William Ferguson

Warner

ENGL 112B – Unit of Study [Globalization of Poetry]

11/29/11

Celebrating Global Poetry Alongside the American Canon through Image

Throughout my own high school experience, I found myself drowning in poetry by stuffy old British gents. And while Swift, Yeats, and all their contemporaries in between have literary merit, the talent and boldness of writers in different cultures often goes unexamined in the current American curriculum. Graduates of the American secondary school system often recall the names of Dickinson and Wolf, Shelley and Byron, but forgo talent like Garcia Muniez, Pablo Neruda, and Matsuo Basho.

This particular unit of study will focus on teaching the classical American canon first, but then supplementing the material with works from other regions that are written with similar themes or styles. Most specifically, the focus will be primarily on three different movements and traditions of poetry: imagism, the Harlem Renaissance, and Confessional poetry (in the realm of Sylvia Plath and her female peers). By including these diverse works, there will be a common blending of showcasing the minorities often overlooked in American English classes.

In the New York Times article �Tale of Two Families: A Chasm Between Haves and Have-Nots�, Wilgoren argues that there is a �ghettoization� happening in the American school system. He states that between whites and their ethnic peers (often Latin or black) of lower socioeconomic status, many are left behind and �rendered invisible by a political gaze directed elsewhere� (Wilgoren, 2005). This may, in part, be due to the invisibility of their cultural significance in the classroom. By learning about primarily white, male authors, students feel that only white males can be successes in the literary spectrum. In Sue Books Invisible Children in the Society and Its Schools, she argues that �whole communities have been left behind, forgotten, overlooked, or rendered� superfluous in the global reshuffling� (Books, 5). Thus, it is imperative that the American school system directly reflect it�s melting pot beginnings and teach about all cultures – and it can begin with poetry.

Poetry tells the world what it means to be, what it means to live. Existentially, it attempts to explain the wonders of the world (most of which are universal) one word, one metrically constructed line at a time. It espouses what being Chilean means, how art reflects life, how a daughter can despise her father, the joys of Baseball, the wandering imagination of children. It speaks on such a varying level that it becomes accessible to adults and young people alike as something he or she can claim as their own.

Through studying poetry from different cultures, I hope to incorporate poetic analysis into my lessons as the main skill to take away. Each poem used in this unit is analyzed in the same way – viewing the images and metaphors and placing them into the context of the place and time period. In this way, there is an additional level of unification amongst all of the works. The centerpiece work espouses the process of how to do this, and its instructions will be a recurring theme throughout the lessons in this unit of study.

Most notably, the most recurring tool used in poetics is the image; it is used in order to elevate the mundane or further showcase the ornate. From metaphor to personification, imagery is the basis for which other rhetorical devices in literature rest. In this unit of study, the goal is not only to celebrate the diversity of culture in poetry, but also the unifying use of image. Poetry in the modern sense is influenced by the development of culture in traditions of different countries outside of England and America.

The target audience for this unit of study is the higher-level of educated youth, most notably from grades nine to twelve. The choice of works may have words, vocabulary, and ideas that stretch beyond the capabilities or usefulness of much younger audience.

Recurring Activity:

One of the main points brought up in LFTYA was the fact that students need to be able to express their like and dislike of poetry. Therefore, at the beginning of my unit of study in poetry, I will ask students to keep a poetry journal. Here, they will write after reading each poem in the unit and give the following:

� One trait you liked about the poem, and why. Use as many literary terms to describe it as possible.

� A review of the poem – it�s OK to dislike it! This should include not only an assessment, but why you feel that way.

� An opportunity to say anything else about the poem or works related to it that you have read.

Each of these entries will approximately be a half to one full page in length.

