On my Wordpress-blog you can find poems in Afrikaans and English and you can also use the tags in the Category-cloud for more poems written by other poets. I've got poems by William Carlos Williams, Poe, etc. on my blog, it's easy to do a search in the search box.
Today, it's my poetry day....if you have a passion for poetry the way I have....you will get your "moods", well, that's what I experience, a mood to read, or a mood to write. I've written a couple, just a couple...but wish I was more talented...where is Mrs Bothma now...or Mrs Wilson!! I loved poetry a lot during secondary school, but I hated all those discussions/analysing....how is it possible to tell exactly what the poet meant in his writing...any person can "read " what the poet wanted to say...according to me, it's like art...no right/wrong....and at school, you have to analyse the poem and get it RIGHT...I disagree! Anyway....I will never tell a child that his view about a poem is wrong. If I am in the mood to write a poem, the words just "flow"...sitting down and then thinking what to write......well, then I'm not in the "right" mood! Leave it till later then ....I associate poetry with flowers. The beauty....they inspire, they open your mind.... a flower resembles perfectness....as is poetry....poetry is your soul, it speaks your mind, your soul, what you feel inside, what you feel about society, what matters to you. Like an artist....a painting....what's inside you, reflects....it tells.....it speaks....I hope you enjoy these quotes I've posted here and click HEREto read more quotes and enjoy!
More DailyBible quotes here.
I remember those poetry and English lit classes of having to dissect and analyze literature to death...
ReplyDeleteNow, as a proper poet myself, I must say, the students will rarely get the poet's perspective "right". My own poetry could be interpreted in many ways I suppose, but most of them would not be "right" as you remember having to do it in school. As a teacher, from the poet's perspective, I would take it easy on my students and just let them have some fun.
Hi Angelle...that's what I do! and that's what i wanted teachers to do with us...when i was at school...but analysing one after the other (in the last 2 years of school)...not really my way of doing it...and if i teach poetry...my children really do have fun, as I remember myself how much I wanted to have fun...even if you are older...if poets want us to get it "right"...why not giving us the explanation right from the start and children won't "wonder" what it is all about...and waste children's time... i think it is unfair to give a poem in an exam paper and expect you to know exactly the "why's".... it's really frustrating...
ReplyDeleteTotally agreed...grading should be very tolerant when it comes to interpreting poetry...who knows, maybe the teacher doesn't even really get it right if the poet was alive to grade the teacher, heh?
ReplyDeleteOf course, it is a fact that some poetry, probably quite a bit of my own, would be a bit difficult for a young student to absorb if the meaning was spelled out for them. Some of that meaning can only be properly interpreted through life's experiences, which some students may never actually experience as the writer does, and mental maturity in life itself. Those are factors that any good teacher should consider when grading their students.
I have just finished reading Die Groot Avontuur in Afrikaans about evolution. So glad I can get a little more time to read poetry again.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a poet, I wrote a poem "Klavier" about how difficult I found the piano (left hand & left hand) and published it as one of my first few blog postings. Soon afterward somebody asked me: Is it just about the piano!?