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… TO ENGAGING WITH POETRYReading and writing poems in the English classroom

This is the first of a series of articles in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom.

Introduction Poetry is something every pupil or student has a right to. It should be part of every young person’s experience at school: something which brings enjoyment in the widest sense, something which enhances life. If this seems a long way from the experiences of your Y10 and 11 students and, perhaps, from your own experience, read on. Please, read on, anyway!

Because of its part in high stakes testing at KS4, poetry has become a hurdle to be leapt over or scrambled across, rather than an intrinsic and rewarding part of English teaching and learning. However, the experience of a number of schools where a different attitude has been adopted suggests that a holistic approach works not only to engage students but also to improve exam results.

This approach means students becoming involved with poetry, becoming participants rather than onlookers. In his perceptive article ‘Enjoyment and Understanding? Poetry pedagogy for student engagement’ (in issue 14 of Teaching English), Daniel Xerri tackles the disjunction which has arisen between enjoyment and understanding, arguing for a ‘pedagogy for engagement’ … ‘in which students’ opinions matter as much as those of the teacher.’ What he does not make explicit is the need, in our view, for students to write poetry as well as to read and enjoy it.

We also believe that students’ engagement with poetry should begin in Y7 and build from there. Of course, for fortunate students, the building will be on good foundations from KS 1 and 2.

In the same issue of Teaching English, Peter Kahn, introduces a ‘new poetic form’, the ‘Golden Shovel’, in which students select a line from an existing poem. They then create their own poem using those words as the final words of their lines. This idea is very much in the spirit of these 39 Steps which are really thirty-nine ideas to engage students with poems through writing. These steps comprise a wide range of activities which aim to give everyone a way of getting started with their writing and some support in finding ways to continue and complete it.

Features: Literature

NATE | Teaching English | Issue 16 | 29

“The experience of a number of schools suggests that a holistic and integrated approach to poetry works not only to engage students but also to improve exam results.”

30 | NATE | Teaching English | Issue 16

39 Steps … to Engaging with Poetry – Active approaches for the English classroom

“These 39 steps comprise a wide range of activities which aim to give everyone a way of getting started with their writing and some support in finding ways to continue and complete it.”

Step 1Making a ListA shopping list, a ‘to do’ list – it’s such a familiar way to write and it can be the basis of a satisfying poem, too. It might be a list of personal likes or dislikes, or it could be a way of describing a person or an abstract concept.

Teaching TipsYou can start with a topic or start with a sense (or a series of senses), e.g.,’ I like the smell of…’. Something concrete usually works best such as ‘Back to school / First day of school’ or ‘Seaside Memories’. Encourage students to think of the small things that evoke memories, e.g. ‘sand between my toes’ rather than ‘the sandy beach’ or ‘the smell of socks in the changing room’ rather than ‘PE lessons’. They should try to accumulate a bank of ideas before trying to put them into any shape. Model the approach with a shared attempt or, if you dare, a personal interpretation of, say, ‘The Staff Room’.

Here’s another kind of pattern which might prove useful.

‘After Christmas’

Sorted: baubles, balls and stars, January appointmentsRemoved: batteries from lights, wreaths from doors, notes from walletRecycled: cards, wrapping paper, some bits of string, wishesCoiled: tinsel, tree light cables, heart-stringsBoxed: a golden bird, games, memoriesBinned: the poor poinsettia, ragged wrappings, my old address bookRemaining: candles, cake, goodwill

Rupert Brooke’s ‘These I Have Loved’ is in fact the middle section of his longer poem ‘The Great Lover’ but it can stand alone quite well.

These I have loved:White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust;Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crustOf friendly bread; and many-tasting food;Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soonSmooth away trouble; and the rough male kissOf blankets; grainy wood; live hair that isShining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keenUnpassioned beauty of a great machine;The benison of hot water; furs to touch;The good smell of old clothes; and other such-- The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,Hair’s fragrance, and the musty reek that lingersAbout dead leaves and last year’s ferns. . . .

