Teaching Poetry

Aim: How can I decipher a poem?

Motivation: What is the purpose of a sifter?

( to separate the course parts so that the rest can become "fine" or small enough to use --for backing)

1. Explain that we can use that same concept to create a mneumonic to analyze a poem

When we SSIFTT a poem, we can determine its meaning.

2. Follow these steps:

Read the poem once to get a feel for the poem. How does the poem make you feel?

Read the poem again to determine the following:

Sounds you hear when you read the poem (rhymes, alliteration, onomatopoeia)

Symbols that you detect

Images that you see in the poem (this may overlap with symbols)

Figurative language (metaphor, simile, anaphor, personification)

Tone

Theme"

3. Let's use Blake's poem as an example

Love seeketh not itself to please,

Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a heaven in hell's despair."

So sung a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:

"Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a hell in heaven's despite."

SOUNDS: the singing voice of the clay, a moving brook, the warbling voice of the pebble

Symbols: selfless, malleable clay, symbolic of innocence; hardened pebble, symbolic of experience (loss of innocence), hell, heaven

IMAGES : soft clay being troddened down in the dust by the cattle, a hardened pebble enjoying the cool comfort of a brook

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: clay, pebble and love are personified

Tone: Since Blake ended with the voice of the pebble, he is pessimistic about the prospects of innocence surviving in a world of ruthless cattle. After the brutal experience of being troddened down, the once soft optimistic clay transformed into a selfish pebble devoid of emotion or hope.

THEME: The road to success is often paved with casualties from the stampede of those in selfish pursuit of something.

5. After modeling the above poem, have students attempt to decipher the following poems in groups of four.

"We real cool" Gwendolen Brooks

"The Road Not Taken" Robert Frost

" My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

"I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes

6. Then have students share their interpretations.

Note: This is a strategy that has been success in engaging students in the reading and discussion of poetry. Let me know what you think.