickenson poem to "The Yellow Rose of Texas". Try it. These folks did: Sing-a-Long-With-Emily. Still not a believer? Here's another:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

254"Hope" is the thing with feathers—That perches in the soul—And sings the tune without the words—And never stops—at all—And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—And sore must be the storm—That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm—I've heard it in the chillest land—And on the strangest Sea—Yet, never, in Extremity,It asked a crumb—of Me.

Emily Dickinson

More serious analysts of literature will tell you that the meter of Dickenson's poetry is common meter - the same rhythmic pattern used in hymns. But for me, the Yellow Rose is indelibly etched into my head every time I try to read Dickenson. And now I dare you to get it out of your head as well.

It's the vocabulary, stupid

Well, not just the vocabulary, but for my urban kids, that surely is a major factor.  This week, our writing focus - visualizing a text - was driven by a poem written by Carmen Lagos Signes:

Pumpkins in the cornfields,

Gold among the brown,

Leaves of rust and scarlet,

Trembling slowly down;

Birds that travel southward,

Lovely time to play;

Nothing is as pleasant

As an Autumn Day!

Such a seemingly bucolic text loaded with typical fall scenery. So what vocabulary did my third graders find to be a challenge? Scarlet, rust (multiple meanings get them every single time!), pleasant, Autumn and.... cornfield.  Without explicit instruction - defining, finding synonyms, antonyms, using the words in sentences - visualizing this text would have turned into a meaningless regurgitation of the author's words.

A simple text, one with which my students would have some familiarity and experience, and the task of writing what the mind saw during the reading, so impacted by challenging vocabulary, challenging especially for second language learners. I am humbled.