Poetry

POEM, http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CLit/Poetry.htm

 What is poetry?

       Poetry       ~ Eleanor Farjeon

What is Poetry? Who Knows?

Not a rose, but the scent of the rose;

Not the sky, but the light in the sky;

Not the fly, but the gleam of the fly;

Not the sea, but the sound of the sea;

Not myself, but what makes me

See, hear, and feel something that prose

Cannot: and what it is who knows?

 (*from Eleanor Farjeon's Poems for Children,1938)

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness ...  It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.    ~ Robert Frost

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.     ~ Robert Frost

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.    ~ Rita Dove

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.    ~ T. S. Eliot

Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.    ~ Thomas Gray

Poetry teaches us music, metaphor, condensation and specificity.    ~ Walter Mosley

Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.    ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Definition of Poetry  (Russell, 2005, pp. 176-177)

Poetry is the most emotionally charged means of written expression and it consists of words arranged in patterns of sound and imagery to spark an emotional, and intellectual, response from us.

Poetry is the language of the imagination, of feelings, of emotional self-expression, of high art.

Prose explains, but poetry sings.

The language in poetry is musical, precise, memorable, and magical.

Types of Poetry

1. Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry typically describes the poet's innermost feelings or candid observations and evokes a musical quality in its sounds and rhythms.

Lyric poems exhibit an endless variety of forms.

Features of Lyric Poetry (http://learn.lexiconic.net/2.2poetryforms.htm)

Lyric poems are often divided into stanzas or verses. Stanzas are usually separated by a single blank line. Stanzas within a poem may have the same form or may vary. The poet also tries to develop interesting forms based on variations of rhyme, rhythm and metre (i.e. "sound play").

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of sounds in different words. Rhyme can occur within lines (internal rhyme) or - more usually - at the end of lines (end rhyme).

A rhyme scheme is a short formula for describing the pattern of rhyme in a poem. End words that rhyme are assigned the same letter. For example, the rhyme scheme for this poem is aabb.

"Thoughts on Poetic Terms"

English 11, it seems to me a

Has plenty of terms for poetry, a

I've made lots of notes and done my best, b

I'm betting these terms are on the test. b

Obviously, not all poems follow the "aabb" rhyme scheme. If the word at the end of a line does not rhyme with either "a" or "b" it is labelled "c," and so on. The guided practice will allow you to identify the rhyme scheme for several poems. Be aware that much modern poetry has no rhyme scheme at all.

Rhythm

If you have ever studied music, or played an instrument, you will know that music is broken into time units or a certain number of beats in a bar or a line. This creates rhythm. Most poetry is broken up into units or beats in a similar way.

To show a poem's rhythm, you divide the words into syllables then decide which syllables are stressed and which are not. A stressed syllable makes you raise your voice somewhat and linger over the accented syllable. By reading a word aloud you will hear the natural stress on the strong syllable.

Say the following words aloud. Notice where you place the stress or emphasis.

depart Did you hear the emphasis on "part":

remain Did you hear the emphasis on "main":

hemlock Did you hear the emphasis on "hem":

Indicating Stressed and Unstressed Syllables

( / ) stressed (you might like to know that the technical term for this is ictus)

( u ) unstressed

Metre

Metre refers to the particular rhythm or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.

The unit of metre in poetry is the foot. A foot contains one stressed syllable and one or more unstressed syllables. Here are the most common types of feet that poets can use:

Iambic: Two syllables. The stress is on the second syllable.

gugg/

be gin

Trochaic: Two syllables. The stress is on the first syllable.

g/gggu

lone ly

Anapestic: Three syllables. Two unaccented syllables followed by an accented one.

uggguggg/

con tra dict

Dactylic: Three syllables. The first syllable is stressed, followed by two unstressed ones.

g/ guggu

lone li ness

Spondaic: Two stressed syllables. Emphasizes part of a line. Usually follows two unstressed syllables in the previous foot.

g/gggg/

rain cloud

The name for the metre in a poem depends on the number of feet in each line.