The complete poem can be found here: www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/great-lover

Adrian Mitchell’s ‘I Like That Stuff’ is another list of personal choices and also provides an interesting template. www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/13623


Trevor Millum and Chris Warrenare the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee

Features: Literature

Step 2Freeze FrameLike a video when you have hit the pause button, many poems try to capture a moment – and this is something students can try also. It can be a moment from the past or the current lived experience.

Teaching TipsIf students are going to describe experience ‘now’, then the advice ‘observation, observation, observation’ is more apt than ever. Notes from all the senses need to be jotted down and then sifted and arranged. Poems of this type often end with a different kind of observation – a personal reflection about the writer’s feelings.

If students are writing about the past, one technique is the ‘blind writing’ idea which I have described and demonstrated many times. Ask students to recall an event that they remember vividly and then ‘freeze frame’ the memory at a crucial point. With their eyes closed they focus on that moment and write brief answers to questions you pose. Choose from the following/add others: where are you, who are you with, what are you wearing/what is the weather like/what is your pose (standing, lying, etc.,)/what are you holding or touching/what can you see/what can you hear/what (if anything) was said/what are your emotions? Students as young as seven can write perfectly well with their eyes shut. It also works with a word processor, font colour turned to white. The resulting words and phrases can form the final poem or become the basis for one.

There are a number of well-known poems that capture a moment in time and one of the most famous is Wordsworth’s ‘On Westminster Bridge’.

Earth has not anything to show more fair:Dull would he be of soul who could pass byA sight so touching in its majesty:This City now doth, like a garment, wearThe beauty of the morning; silent, bare,Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lieOpen unto the fields, and to the sky;All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.Never did sun more beautifully steepIn his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!The river glideth at his own sweet will:Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;And all that mighty heart is lying still!

‘Eden Rock’ by Charles Causley is another good example. It’s in one of the GCSE anthologies and can be found here: www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/great-lover

Adrian Mitchell’s ‘I Like That Stuff’ is another list of personal choices and also provides an interesting template. https://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/eden-rock

‘A Poet’s Guide to Britain’ edited by Owen Sheers has many examples and is a collection well worth having. Frances Cornford’s ‘The Coast: Norfolk’ (p310) is a short accessible poem capturing a moment in a few lines.

Step 3Top and TailThis pattern lets you create a meaning-sandwich. You introduce a word or phrase or line at the beginning of the piece, and you come back to the same word or phrase towards the end of the poem. Choruses work in a similar way.

Teaching TipsComing up with the ‘meaningful phrase’ will be a challenge for many students. As with any topic, a period of ‘free-association’ and jotting is useful. From a jumble of words and phrases something usually emerges. Sometimes it takes another student or the teacher to spot it. Having that starting point does then help the writer to get going; nor does the poem have to be long.

Alternatively, you might provide them with a selection of starting and finishing lines which they can use or adapt. An Index of First Lines can also be a rewarding area to scavenge. I have just looked at one at random and my eyes fell on: ‘The days have closed behind my back’ which seems an intriguing place to start (and end…).

In this example, Tennyson’s ‘Break, Break, Break’, the repeated phrase has extra resonance when encountered at the beginning of the final stanza, evoking echoes of heart-break.

Break, break, break,On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utterThe thoughts that arise in me.

O, well for the fisherman’s boy,That he shouts with his sister at play! O, well for the sailor lad,That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go onTo their haven under the hill;But O for the touch of a vanish’d hand,And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, breakAt the foot of thy crags, O Sea!But the tender grace of a day that is deadWill never come back to me.

‘I Shall Return’ by Claude McKay https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-shall-return/ uses the repeated phrase throughout the poem, which is also effective.

The villanelle form takes the meaning sandwich to a whole other level and it might be worth introducing students to Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ (or other examples) without the need to analyse.



The second instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores shape poems, memory poems, and poems with a final punch.


