6.3.3 Understanding and interpreting the poem
Stoodt, Amspaugh and Hunt (1996) note that many people are unsure about discussing poetry, but although over analysis should be avoided, they believe it does not mean it cannot be discussed at all. Sloan's (1984) term for too close an analysis is "vivisection" (p.85) and she quotes Archibald MacLeish's words that "a poem should not mean but be" (p.86). Thus the ideas given with the poems below are designed both to extend children's understanding without stifling their spontaneous enjoyment, and also to encourage them to express their reactions and interpretations.
Putting the poems in the different stages does not, of course, mean they are only appropriate for that particular age group, but will influence the ways in which they are treated in the classroom.
Early Stage 1 and Stage 1
At these stages the focus needs to be on children's subjective responses to poetry, and many of the motivating activities explained above allow for this.
The strong rhythmical beat of nursery rhymes makes them especially appropriate for the early school years. Many children will already be familiar with them, but even those from non-English backgrounds with other oral traditions will be able to relate to them. In addition, traditional rhymes from other cultures can be included. The teacher can encourage the whole class to clap, move and dance to the regular rhythms, and percussive instruments can also be played.
C.J. Dennis' Growing up also has a strong rhythmical pattern:
Little Tommy Tadpole began to weep and wail,
For little Tommy Tadpole had lost his little tail,
And his mother didn't know him, as he wept upon a log;
For he wasn't Tommy Tadpole, but Mr Thomas Frog.
Young children enjoy too the sounds of words and the onomatapoeic effects in poems such as Weather by Eve Merriam and The Puddle by Janeen Brian.
WEATHER
Dot a dot dot dot a dot dot
Spotting the windowpane.
Spack a spack spack flick a flack fleck
Freckling the windowpane.
A spatter a scatter a wet cat a clatter
A splatter a rumble outside.
Umbrella umbrella umbrella umbrella
Bumbershoot barrel of rain
Slosh a galosh slosh a galosh
Slither and slather a glide.
A puddle a jump a puddle a jump
A puddle a jump puddle splosh
A juddle a pump a luddle a dump
A pudmuddle jump in and slide!
THE PUDDLE
A puddle
is a muddle
of droplets together.
A puddle
dribbles edges
in wet, rainy weather.
A puddle
can wriggle
its way to a river
to meet other puddles
with tingle and shiver.
Then, silent
they journey
but listen to them shout,
when at the sea-mouth,
the puddles rush out!
Stage 2
By this stage many children are able to formulate a more articulate response to the poems they hear, and there may be the temptation for the teacher to put too much emphasis on tasks for assessment rather than activities which develop enjoyment and appreciation. Poetry, like music and art, is primarily for developing the imaginative and creative faculties not for use as a comprehension exercise. While literacy across the curriculum may require teaching some spelling of technical terms, other types of texts are more suitable for work of this nature.
This does not mean that assessment and a developing appreciation for poetry are mutually exclusive, and some of the ideas presented in English K - 6 Teaching Kits (1996) allow for these if the classroom work is carefully and sensitively handled. However in the more recent Teaching Notes for Stages 1, 2 & 3 in the Board of Studies Modules (1998), the emphasis is on "enjoyment and personal response" which "does not depend on understanding every word (pp. 94, 172, 268, 366).
The questions suggested by Perrine (as cited in Stoodt, Amspaugh & Hunt, 1996) are an excellent way to stimulate student discussions about the poems they encounter. The questions are:
- Consider the speaker and the occasion. Discuss who wrote the poem, whether the speaker or character is the same person as the poet, and the point of view the poet uses. Consider the central purpose of the poem.
- Discuss why the poet wrote it and what type of poem it is: a circus poem, a wildlife poem that celebrates nature, and so on.
- Consider the means by which that purpose is achieved: rhythm, rhyme, imagery, or repeated words, phrases, or lines, and so on.
(p.164)
These can be simplified for Years 3 and 4 students as indicated with the poems below, while the third question deals with poetic techniques which will be discussed in more detail in the next section, 6.3.4.
These two poems about skateboards are excellent examples for helping children to understand how, through the narrator, poets can express different points of view about the same topic.
JOHNNY'S SKATEBOARD
Skateboard, skateboard -
Johnny-couldn't-wait-board -
Darted through the gate,
Looked around too late.
Skateboard, skidboard,
Thrilling, spilling kidboard,
Needs a safer place
To travel at that pace.
Skillboard, KILLBOARD!
Dashing-where-you-will board,
What a sorry fate
If you stop too late.
Skateboard, mateboard,
Don't become a hateboard!
You nearly put the lidboard
On Johnny and his skidboard.
Questions for group and class discussion:
- Do you think Johnny is telling this story?
- Who does it sound like?
- What words give you this idea?
- Why does the narrator use these words?
SKATEBOARD
We twist
and we turn
and the pavement
we burn
as we rocket
downhill at a rate.
We whoop
and we swoop
as we crouch
and we stoop
on the board
where we ride
when we skate.
With a shove
and a run
it is furious fun
as we roll
with a sweep
and a swerve
Then we reel
and we rip
in a breathtaking trip
while keeping
our balance
and nerve.
We swing
and we sway
in a dare-devil way
on a hair-raising,
zig-zagging track.
Our father
once tried.
You'll find him
Inside
with a very
large bruise
on his back.
Questions for group and class discussion:
- Think about Johnny's skateboard and the narrator of that poem.
Do you think that father is telling the story in this poem? - Who does it sound like?
- What words give you this idea?
- What feelings do you think is the narrator expressing in this poem?
