poetry in school

[wildsweetone]

ambling around on the 'net, i came across this and wondered if you have it in your school, or if your children have it in their school. i think it's a great idea. how is it implemented?

Poetry 180

 

[twelveoone]

ambling around on the 'net, i came across this and wondered if you have it in your school, or if your children have it in their school. i think it's a great idea. how is it implemented?

Poetry 180

if Billy Collins is fer it, I'm agin it.

 

[FifthFlower]

You's agin Billy?

 

[Angeline]

I love that Poetry 180 site. I've been reading there for a few years, and have discovered both poems and poets I really like there. I wonder how many schools actually use it? (It may say on the site, but I don't have time to check it right now.) I know that they're not using it at my daughter's high school--at least they never have in any of her language arts classes. And my high school poetry experience was pretty bleak. We had to memorize sections of The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner and the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Never mind that we didn't have a clue what any of it meant: we memorized. It wasn't until I got to college and spent time in classes with profs who obviously loved poetry that I began to really understand the role it would play in my life.

 

[Reltne]

. . . And my high school poetry experience was pretty bleak. We had to memorize sections of The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner and the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Never mind that we didn't have a clue what any of it meant: we memorized.
. . .

You were lucky! I had to memorize and recite:

Horatius


I

LARS Porsena of Clusium
By the Nine Gods he swore
That the great house of Tarquin
Should suffer wrong no more.
By the Nine Gods he swore it,
And named a trysting day,
And bade his messengers ride forth,
East and west and south and north,
To summon his array.


II

East and west and south and north
The messengers ride fast,
And tower and town and cottage
Have heard the trumpet’s blast.
Shame on the false Etruscan
Who lingers in his home,
When Porsena of Clusium
Is on the march for Rome.


III

The horsemen and the footmen
Are pouring in amain
From many a stately market-place;
From many a fruitful plain;
From many a lonely hamlet,
Which, hid by beech and pine,
Like an eagle’s nest, hangs on the crest
Of purple Apennine;

. . . "

And to this day I still can't forget it, no matter how hard I try!

 

[Tathagata]

ambling around on the 'net, i came across this and wondered if you have it in your school, or if your children have it in their school. i think it's a great idea. how is it implemented?

Poetry 180

Nice site
bookmarked it


074 - Near the Wall of a House Yehuda Amichai

I like that one a lot

I'm still not impressed with some of the " notables" there
but there's some good stuff hidden between the yawns

 

[Tathagata]

I love that Poetry 180 site. I've been reading there for a few years, and have discovered both poems and poets I really like there. I wonder how many schools actually use it? (It may say on the site, but I don't have time to check it right now.) I know that they're not using it at my daughter's high school--at least they never have in any of her language arts classes. And my high school poetry experience was pretty bleak. We had to memorize sections of The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner and the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Never mind that we didn't have a clue what any of it meant: we memorized. It wasn't until I got to college and spent time in classes with profs who obviously loved poetry that I began to really understand the role it would play in my life.

I liked the "Rhyme" even though I didn't get it either

Memorizing Shakespeare drove me batty
I had no idea what any of it meant and to be honest I don't think the teacher did either

 

[Angeline]

I liked the "Rhyme" even though I didn't get it either

Memorizing Shakespeare drove me batty
I had no idea what any of it meant and to be honest I don't think the teacher did either

Yes. My high school English teachers may have understood Shakespeare themselves, but they totally sucked at conveying any of that knowledge. It wasn't until I got to college, where I took two semesters of Shakespeare and had a really wonderful teacher, than I started to learn why Shakespeare is so revered. And I guess it's just the luck of the draw in high school because when I student taught (tenth-grade English), my supervising teacher did one of the best jobs I've ever seen of introducing Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) to his students. He talked about mob mentality and how gossip starts and opinions are swayed. He made it so relevent to their lives that they were actually excited to read it.

And Mr. Reltne I am properly dismayed by what you had to memorize! I actually liked Chaucer (though I liked him a lot more when I read The Miller's Tale in my first college English survey course), but memorizing that Coleridge turned me off to him forever. I swear having to memorize that poem was almost as bad as wearing the damn bird around my neck would have been!

 

[wildsweetone]

if Billy Collins is fer it, I'm agin it.

why? (if i don't ask i can't have an informed opinion myself.)

 

[twelveoone]

why? (if i don't ask i can't have an informed opinion myself.)

Billy as I read him has all the depth of dime. Not that is not bad in itself, Rap, cowboy poetry doesn't have much more change. But Billy is a poet, and really does nothing to expand the art. In short a bit of banal reactionary. A factory poet. A conversationalist.

Of course, I could be missing something, I seem to miss alot.

 

[Angeline]

Just thought I'd stick my two cents in about Billy. I find him warm, funny and accessible. He's no TS Eliot, that's for sure, and he writes about small things in a rather modest way. There's nothing elevated about his poetry. For example, Yeats could write on small, simple themes--a woman sitting by a fire, swans passing over a lake--and make it grand, noble, universal. Collins is more singular.

I guess some would call it "lacking depth." To me, it's just a different kind of focus.

Oh and I love listening to Billy talk about poetry; he's articulate and witty. And he's a great reader.

Three Poems

And hey he even connects the first poem, Lanyard to Marcel Proust. He's not totally flat.

 

[twelveoone]

Just thought I'd stick my two cents in about Billy. I find him warm, funny and accessible. He's no TS Eliot, that's for sure, and he writes about small things in a rather modest way. There's nothing elevated about his poetry. For example, Yeats could write on small, simple themes--a woman sitting by a fire, swans passing over a lake--and make it grand, noble, universal. Collins is more singular.