Step 4Taking ShapeThe shape of the words on the page, including the spaces left blank, always forms part of the impact or impression a poem makes. Sometimes the visual shape of the poem on the page reflects the meaning of the poem. This may be obvious if the subject of the poem is something physical, such as a worm or a butterfly.

Students usually enjoy creating shape poems about the concrete; it’s a greater challenge for them to interpret the abstract. A poem about something abstract requires a more subtle or indirect approach. However, you can begin with something quite physical, such as a balloon or a ball, and use it as a stepping off point for reflections on feelings – for example, being bouncy, cheerful and lively.

Teaching TipsAs you will notice from ‘Butterfly’, and indeed from the other examples, the fact that appearance is going to be a prominent feature should not detract from the importance of the words. It’s disappointing to find an attractive looking poem only to read it and discover something quite banal. So, the motivation, if you like, is the attractive presentation, but the words need to be attractive too.

In the writing, you are looking for quality, not quantity, though the writer does need as sufficient number of words to make the shape he or she has in mind. Some suggestions for starting points:

• scissors or other cutting implements: the shape is quite simple and the words can easily have deeper meanings (lost friendships, sharp remarks...)

• weather – sunshine, rain, storm, etc., – fits well with various emotions

• boats – especially simple sailing boats – connections with arriving, leaving, distances

Finally, a tip if you are using Word. You can create a watermark in a given shape which allows you to then write on top of it and make the words fit the outline relatively easily. Page layout > Watermark > Custom watermark and select a picture (a line drawing works well from clip art or Google images).

This example, ‘Earthworm’ by Leonard Clark (www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/junior/literacy-hour/year-3/shape-poems) is aimed at a Primary audience. However, it is a clever use of the technique and well worth sharing, along with other seemingly simple examples. There are some further examples on this site: https://qwiklit.com/2014/05/27/10-poems-that-look-like-what-they-mean/

It is a short step from words in the shape of something to calligraphic poems like this, written by a Japanese student many years ago:

“The final lines of a poem carry extra weight. The ending of any text is important but the brevity of most poems makes the ending proportionally more significant.”

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39 Steps … to Engaging with Poetry – Reading and writing poems in the English classroom


Step 5Final LinesThe final lines of a poem carry extra weight. The ending of any text is important but the brevity of most poems makes the ending proportionally more significant. Some poets use the final lines to underline or clarify the message of a poem, others may use it as a challenge, adding something which makes the reader think again. In yet other cases, the writer uses the final lines for comic effect, the equivalent of the punch line of a joke.

Teaching TipsThose looking for a subject could emulate Waley and use a list as the main content. The final lines do not have to be questions, they could be statements or even exclamations: ‘I never found out…’ , ‘I wonder…’ . Nor does the list have to be of things that have been lost: it could be any list which is then followed by a ‘But…’ – a list of favourite foods, for example, ending with ‘But I hate … chocolate fudge dessert’ (or equivalent).

Moving on from this approach, students could be encouraged to describe a scene from childhood (the past) and then finish it with a thought, looking back (the present). It might be a regret (‘I wish I had said sorry to…’) or relief (‘I’m glad I don’t have to ….. any more’) or a number of other emotions.

This example, ‘Song’ by Arthur Waley, provides a nice, straightforward example:

I had a bicycle called ‘Splendid’,A cricket bat called ‘The Rajah’,Eight box-kites and Scots soldiersWith kilts and red guns.I had an album of postmarks,A Longfellow with pictures,Corduroy trousers that creaked,A pencil with three colours.

Where do old things go to?Could a cricket bat be thrown away?Where do the years go to?

The Longfellow would presumably be ‘The Song of Hiawatha’. You can easily imagine these childhood possessions and the realisation that you don’t know where they are. ‘Whatever happened to…?’ The poet adds an extra weight with the last line which extends the thought into a more philosophical area.

It should not be difficult to find other examples of significant endings – the last lines of Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’, for example, or, to take a poem which may appeal to some students even if they don’t fully understand it, Yeats’ wonderful ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ which ends ‘Tread softly, for you tread on my dreams.’