- Do the two narrators have the same feelings about skateboarding?
More direct questions might be needed to help the children such as:
- Why do mothers sometimes sound cross?
- Is it because they worry their children might hurt themselves, even when they know something is exciting to do?
In this way the teacher can help the class to identify the central purpose of particular poems, and to interpret the different ideas and feelings expressed.
Of course these two poems lend themselves to a host of other possibilities for work in the classroom. Max Fatchen's Skateboard is a wonderful example of concrete poetry which could stimulate the children to write their own versions, while both this and Johnny's Skateboard open up the possibility of lively multivoice renditions.
PROWLPUSS
In this poem, the poet is the omniscient narrator who reveals different aspects of Prowlpuss. Initially shown as a tough, streetwise alley cat (his idea of himself?), his image suffers somewhat when his unrequited love for the little white cat becomes known. This hopeless lover slinks home at dawn. Perhaps the final insult is his mistress' view of him as her "sweet Prowly-wowly", a sleepy "oh-so-cosy" cat, which is shown through her words. However her opinion is open to question too. Which is the real Prowlpuss?
| Prowlpuss
is cunning ... ........ A kingsize cat with one ear and one eye. ... He's rough ... and very, very tough. .... So what's it all for - All the razzle and dazzle, ... Who is he wooing? ... A tiny-white-star cat, |
Now Prowlpuss will sing for her - ... Oh, how he longs for her ... Back through the alleys links Prowlpuss ... Love-lost and lorn. And old Nellie Smith in her deep feather bed lifts her head. That's Prowly come home! ... My sweet Prowly-wowly! ... Prowlpuss." |
Questions for class and group discussion
- Who is telling the story in this poem? Prowlpuss himself? Nellie Smith? the little white cat? the poet?
- What is the first picture we have of Prowlpuss?
- Which words give this idea of him?
- When might we begin to change our minds about this image of Prowlpuss?
- Why do you think Prowlpuss loves the little white cat?
- Does Nellie Smith love Prowlpuss?
- What kind of a cat does she think he is?
- Do you think Prowlpuss would agree with Nellie's ideas about him?
In this beautifully illustrated book, the little white cat can be seen reflected in Prowlpuss' eye, adding further to the impression that this cat isn't what he first appears to be.
Stage 3
The range of poetry for children to experience can continue to be extended in Stage 3. In focusing on "Australian traditions in poetry ..." (English K-6 Modules, 2001, p 366), the themes of the bush, the pioneer and the battler can be studied in the works of Dorothea McKellar, A.B. (Banjo) Patterson, C.J Dennis, Oodgeroo and Henry Lawson.
Poetry is also a means for children to explore their own inner world as well as wider social issues, as shown in the following two poems.
THE MARROG
My desk's at the back of the class
And nobody knows
I'm a marrog from Mars
With a body of brass
And seventeen fingers and toes.
Wouldn't they shriek if they knew
I've three eyes at the back of my head
And my hair is bright purple
My nose is deep blue
And my teeth are half yellow half red?
My five arms are silver with knives on them sharper than
spears.
I could go back right now if I liked -
And return in a million light years.
I could gobble them all for
I'm seven foot tall
And I'm breathing green flames from my ears.
Wouldn't they yell if they knew
If they guessed that a Marrog was here?
Ha-ha they haven't a clue -
Or wouldn't they tremble with fear!
Look, look, a Marrog
They'd all scrum and shout.
The blackboard would fall and the ceiling would crack
And the teacher would faint I suppose.
But I grin to myself sitting right at the back
And Nobody nobody knows.
The child's secret fantasies are ones which children can relate to. Most would understand a young person's need for the admiration that comes to the powerful, but the hidden longing for acceptance and recognition from the outsider is another interpretation that could be explored.
Questions for class and group discussion
- Who is the narrator of this poem?
- Why do you think s/he imagines himself as a Marrog from Mars?
- Do you think that the poet is describing a narrator who is happy that "nobody nobody knows" his/her secret?
BWALLA THE HUNTER
In the hard famine time, in the long drought
Bwalla the hunter on walkabout,
Lubra and children following slow.
All proper hungry long time now.
No more kangaroo out on the plain,
Gone to other country where there was rain.
Couldn't find emu, couldn't find seed,
And the children all time cry for feed.
They saw the great eagle come through the sky
To his big stick gunya in a gum near by,
Fine young wallaby carried in his feet:
He bring tucker for his kids to eat.
Big fella eagle circled slow,
Little fella eagles fed below
'Gwa!' said Bwalla the hunter, 'he
Best fella hunter, better than me.'
He dropped his boomerang. 'Now I climb,
All share tucker in the hungry time.
We got younks too, we got need -
You make fire and we all have feed.'
Then up went Bwalla like a native cat,
All the blackfellows climb like that.
And when he look over big nest rim
Those young ones all sing out at him.
They flapped and spat, they snapped and clawed,
They plenty wild with him, my word,
They shrilled at tucker-thief big and brown,
But Bwalla took wallaby and then climbed down.
For the city child, this poem offers insights into another culture with a different way of experiencing and seeing the world. Some words like lubra, gunya and younks may need to be explained
Questions for class and group discussion
- What is the story of this poem?
- Why is the family suffering hardship?
- How does the father solve their difficulties?
- What does the father think of the eagle?
- What do you think the poet's attitude to the father is? That he is greedy? a thief? brave, skilful and resourceful?
- Which part in the poem gives you the idea of the father's character?
The children could also explore the underlying theme of this poem where family's struggle can be a means to understanding more abstract ideas of courage and resourcefulness in adversity