Centerpiece Work: �Introduction to Poetry� by Billy Collins

Introduction to Poetry

By Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with a rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

Why:

This poem is a fantastic beginning to a unit of study on poetry itself. It defines how any good poem, no matter its original author, genre or culture, needs to have and how to analyze it. Students must take each poem and view it with their eyes; hear it with their ears; probe it with their mind; caress it with their hands; and finally let it speak to them. In a unit of study that will introduce a variety of styles from different cultures, the unifying aspect of them all is the poetic value that they give for the young audience. For young adults, this poem�s framing and context are simple to conceptualize. It utilizes an uncomplicated diction and uses the framing device of a classroom to get the point across. The value of Collins� work stems from its ability to make poetic analysis formulaic enough for students of differing ability levels to be able to look at a work in the same manner.

Activity for �Introduction to Poetry�:

In order to launch my unit of study, I want to get students to think about how to look at a poem. It involves more than reading it – you have to feel it with all of your senses. The main goal of using this as my centerpiece is to ensure that students keep all of their senses in mind when reading and trying to feel poetry. I hope for students to keep their imaginations broad and probe, as the mouse to a maze, each piece of work. To encourage this, I hope to have students identify the images used in this poem, what images are inferred, what senses both of those cover, and why might Billy Collins be giving the advice in each stanza. This will also gauge a students familiarity with poetry – what does each student see and how would they analyze future works in the unity of study. See the Worksheet Packet Page 1 for the activity sheet that students would fill out and discuss on that day�s lesson.

Additionally, I will have students write a launching entry into their poetry journals. I hope for them to answer the following questions:

� What is poetry to you?

� How can poetry serve to unite the world? If you feel it does not, explain why.

� What is your experience with poetry?

� On a scale from 1 (not a lot) to 10 (very knowledgable), rank your experience with poetry.

Web Link to Poem: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/apple.html

Focal Piece: �The Red Wheelbarrow� by William Carlos Williams and �The Fog� by Carl Sandburg

Why:

Both these poems come from the Imagist movement in America. These will be good starting points, as both of these poems introduce only a few rhetorical devices. In this lesson, students will learn about the power of a single image and what it invokes within. Poet Barbara Esbensen once wrote, �image first and the rhyme only incidentally� (Flynn, 15). Image is often the poet�s most valuable tool. It provides bits and pieces to reconstruct the world outside of the words on the page.

Metaphor is also invaluable in Sandburg�s poem. The simple comparison of fog to cat feet is simplistic in its concepts, but has a far-reaching potential when the second stanza is introduced.

In this lesson, I hope to introduce the literary movement of Imagism and give a brief background of its inception after World War I. After World War I, the global mindset changed. Countries did not trust each other, and the art reflected this dissonance.

Activity for �The Red Wheelbarrow� and �The Fog�

Both of these poem create a strong image, a typical characterization of the imagist movement. The poems are concise and immediate with their presentation. These, then, lend themselves to facilitate a class discussion about the underlying meaning of the poems. After reading these, I will ask the class to fill out Worksheet Packet Page 2 in order to get a sense of their ideas, reminding them about their analysis from the Centerpiece text from Billy Collins. The first part of the worksheet will allow for analysis of the poems on the students� own accord. The second part asks the student to write a story or poem in which one image is the central focus, then briefly explain why they chose that image.

Web Link to Poems:

http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/wcw-red-wheel.html

http://www.poetry-archive.com/s/fog.html
Focal Piece: �Collection of Six Haiku� by Matsuo Basho

Collection of Six Haiku

By Matsuo Basho (translated from Japanese)

Waking in the night;

the lamp is low,

the oil freezing

It has rained enough

to turn the stubble on the field

black.

Winter rain

falls on the cow-shed

a cock crows.

The leeks

newly washed white, -

how cold it is!

The sea darkens;

the voices of the wild ducks

are faintly white.

Ill on a journey;

my dreams wander

over a withered moor.

Why:

Matsuo Basho was a famous Japanese poet from the Edo period of Japan. In the modern context, he is recognized as one of the purveyors of the haiku and a master of the craft. Through studying this poet, students will be able to learn about the style of haiku and how it may have had influences in more modern text (like Collins and the imagists). All of the poetry utilized before this has tinges of the haiku – concise and powerful images to capture a singular moment in time.