Finally, here is a good example of a poem which uses the last line as a punch line:

‘Distracted, the Mother said to her Boy’ by Gregory Harrison (the second poem at http://inquiryunlimited.org/lit/poetry/child_fam_poems.html).

Step 6I RememberPoems about memories are common. The mark of a successful poem about a personal memory is that it will have impact and meaning for someone else, someone other than the person writing. The poem needs to be written with sufficient detail to create the picture (including the emotions) without over-burdening the reader. In essence, this is true of most writing! The feelings, the emotions can often be conveyed without stating them explicitly.

Teaching TipsA starting point for many students might be the ‘I

remember, I remember’ pattern, which does not have to continue ‘the house where I was born’ but could lead in other directions, for example, ‘the street where I used to play’, ‘the playground of the school’, ‘the journey to my…..’ and so on. Every student should be able to manage one stanza at least – and it sometimes works to combine stanzas from several different students.

Here we are focusing on memories from some time ago, from childhood or young adulthood. ‘Crossing the Loch’ by Kathleen Jamie is a good example and can be found in the AQA anthology ‘Moon on the Tides’. The first stanza is one long question, beginning ‘Remember how we…?’ and the writer goes on to say that she has forgotten certain things. This gives the poem an honesty, for we all have gaps of recall even in powerful memories.

Wordsworth’s ‘The Prelude’ is one of the best known poems of memory and, coincidentally, one of the most quoted extracts also concerns a boat on the water. Here is a short sample:

I dipped my oars into the silent lake, And as I rose upon the stroke, my boatWent heaving through the water like a swan;When, from behind that craggy steep till thenThe horizon’s bound, a huge peak, black and huge, As if with voluntary power instinct,Upreared its head.

Another helpful example is Thomas Hood’s melancholic little poem, ‘I Remember, I Remember’, which begins:

I remember, I remember, The house where I was born, The little window where the sun Came peeping in at morn; He never came a wink too soon, Nor brought too long a day, But now, I often wish the night Had borne my breath away!

The three poems mentioned include free verse (Jamie), blank verse (Wordsworth) and regular rhyming verse (Hood), which should provide evidence that each can be used effectively.



The third instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores observational poems, personification poems, and inclusive poems.


“Here we wish to encourage the penetrating glance that enables us to make a mental note of something seen or heard – which we can then attempt to recapture in words.”

Step 7Eyes that seeLooking and seeing is different to just looking. Sometimes we notice something which catches our attention in a particular way. The examples provided below are not intended to mirror the long and detailed observations and sketches made by the landscape painter or portrait artist. Here we wish to encourage the penetrating glance that enables us to make a mental note of something seen or heard – which we can then attempt to recapture in words.

Teaching TipsClearly, this kind of writing cannot be achieved without some observation. As a homework, simply ask students to pick a subject, preferably a seemingly ordinary, everyday one, and jot down five or six things about it. If a comparison occurs to them, so much the better but it is not essential, as we have seen. Brevity is the key here so when they come to write their poem, insist that it be short!

‘Nettles’, by Edward Thomas, is one of his best-known short poems which focuses on something usually overlooked or not thought worthy of attention.

Tall nettles cover up as they have done These many springs, the rusty harrow, the ploughLong worn out, and the roller made of stone:Only the elm butt tops the nettles now.

This corner of the farmyard I like mostAs well as any bloom upon a flowerI like the dust on the nettles, never lost Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.

The poem is not at all ‘flowery’: it tells what is there and how he feels about it. However, not all is as straightforward as might appear. Thomas has taken great care over the phrasing, the line length and the almost inconspicuous rhyme. Read aloud, your students may not notice that there is a rhyme. On the page, it is a little more obvious.

John Betjeman builds up his description of ‘A Bay in Anglesey’ with a simple list:

Here at my feet in the short cliff grassAre shells, dried bladderwrack, broken glass,Pale blue squills and yellow rock roses…

The following extracts are notable for the simple things observed – mud, TV aerials – and for the images which bring them vividly to life.