Monometre: one foot Dimetre: two feet Trimetre: three feet Tetrametre: four feet Pentametre: five feet Hexametre: six feet Heptametre: seven feet Oxtometre: eight feet

2. Ballads (http://www.math.grin.edu/~simpsone/Connections/Poetry/Forms/ballad1.html)

Ballads have strong associations with childhood: much children's poetry comes in ballad form, and English poets traditionally associated ballads with their national childhood as well. Ballads emphasize strong rhythms, repetition of key phrases, and rhymes; if you hear a traditional ballad, you will know that you are hearing a poem. Ballads are meant to be song-like and to remind readers of oral poetry--of parents singing to children, for instance, or of ancient poets reciting their verse to a live audience.

(A side note: contemporary music terminology also uses the term "ballad." In that context, the word describes a genre of "slow songs" in jazz or rock music. Ballads, in other words, are the songs at junior-high dances that make nervous adolescents pair off to sway back and forth arhythmically or feign interest in, say, the paint chips on the walls of the gym. I do not know how "ballad" acquired that meaning as well as the older and still current one described here.)

Ballads do not have the same formal consistency as some other poetic forms, but one can look for certain characteristics that identify a ballad, including these:

Simple language. Some ballads, especially older traditional ballads, were composed for audiences of non-specialist hearers or (later) readers. Therefore, they feature language that people can understand without specialist training or repeated readings. When later poets choose to write ballads, regardless of their intended audience, the choice of the ballad form generally implies a similar emphasis on simple language. Sometimes poets write ballads specifically to react against poetry they see as overly intellectual or obscure.

Stories. Ballads tend to be narrative poems, poems that tell stories, as opposed to lyric poems, which emphasize the emotions of the speaker.

Ballad stanzas. The traditional ballad stanza consists of four lines, rhymed abcb (or sometimes abab--the key is that the second and fourth lines rhyme). The first and third lines have four stresses, while the second and fourth have three. Here is a stanza from "Sir Patrick Spens," a medieval ballad:

'I saw the new moon late yestreen

Wi' the auld moon in her arm;

And if we gang to sea, master,

I fear we'll come to harm.'

Repetition. A ballad often has a refrain, a repeated section that divides segments of the story. Many ballads also employ incremental repetition, in which a phrase recurs with minor differences as the story progresses. For a classic example of incremental repetition, see the first two lines of each stanza in "Lord Randal."

Dialogue. As you might expect in a narrative genre, ballads often incorporate multiple characters into their stories. Often, since changes of voice were communicated orally, written transcriptions of oral ballads give little or no indication that the speaker has changed. Writers of literary ballads, the later poems that imitate oral ballads, sometimes play with this convention.

Third-person objective narration. Ballad narrators usually do not speak in the first person (unless speaking as a character in the story), and they often do not comment on their reactions to the emotional content of the ballad.

3. Concrete Poetry: The words of a poem are arranged to form a pictorial representation of the poem's subject.

A concrete poem is written in the shape of the subject. (http://suite101.com/article/poems-for-kids-a20393)

Every line in the poem is about the chosen topic.

The poem is written so that the words create the shape of the subject.

A concrete poem can be used as a creative assessment for vocabulary words.

An example of a concrete poem: The lines of this poem would be written in a circle.

Ball

Bouncy and shiny,

Full of air,

Round fun wherever you go!

4. Free Verse: adhering to no predetermined rules, but usually with its own intricate patterns of rhyme and rhythm. It requires the same thoughtful choice of words and rhythmical patterns as the more rigid stanza forms.

Definition of Free Verse (http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/24-free-verse.htm)

Free Verse is a form of Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no set fixed metrical pattern. The early 20th-century poets were the first to write what they called "free verse" which allowed them to break from the formula and rigidity of traditional poetry. The poetry of Walt Whitman provides many illustrations of Free Verse including his poem "Song of Myself".

Example of Free Verse

Song of Myselfby

Walt Whitman

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.I loaf and invite my soul,

I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

5. Narrative Poetry (http://www.publicbookshelf.com/nonfiction/writing-text/narrative-poetry-2)

Narrative poetry is poetry that tells a story. It is extremely popular, and almost everyone has read some of the famous narrative poems.