The poem also creates similar feelings espoused in the centerpiece poem by Collins. You feel the heat of the lamp then the chill of its freezing. You imagine you dreams hovering above the withering moor. By utilize this piece, the Unit of Study is introduced to its first foreign work. By connecting the canonical American poetry to this famous poet in East Asia, the theme of globalization is given validity.

Activity for �Collection of Six Haiku�

The activity with this poem takes ideas borrowed from A Note Slipped Under the Door by Nick Flynn and Shirley McPhillips. In their chapter on image, they ask students to exam a short, image-rich poem called �I Wish In The City Of Your Heart� and dissect it line for line. The students in their classes then placed Post-Its near each line with an interpretation of the image and what they thought it meant in the context of the poem as a whole.

I hope to mimic this activity here. However, I would plan to make it a bit bigger. I would break the class into groups and ask them to pick and image from Basho�s collection of haikus. Then, the student would make a poster illustrating the literal meaning of the words, then include a paragraph interpreting the meaning of the image and why it might be used. The details of the assignment can be viewed on the Worksheet Packet Page 3.

Additionally, in this entry in their Poetry Journal, I will ask that each student complete at least two different Haiku in addition to the originally assigned writing. By having this, I hope to incorporate both creative writing and analytical writing into this Unit of Study.

Web Link to Poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/matsuo_basho_2004_9.pdf

Page of Writing

By Jacque Pr�vert

Two and two make four

Four and four make eight

Eight and eight make sixteen

'Repeat!' calls the schoolmaster

Two and two make four

Four and four make eight

Eight and eight make sixteen

But look at the songbird

Passing in the sky

The child watches it

The child listens to it

The child calls to it

'Save me!'

'Play with me

Bird!'

So the bird flies down

And plays with the child

Two and two make four

'Repeat' calls the schoolmaster

And the child plays

And the bird plays with the child

Four and four make eight

And eight and eight make sixteen

And sixteen and sixteen

What do they make?

They make nothing, sixteen and sixteen

And certainly not thirty-two

In any case

They all go away

And the child hides the bird

In his desk

And all the other children

Listen to its song

And all the other children

Listen to its music

And eight and eight go away on their turn

And four and four and two and two

On their turn they all skedaddle

And one and one is not one nor two

One and one go away equally

And the songbird plays

And the child sings

And the teacher cries:
'If you're finished clowning around!'
But all the other children
Are listening to the music
And the walls of the class
Slowly fade away
And the window panes return to sand
The ink returns to water
The desks return to trees
The chalk returns to the mines
The feather quill returns to the bird.

Focal Piece: �Page dՎcriture� by Jacques Pr�vert

Page dՎcriture

Par Jacques Pr�vert

Deux et deux quatre

quatre et quarte huit

huit et huit font seize�

R�p�tez ! dit le ma�tre

Deux et deux quatre

quatre et quatre huit

huit et huit font seize.

Mais voil� l�oiseau lyre

qui passe dans le ciel

l�enfant le voit

l�enfant l�entend

l�enfant l�appelle
Sauve-moi

joue avec moi

oiseau !

Alors l�oiseau descend

et joue avec l�enfant

Deux et deux quatre�

R�p�tez ! dit le ma�tre

et l�enfant joue

l�oiseau joue avec lui�

Quatre et quatre huit

huit et huit font seize

et seize et seize qu�est-ce qu�ils font ?

Ils ne font rien seize et seize

et surtout pas trente-deux

de toute fa�on

ils s�en vont.

Et l�enfant a cach� l�oiseau

dans son pupitre

et tous les enfants

entendent sa chanson

et tous les enfants

entendent la musique

et huit et huit � leur tour s�en vont

et quatre et quatre et deux et deux

� leur tour fichent le camp

et un et un ne font ni une ni deux

un � un s�en vont �galement.