I guess some would call it "lacking depth." To me, it's just a different kind of focus.

Oh and I love listening to Billy talk about poetry; he's articulate and witty. And he's a great reader.

Three Poems

And hey he even connects the first poem, Lanyard to Marcel Proust. He's not totally flat.

and I'm not disagreeing, on either Collins or Yeats. Yeats I get the feeling put his balls to the wall, or he just had an immense amout of talent, Collins doesn't. If he is a spokesperson for poetry what is there to aspire to? To rebel against? And he ain't that funny.
Yeah "lacking depth" , not that there is anything wrong with any of that, merely said "if he's fer it I'm agin it." He does not challenge. I'm not buying.

 

[Angeline]

and I'm not disagreeing, on either Collins or Yeats. Yeats I get the feeling put his balls to the wall, or he just had an immense amout of talent, Collins doesn't. If he is a spokesperson for poetry what is there to aspire to? To rebel against? And he ain't that funny.
Yeah "lacking depth" , not that there is anything wrong with any of that, merely said "if he's fer it I'm agin it." He does not challenge. I'm not buying.

I know you're not. I just wanted to present a balanced view.

Anyway, Billy can be very funny at times. Read his Litany or Man Listening to Disc, which is charming and so true. He's not a powerful poet, like Yeats, who could infuse the mundance with eloquence, but he has a down-to-earth sweetness. I know what you're saying about him, but he is a poet. I wouldn't classify him with, say, Rod McKuen or (god forbid) Helen Steiner Rice.

 

[champagne1982]

He's not a powerful poet, like Yeats, who could infuse the mundance with eloquence, but he has a down-to-earth sweetness.

I'm going to start recording some of these marvellous words borne of typoisms... unless mundance is a real word?

 

[Angeline]

I'm going to start recording some of these marvellous words borne of typoisms... unless mundance is a real word?

My eyes are getting so bad (horrible myopia) that I miss typos even after I reread for them. Oh well. Mundance is a good one. I've done the mundance many, many times.

 

[foehn2]

very stupid selections for students, in my opinion. but somebody said it already: what do I know?

 

[Tathagata]

Billy as I read him has all the depth of dime. Not that is not bad in itself, Rap, cowboy poetry doesn't have much more change. But Billy is a poet, and really does nothing to expand the art. In short a bit of banal reactionary. A factory poet. A conversationalist.

Of course, I could be missing something, I seem to miss alot.

I feel pretty much the same way and about Kooser as well.
I just get the feeling they write from their heads and not their hearts.
They write what they think sounds profound and introspective but they lack conviction and belief.

As you said, I may be missing something but they both seem like showman rather than poets to me.


You better copy this post I may not ever agree with you again

 

[TheRainMan]

You better copy this post I may not ever agree with you again

nice to see that, since i agree with both of you on a whole lot of things (not necessarily this, but you make great points).

i think you're both the cat's pajamas.

 

[twelveoone]

My eyes are getting so bad (horrible myopia) that I miss typos even after I reread for them. Oh well. Mundance is a good one. I've done the mundance many, many times.

Mundance...
wasn't that Van Morrison?
as for the Koose, if you read him right (or wrong) he comes across as a dirty old man.

OK that may be just my 50%

 

[twelveoone]

I feel pretty much the same way and about Kooser as well.
I just get the feeling they write from their heads and not their hearts.
They write what they think sounds profound and introspective but they lack conviction and belief.

As you said, I may be missing something but they both seem like showman rather than poets to me.


You better copy this post I may not ever agree with you again

copied, so you can't edit it out.
We agree on a lot of things Tath, I'm a closet Yankee hater, do you think I would admit that to you?


Oh Shit.

 

[Sara Crewe]

Mundance...
wasn't that Van Morrison?
as for the Koose, if you read him right (or wrong) he comes across as a dirty old man.

OK that may be just my 50%

Is there something wrong with being a dirty old man?

Crap.

I'm a closet dirty old man.


--Sara The Secret Curmudgeon

 

[Angeline]

Mundance...
wasn't that Van Morrison?
as for the Koose, if you read him right (or wrong) he comes across as a dirty old man.

OK that may be just my 50%

It occurs to me that mundance is something my grangfather might have said. "Vas is das mundance music you bring in my haus?" Hmmm.

 

[Tathagata]

copied, so you can't edit it out.
We agree on a lot of things Tath, I'm a closet Yankee hater, do you think I would admit that to you?


Oh Shit.

Your secret is safe with me


I'm sure we do agree on many things
just not often publicly

 

[champagne1982]

It occurs to me that mundance is something my grangfather might have said. "Vas is das mundance music you bring in my haus?" Hmmm.

Bwahahahahaha​

 

[wildsweetone]

Billy as I read him has all the depth of dime. Not that is not bad in itself, Rap, cowboy poetry doesn't have much more change. But Billy is a poet, and really does nothing to expand the art. In short a bit of banal reactionary. A factory poet. A conversationalist.

Of course, I could be missing something, I seem to miss alot.

as i see it, there are no Billy Collins poems in that list of 180 poems that are used as suggested readings, unless he has a non de plume that i don't know.

from what i understand, he is promoting the writings of other poets. sure some might be fantastic and some might be awful, but that's all great fodder for teachers to use within the classroom (if they're teachers worth salt that is).