For example: Mummy Slept Late and Daddy Fixed Breakfast

Daddy fixed the breakfast.He made us each a waffle.It looked like gravel pudding.It tasted something awful.

“Ha, ha,” he said, “I’ll try again.This time I’ll get it right.”But what I got was in betweenBituminous and anthracite.

“A little too well done? Oh well,I’ll have to start all over.”THAT time what landed on my plateLooked like a manhole cover.

I tried to cut it with a fork:The fork gave off a spark.I tried a knife and twisted itInto a question mark.

I tried it with a hack-saw.I tried it with a torch.It didn’t even make a dent.It didn’t even scorch.

The next time Dad gets breakfastWhen Mommy’s sleeping late,I think I’ll skip the waffles,I’d sooner eat the plate!

by John Ciardi

Narrative poetry has characters, dialogue, conflicts, plot, setting. The difference between a story and a narrative poem is that the narrative

poem is in poetic form not in prose. It relies on rhythm and rhyme and is arranged in stanzas.

The poem has a plot, a sequence of events that take place and that present a conflict. Next, the poem adds complications. There are a climax and a resolution.

6. Limerick: a five-line humorous poem, the first, second, and fifth lines rhyming and the third and fourth lines rhyming. It is one of the most popular poetic forms among children, The fun of the limerick lies in its rollicking rhythm and its broad humor.

Imagine a skunk who proposes,To his true love, surrounded by roses.It may turn out just fine,When she falls for his line,But I wonder if flowers have noses?             (Sarah Fanny)

a limerick is a funny little poem containing five lines. It has a very distinctive rhythm and rhyme pattern. (http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass/limerickcontesthelp.html)

Rhyme Pattern: The last words of the first, second, and fifth lines all rhyme with each other. We’ll call those rhyming words “A,” however the words could be “ Peru,” “shoe,” and “true” as illustrated in the first poem below or “Tim,” “swim,” and “him” as illustrated in the second poem below. And the last words of the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other. We’ll call those rhyming words “B,” however the words could be “night” and “fright” in the first example or “dock” and “rock” in the second example.

Rhythm Pattern: The first, second, and fifth lines all have this rhythm pattern: da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (notice there are 3 DUMS or beats). Say, “There once was a fellow named Tim” out loud. Now say, “da DUM da da DUM da da DUM” out loud. Notice that both have the same rhythm. The third and fourth lines have a different rhythm pattern: da DUM da da DUM (notice there are 2 DUMS or beats). Say, “He fell off the dock” out loud. Now say “da DUM da da DUM” out loud. Notice that both have the same rhythm.

Here is a very famous limerick. Notice both the rhyme and rhythm patterns.

1. There was an old man from Peru, (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)

2. who dreamed he was eating his shoe. (A) da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)

3. He awoke in the night (B)da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS)

4. with a terrible fright, (B)da da DUM da da DUM (2 DUMS)

5. and found out that it was quite true. (A) 

da DUM da da DUM da da DUM (3 DUMS)

When you write a limerick, make sure that it has the same AABBA rhyme pattern. Make sure it also has the same 3 DUMS, 3 DUMS, 2 DUMS, 2 DUMS, 3 DUMS rhythm pattern, too. To be sure, recite the poem, substituting “da” for all unaccented or unstressed syllables and “DUM” for all accented or stressed syllables, as I have done above. If your poem doesn’t have a similar rhythm pattern, then you need to make some adjustments.

Ideas for new limericks can come from almost anywhere. For example, your city, state, country, or name. If your name is Tim or Jim, you could write something like this:

A Clumsy Young Fellow Named Tim

1. There once was a fellow named Tim (A)

2. whose dad never taught him to swim. (A)

3. He fell off a dock (B)

4. and sunk like a rock. (B)

5. And that was the end of him. (A)

Notice that the rhyme pattern (AABBA) and the rhythm pattern (3 DUMS, 3 DUMS, 2 DUMS, 2 DUMS, 3 DUMS) are almost identical to the rhythm and rhyme patterns in the “Man from Peru” limerick.

7. Haiku: a lyric, unrhymed poem of Japanese origin with seventeen syllables divided into three lines.  It is usually on the subject of nature and humans' relationship to nature. Successful haiku uses metaphor to give us a fresh and imaginative look at something we may view as quite ordinary.

