English teachers - poetry

[justginger]

I have a professional accreditation exam that I'll have to sit at the end of the year and was wondering if the PS English instructors could offer a suggestion. A portion of the exam will be reading comprehension, including the common features and interpretation of poetry. Having done all of my higher studies in the sciences, I haven't actually analyzed a poem in about 10 years now.

Do any of you have favorite texts (books, articles, websites) that include analysis and discussion of symbolism, metaphors, etc? I'd like to look through a few sources to brush up on these things before I have to sit the test.

 

[dragonfly411]

I'm not a teacher, but I found Frances Mayes' Discovering Poetry to be enlightening!

 

[justginger]

I'm not a teacher, but I found Frances Mayes' Discovering Poetry to be enlightening!

Thanks, dragonfly, I'll have a look now!

 

[Smith1942]

Look up the following terms: blank verse, iambic pentameter, meter, rhyming couplets, and the sonnet form.

You could also reference the earliest forms of known verse which were originally oral poetry such as The Odyssey, the Iliad and the Aeneid, and talk about how verse grew organically from those early narrative poems to later provide a format for the recording of myths and legends, such as those of the early Middle ages like Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Pearl manuscripts and the Song of Roland (which is French). Then say that from there, modern forms of poetry were able to develop such as sonnets, blank verse, etc etc. This includes Shakespeare, sonnet king. When I say "modern", I just mean AD not BC.

If you show some context in this way, they'll be very impressed. Obviously you need to carry out your own research, but I'm just giving you some terms to throw in and some jargon to kickstart the poetry studies!

Be aware also that there is a debate about whether rhyming poetry is a good thing or not. Lots of snobbery in that debate!

It

depends

if you think

that

this

sort of thing could

be called

poetry.

Another debate going on in the field of English and grammar is whether a prescriptivist or a descriptivist approach is best. Look up the terms and throw them in if you can.

Good luck!