Et l�oiseau lyre joue

et l�enfant chante

et le professeur crie :

Quand vous aurez fini de faire le pitre

Mais tous les autres enfants

�coutent la musique

et les murs de la classe

sՎcroulent tranquillement

Et les vitres redeviennent sable

l�encre redevient eau

les pupitres redeviennent arbres

la craie redevient falaise

le port-plume redevient oiseau.

Why:

This poem is from France by Jacque Pr�vert. I feel it important that in a study of different cultures, the original language of the poem is presented as well as the English translation. The history of this poem is based in the children�s rhyme – adequate for teaching young adults as it makes the scene relatable. There is an emphasis here on nature and the use of natural images to explain the imagination.

In this lesson, I would explore concepts of Naturalism and what nature means in poetry. How a poet might use nature as an allegory to explain the different facets of life or the stretches of a child�s imagination would be the primary focus of the discussions in the classroom. The eventual goal is to, once again, provide a unity of the global literary world to poetic elements regarding image – most notably here through nature.

I would also compliment this work with a canonical text by Dickinson.

��Nature� is what we see –�

By Emily Dickinson

"Nature" is what we see --

The Hill -- the Afternoon --

Squirrel -- Eclipse -- the Bumble bee --

Nay -- Nature is Heaven --

Nature is what we hear --

The Bobolink -- the Sea --

Thunder -- the Cricket --

Nay -- Nature is Harmony --

Nature is what we know --

Yet have no art to say --

So impotent Our Wisdom is

To her Simplicity.

This keeps the tradition of studying the classical authors while subsequently pointing out the similarities (and differences) between foreign writers. The activity will attempt to reflect that point and ask the students to analyze it further through their own creative writing.

Activity for �Page of Writing� and ��Nature� is what we see—�:

The activity used here differs from the others and asks the students to write more than the previous lessons. The student will assume the role of the teacher or another one of the students within the classroom. He or she will then write a poem in the viewpoint of the chosen spectator and write an interpretation of the day�s lesson in that speaker�s voice. You may refer to Worksheet Packet Page 4 for details.

Web Link to Poems:

http://lyricstranslate.com/en/page-d039ecriture-page-writing.html

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/emily_dickinson/poems/7497.html

Focal Piece: �Carnal Apple, Woman Filled, Burning Moon� by Pablo Neruda

Carnal Apple, Woman Filled, Burning Moon

By Pablo Neruda

Carnal apple, Woman filled, burning moon,

dark smell of seaweed, crush of mud and light,

what secret knowledge is clasped between your pillars?

What primal night does Man touch with his senses?

Ay, Love is a journey through waters and stars,

through suffocating air, sharp tempests of grain:

Love is a war of lightning,

and two bodies ruined by a single sweetness.

Kiss by kiss I cover your tiny infinity,

your margins, your rivers, your diminutive villages,

and a genital fire, transformed by delight,

slips through the narrow channels of blood

to precipitate a nocturnal carnation,

to be, and be nothing but light in the dark.

Why:

This focal piece in this Unit of Study takes us to Latin America – most notably Chile. Pablo Neruda utilizes personification throughout liberally throughout his works, bringing emotions to life through the use of natural image. With this work, I hope to introduce an additional usage of imagery – the ability to breath human characteristics into ideologies. This is otherwise called the rhetorical device of personification.

Within this work, Love is defined as a series of images from a �journey through waters and stars� to a �war of lightning�.

There is an inherent risk in using this poem, as the sexual overtones are quite apparent. But the maturity of their use overshadows the baseness of the material and actually further develops the use of imagery. Instead of describing sex directly, he uses a number of euphemisms in image (used as symbols). This poem also gives a fantastic opportunity to relate back to Collins� work that touches a variety of senses.

Activity for �Carnal Apple, Woman Filled, Burning Moon�:

The activity for this poem will be a writing activity that is more analytical than the rest. I will ask students to find the symbols of love within the poem. The writing prompt will ask students to not only define them, but ask about their accuracy in concepts of love. Additionally, I would ask that students find at least two instances where Neruda addresses two of the reader�s different senses.