The moon is a week old -A dandelion to blowScattering star seed.        (Ruby Lytle)

"Haiku" is a traditional form of Japanese poetry.  Haiku poems consist of 3 lines.  The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables.  The lines rarely rhyme.

Here's a Haiku to help you remember:

I am first with fiveThen seven in the middle --Five again to end.

Because Haikus are such short poems, they are usually written about things that are recognizable to the reader.  Animals and seasons are examples of recognizable topics children might enjoy exploring.Language of Poetry

Part A.   Imagery : Literal images & Figurative images

Part B.   Sound Patterns : Rhythm & Rhyme

Part A.  Imagery

Imagery refers to mental pictures created by words.

Literal Images: the words are used to describe something directly by appealing to one or more of our sensory faculties.

1. Visual images: they consist of things we can see.

The sun was shining on the sea,

Shining with all his might:

He did his very best to make

The billows smooth and bright -

And this was odd, because it was

The middle of the night.   

     (Lewis Carroll)        

2. Tactile images: they appeal to our sense of touch.

Through the green twilight of a hedge,

I peered with cheek on the cool leaves pressed

     (Walter de la Mare)

3. Auditory images: they suggest the sounds of things, usually resulting in an effect onomatopoeia (Words that imitate sounds or sounds that are linked with

Bow-wow, says the dog,Mew, mew says the cat,Grunt, grunt, goes the hog,And squeak goes the rat.

objects).

Tu, whu, says the owl,Quack, quack, says the duck,And what the cuckoo says you know.    (Mother Goose)

4. Olfactory images: they suggest the smells of things.

As Mommy washed upand the children played,smell of warm butter filled the air.

    (Anonymous)

5. Kinesthetic images: they refer to actions or motions.

A poem once stopped me on the street. I've got a poem stuck on my feet. A poem attacked me in the shower. I find a poem most every hour!     (Mark Stansell)

6. Gustatory images: they suggest the tastes of things.

A mouse found a beautiful piece of plum cake,

The richest and sweetest that mortal could make:

'Twas heavy with citron and fragrant with spice,

And covered with sugar all sparkling as ice.

     (Iona and Peter Opie)

Figurative images: the words are used to describe one thing by comparing it to something else with which we are more familiar. The poet uses figurative language to bring us new experiences, new visions, new ways of looking at the world.

1. Simile: a stated comparison, employing a connective such as "like" or "as".

"My love is like a red, red rose"

    (Robert Burn)

2. Metaphor: an implied comparison, not directly stated with words such as "like" and "as".

In the morning the city

Spreads its wings

Making a song

In stone that sings.

    (Langston Hughes)

3. Personification: human qualities are given to an inanimate object, an abstract idea, or a force of nature.

"The Night was creeping on the ground!

She crept and did not make a sound"

    (James Stephens)

Part B.   Sound Patterns

Most poems are written to be read aloud, and how they sound is as important as what they mean. Sound patterns consist of two elements: rhythm and rhyme.

Rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in language.

1. Rhythmical pattern in poetry is called meter. The smallest unit of rhythmical pattern is called a foot. Much poetry combines more than one rhythmical pattern to achieve a particular effect.

2. Nursery rhymes tend to have very predictable rhythms. For example, "Mary had a little lamb", "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" (regular trochees; i.e., two syllables with the emphasis on the first)

3. When reading poetry to children, we need to be aware of the rhythm pattern(s) a poem contains so that we can gain good effect from our reading.

Rhyme: the repetition of similar sounds in the two or more words.

1. End rhyme: the repetition of  the ending sounds in two or more lines.

One, two,

buckle my shoe; Three, four,

shut the door; 

Seven, eight,

lay them straight; Nine, ten,

a big, fat hen.

Five, six,

pick up sticks;  

2. Alliteration: the repetition of initial sounds in two or more words.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick? 

3. Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds within words.

Hickory Dickory Dock,The mouse ran up the clock, The clock struck one,

The mouse ran down,Hickory Dickory Dock! 

4. Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds within words, often with a variation in adjoining vowels.

A flea and a fly Flew up in a flue.Said the flea, "Let us fly!"Said the fly, "Let us flee!"So they flew through a flap in the flue.

Mother Goose Rhymes

Part A.   Historical Perspective

Part B.   Characteristics of Mother Goose Rhymes

Part C.   Mother Goose Rhymes and Child Development

Part D.     Illustrators of Mother Goose Rhymes

Part E.   Learning Activity

Part A.  Historical Perspective

Original Mother Goose books share the characteristics of two types of literature: folktales and rhymes.

1)  Folktales

1697 - Charles Perrault’s "Tales of Mother Goose" ("Contes de ma mère l'Oye") or called "Histories and Tales of Long Ago, with Morals" was published in France. This book contained none of the rhymes associated with Mother Goose, but a collection of eight famous folk tales, including "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood ", "Little Red Riding Hood" , “Blue Beard”, “The Master Cat; or, Puss in Boots”, “The Fairies”, “and "Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper”, “Ricky of the Tuft”, and “Little Thumb”.

1729 - Perrault's tales were translated into English by Robert Samber. The words on the frontispiece were "Mother Goose's Tales".

2)  Nursery Rhymes

1744 - The earliest known collection of nursery rhymes called "Tommy Thumb's Song Book" was published in London by Mary Cooper

1765 - The single most important promoter of the designation of Mother Goose as writer of children's rhymes was John Newbery (1713-1767). He adopted this name for a collection of mostly traditional rhymes: "Mother Goose's Melody" or called "Sonnets for the Cradle." The date for publication of this important edition is agreed by scholars to be about 1765 (1760-1766). It was a little volume, described as a compilation of traditional English nonsense songs and rhymes. It contained 52 rhymes each with its own black and white illustration.

1786 - Isaiah Thomas published the first authorized American edition of "Mother Goose's Melody".

3)  The Term "Mother Goose"

"Mother Goose" was associated with a mythical teller of nursery rhymes for young children. No one is sure where Perrault found this name. It may be given to a woman who, in early times, kept the village geese and who was the traditional community storyteller.

In 1860, a claim was made that the originator of the tales was Elizabeth Goose, great-grandmother of publisher Isaiah Thomas's wife. Scholars have searched fruitlessly for the supposed "ghost volume" which simply does not appear to exist.

* Find more historical information about Mother Goose in Just Who Was Mother Goose and Mother Goose Origins.

Part B.  Characteristics of Mother Goose Rhymes

1)  Sources:

Mother Goose rhymes are derived from war songs, romantic lyrics, proverbs, riddles, political jingles and lampoons, and street cries (the early counterparts of today’s television commercials). Few of these rhymes were initially intended for children.

2)  Protagonists:

The heroes of Mother Goose rhymes typically come from the lower walks of life.

Examples: “Old Mother Hubbard”, “Simple Simon”, “Solomon Grundy” and “Tom Tom the Piper’s Son”.

Those that include kings and queens are often comical and irreverent.Examples: “Sing a Song of Six Pence”, “Old King Cole” and “The Queen of Hearts (1, 2)”

3)  Violence or Fun?

Mother Goose rhymes are often criticized for their share of violence.

Examples: “Rock a Bye Baby”  , “Three Blind Mice”  , “There was an Old Woman who Lived in the Shoe”, and “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater”.

However, the violence in nursery rhymes is not sensationalized. There are no terrifying elements and the context of the violence is not onlyfictional but absurd.

It can be argued that this verbal expression of aggressive behavior may help children to vent natural hostilities and pent-up anxieties.

In fact, it is fun to read Mother Goose rhymes. Their delightful nonsense and eccentric characters remain with us long beyond childhood.

Part C.  Mother Goose Rhymes and Child Development

1)  Cognitive Development

Learning Numbers and Counting

Examples: “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”, “One, Two, Three, Four, Five/Once I caught a fish alive”, “Ten Little Monkeys”, “Ten Green Bottles” and “As I was going to St. Ives Rhyme”.

Learning Alphabet  Examples: “Alphabet Rhyme”, “A Picture Alphabet Rhyme”, and “The Alphabet in Rhyme and Song”.