And finally, students will be asked about the universal appeal of a poem like this. Are the emotions expressed known to anyone, of any culture? Are they perhaps unique to the Chilean tradition of love? See Worksheet Packet Page 5 for details.

Web Link to Poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/carnal-apple-woman-filled-burning-moon/

Focal Piece: �Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain� by Langston Hughes

Summary of Work:

In this essay, Hughes writes about the struggle of black artists to overcome a white majority in the creative world. He hopes that blacks will continue to play their jazz and write their works to perpetuate, in the face of adversity, the power of their crafts. This was first published in 1929 in The Nation and is supposed as Hughes� first most popular piece.

Why:

This will be the last focal piece of the Unit of Study. Hughes� work sums up the universal appeal of the arts – in his case through the black community. However, this concept has been a recurring theme throughout the unity of study. The globalization of poetry and the celebrating of a multitude of cultures through it is paramount. In addition to studying the rhetorical devices in each of the image-rich poetry, each of the works showcased an aspect of the culture from which it stems. In the brief amount of lessons, I hope to have exposed students to a variety of works from different countries and how similar they are to the American canon.

Activity for �Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain�:

I have decided to not give this piece an assignment of its own, but rather to include it in a final writing prompt at the end of the Unit of Study. The teaching and discuss of this piece will denote the end of the Unit of Study and a final paper will then be assigned. The prompt will read as follows:

� Write an essay that analyzes the use of image throughout different cultures. Poetry has a universal appeal throughout the literary community, and is continually translated amongst different languages. You may use the following questions to facilitate your assertion:

o Does language play a part in the overall meaning of a poem?

o Are emotions universal? Are happiness, sadness, love, and hate the same around the globe?

o Can the arts truly bring the world together? Why or why not?

� The topic is open-ended, and you may make any argument you like. However, you must focus your paper on the utilization of poetry and rhetorical techniques.

� You must use at least two of the works that we have read in order to provide evidence for your argument. You may use any additional academic resources at your disposal.

With this prompt, I hope to give students free-range in their view of what image does. Because poetry speaks to people in different ways, I feel it paramount to keep the opportunities open and near unlimited.

Web Link to Essay: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/mountain.htm

Works Cited

Basho, Matsuo. "Collection of Six Haiku." Poemhunter.com. 9 Apr. 2004. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/matsuo_basho_2004_9.pdf>.

Books, Sue. Invisible Children in the Society and Its Schools. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. Print.

Collins, Billy. "Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins." The Nellen Family Jewels. 1988. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/apple.html>.

Dickinson, Emily. ""Nature" Is What We See -- Poem by Emily Dickinson." Famous Poets and Poems - Read and Enjoy Poetry. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/emily_dickinson/poems/7497.html>.

Flynn, Nick, and Shirley McPhillips. A Note Slipped under the Door: Teaching from Poems We Love. York, Me.: Stenhouse, 2000. Print.

Hughes, Langston. ""The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (1926)." The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. The Nation, 1929. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/mountain.htm>.

Neruda, Pablo. "Carnal Apple, Woman Filled, Burning Moon." Poemhunter.com. 22 Mar. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2011. <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/carnal-apple-woman-filled-burning-moon/>.

Pr�vert, Jacques. "Jacques Pr�vert : Page DՎcriture." Reformation Blueprint Based upon Church Fathers' Teaching on Christ. 2006. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.continualreformation.org/prevert.htm>.

Sandburg, Carl. "76. Fog. Carl Sandburg. Modern American Poetry." The Fog by Carl Sandburg. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://www.bartleby.com/104/76.html>.

Tsujimoto, Joseph I. Teaching Poetry Writing to Adolescents. Urbana Ill.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, 1988. Print.

Williams, William Carlos. "The Red Wheelbarrow." The Red Wheelbarrow. University of Pennsylvania, 10 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. <http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/wcw-red-wheel.html>.