Developing Reading Skills (including word-recognition skills, vocabulary and structural knowledge, and content knowledge)

Developing a Sense of Humor (appreciation of nonsense)

2)  Aesthetic Development

Nurturing a Love of Sounds and RhythmsExamples: “Hickory Dickory Dock”, “Humpty Dumpty”, “Diddle Diddle Dumpling, My Son John”, and “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle”  For tongue twisters, see examples: “How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck Chuck?”, “Peter Piper”, and “Betty Botter”.

Developing Sensitivity to Pattern

The idea of pattern forms the basis of much art, for pattern results in order and beauty.

**Listen to rhymes at Educational Activities Inc.

3)  Social and Physical Development

Many nursery rhymes are based on cooperative play. They require physical coordination and social interaction.

Examples: “Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake” (a clapping rhyme), “Bingo” (a clapping rhyme), and “London Bridge is Falling Down” (an action rhyme).

Part D.   Illustrators of Mother Goose Rhymes

Alexander Anderson:  

He designed and wood engraved the book “Illustrations of Mother Gooses Melodies” published by Evert Duyckinck and Charles Moreau in 1873. See “There was an old woman, she liv'd in a shoe”, “Jacky, come give me your fiddle” and “Two Blind Men”.

Walter Crane:

Between 1867 and 1876, Crane produced over thirty so-called "toy books". He took these books so seriously that he worked over every page, including the typography, so that it came out a well-composed whole. His "Baby’s

Opera"  and "Baby's Bouquet" (1877) were a series of English nursery songs with words, music, and pictures.

Randolph Caldecott:

Around 1878 he began to work on the picture storybooks. He transformed the world of children's books in the Victorian era. His illustrated Mother Goose rhymes in paper-covered book form are among his loveliest and most original creations.

1. He is often described as the father of the modern picture book, being the first to really explore and experiment with the relationship between text and image. Before Caldecott, illustration generally duplicated the story conveyed by the words, but the two became fused together, making complete sense only when viewed as a whole.

2. His art is characterized by an economy of line and a playfulness of manner that make his work appealing even today, more than a century after his death.

3. The American Library Association annually awards the Caldecott Medal, which began in 1938 and was named in his honor, to theillustrator of the most distinguished children’s picture book published in the United States.

See “The Queen of Hearts” (1881) and “Sing a Song of Sixpence” (1880).

Kate Greenaway: 

She illustrated the book “Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes” published in London in 1881.

1. She is best known for sugar-sweet pictures of innocent children and girls in bonnets. Her light, sketchy style was uncommon at the time, with the traditional illustrators trying to get as much detail and "verisimilitude" into their drawings as possible.

2. The Kate Greenaway Medal, sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the U.K., has been given annually to the illustrator of the most distinguished children’s book published in the U.K. since 1957.

See an example of Kate Greenaway’s work.

Blanche McManus:

She illustrated the book “The True Mother Goose - Songs for the Nursery” or called “Mother Goose's Melodies for Children” published in Boston in 1895. Her works have a comic touch. See “Jack Sprat”, “Little Miss Muffet”, “Sing a Song of Sixpence” and “Pat-A-Cake”.

Arthur Rackham: 

He illustrated the book "The Nursery Rhymes of Mother Goose" for St. Nicholas Magazine in 1913. In his illustrations, there are earthy old witches and eerie creatures. His pictures are very alive with details and some of them are surrealistic. See “Little Miss Muffet”, “Hey! Diddle, Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle” and “As I Was Going to St. Ives”.

Blanch Fisher Wright:

She illustrated the book “The Real Mother Goose” in 1916 and 1944. The lines in her works are clean and sharp and the characters are well-defined. See “Jack Sprat”, “Humpty Dumpty”, “The Queen of Hearts”, “Pat-A-Cake”, and “Sing a Song of Sixpence” (find more at Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes at byGosh.com).

Bob Staake:

He used the digital technology to illustrate “Modern Mother Goose”. See “Humpty Dumpty”, “Little Miss Muffet”, and “Sing a Song of Sixpence”at BobStaake.com.

Other forms:Cartoons - Example: Mother Goose Cartoons designed by Mark Parisi.

Computer Animations - Example: Nursery Rhymes designed by Tiffany Larsen.

Teaching Poetry to Children

"Lovers of poetry are not born, but made through patient and careful nurturing."

 Russell (2005, p. 188)

Part A.   Children's Poetry Preferences

Part B.   Strategies of Teaching Poetry to Children

Part A.  Children's Poetry Preferences

According to Fisher & Natarella's (1982) and Terry's (1974) studies on children's poetry preferences, they found that

Most children preferred narrative poems over lyric poems.

Limericks were the favored poetic form; free verse and haiku were not well liked.

Children preferred poems that had pronounced sound patterns of all kinds, but especially enjoyed poems that rhymed.

Children preferred poems with regular, distinctive rhythm.

Children liked humorous poems, poems about animals, and poems about enjoyable familiar experiences.

(cited in Lynch-Brown, C. & Tomlinson, C. 2005. Essentials of Children’s Literature, 5th edition, p. 49)

Such studies, however, can be dangerous if we rely on them entirely to determine what poetry we will share with children. We should try to broaden children's experience by providing them with a wide variety of poetry, but these findings can be used as a good starting point to select poems for children who have little experience with poetry.

Part B.  Strategies of Teaching Poetry to Children

1. Reading Poetry Aloud to Children

Poetry should be introduced first and frequently to children in an oral form. Most poetry is best read aloud. Moreover, children's oral language is the basis for their later acquisition of literacy.

Teachers need to practice reading the poems ahead of time and frequently. Keep in mind that poetry should be read for its meaning andenunciated words clearly. Pay attention to the poet's punctuation and slow down your normal reading pace to give full value to each sound.

Some poems need to be performed and dramatized. Using your voice to make special effects, such as variations of volume, pitch, and speech rate, and even a dramatic pause.

Brief encounters with one to three poems at a time are best. Too many poems in one sitting may overwhelm students or make the reading tedious.

After reading the poem, be sure to announce the name of the poet so that children discover the writers they especially enjoy.

Some poems warrant discussion. Children can take the opportunity to tell how the poem made them feel or what it make them think about.

2. Choral Poetry

Choral poetry consists of interpreting and saying a poem together as a group activity. Children enjoy this way of experiencing poetry because they have

a participatory role in the activity.

Short, humorous narrative poems are good first choices.

Options for reading a poem chorally include unison, two- or three-part, solo voices, cumulative buildup, and simultaneous voices.

Poetry selected and arranged for dramatic choral readings on a particular theme infuses an interesting variation into choral poetry.

Incorporating action, gestures, body movements, and finger plays can produce more interesting and enjoyable presentation.

3. Learning to Write Poetry

Children need to be very familiar with poetry of many kinds before they should be expected to compose poems.

Teachers often start the writing of poetry as a collaborative effort. The class brainstorms for ideas and then composes the poem in groups or pairs.

Children's poetry follows no absolute rules; perfection of form should not be a goal. They should be reminded that poetry is a form of communication and that they should think of an idea, feeling, or event to write about in their poems.

Teachers can encourage children to compile personal and class anthologies of their own poems or their favorite poems.

Teachers can encourage children to model the works of professional poets by attempting imitation of a whole poem or of specific techniques.

Teachers can read aloud many poems of one poetic form, and then analyze the form to reveal the characteristics of its structure.

EDWARD LEAR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Lear)

Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, author and poet, and is renowned primarily for hisliterary nonsense, in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised. From childhood he suffered ill health, including epilepsy (of which he was ashamed) and depression. He travelled widely for much of his life, before settling in Sanremo. He never married, though he did propose it, but he had many friends and a devoted pet cat. When, after a long decline in health, he died of heart disease, sadly, none of his friends was able to attend his funeral.

His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (largely frustrated) illustrator of Tennyson's poems.

As an author, Lear is principally known for his popular nonsense works, rather than as a travel writer. These show a great ability to use with relish the sound of real and invented English words. He was particularly adept at surprising his readers, and, in his limericks, had a genius for doing so without resorting to shocking them.