Television aerials, Chinese charactersIn the lower sky, wave gently in the smoke.

(from ‘On Roofs of Terry Street’ by Douglas Dunn)

This shore looks back to England: two hundred yardsOf tide, and the boats fratching on their leashesLike dogs that sniff a stranger.…The tide Turns and slides back, and banks of mudHeave up like waking sleepers pushing the sheets aside…

(from ‘Walney Island’ by Norman Nicholson)

Features: Creative English



Trevor Millum and Chris Warrenare the authors of Unlocking Poetry (NATE/Routledge 2012) and members of the NATE ICT Committee.

Step 8It’s PersonalPersonification, unlike some literary terms (onomatopoeia…), is easy to spell and says what it is. Students will have encountered the term way back in KS2 but may need reminding. It’s a device that is easy to recognise in prose and in poetry and one which most students enjoy using. In this Step, we are focusing on personifying the weather – a good example of how one can take something very familiar and make it fresh.

Teaching TipsA challenge for students is to find another type of weather to personify. For those who struggle to get started, push some ideas around as a class. ‘How can we personify rain? Tears are obvious but can we come up with something fresh – the clouds sowing seeds, perhaps? Sunshine is often seen as benevolent and can be personified as a loving mother, for instance, beaming, warming, caressing the earth. However, too much sunshine can be bad. The sun becomes a tyrant’ …and so on.

They do not have to create a long poem (see how short Sandburg’s is). One strong image is often enough, as many a haiku demonstrates. Alternatively, you can aim to create a class poem, combining a number of suggestions. This might lead to a two part poem with, for example, the first verse being positive about sun or rain or snow and the second verse beginning ‘But…’ and presenting the opposite point of view.

Here is the first third of ‘The Wind in a Frolic’ by William Howitt (1792–1879). The whole poem can be found online, for example here: www.bartleby.com/360/1/104.html

The wind one morning sprang up from sleep,Saying, “Now for a frolic! Now for a leap!Now for a mad-cap galloping chase!I’ll make a commotion in every place!”So it swept with a bustle right through a great town,Creaking the signs, and scattering downShutters; and whisking, with merciless squalls,Old women’s bonnets and gingerbread stalls:There never was heard a much lustier shout,As the apples and oranges tumbled about;And the urchins, that stand with their thievish eyesForever on watch, ran off each with a prize.Then away to the field it went blustering and humming,And the cattle all wondered whatever was coming;It plucked by the tails the grave matronly cows,And tossed the colts’ manes all over their brows,Till, offended at such a familiar salute,They all turned their backs and stood sulkily mute.

(This is a good poem to read aloud and, as it is about 60 lines long, can be divided up between the members of a class, two lines each. Two lines is not too much to learn and it makes a satisfying end to a lesson – especially if you can entice a visitor into the room – to go through the whole thing without looking at the words. You need to practice…)

James Stephens’ ‘The Wind’ has a less playful feel:

The wind stood up and gave a shout.He whistled on his fingers andKicked the withered leaves aboutAnd thumped the branches with his handAnd said he’d kill and kill and kill,And so he will! And so he will!

Another type of weather that lends itself to personification is fog, as in Carl Sandburg’s poem which begins ‘The fog comes/on little cat feet’.

Step 9We beginIt is a simple idea to take a word which is unusual to find at the start of a poem and, well, use it to begin a poem. What word could be simpler than ‘We’? Yet there are very few poems which start that way as a browse through an Index of First Lines will reveal. So, it’s a challenge – but one which we can make more approachable by offering a model: ‘We are the Music Makers’ by Arthur O’Shaughnessy, originally simply titled ‘Ode’.

Teaching TipsRegardless of how much of the poem you decide to share with the class, focus on the first two lines and ask students to come up with variants of their own. You might start the ball rolling with something like

We are the setters of tests / We are the markers of books

They could write from their own perspectives (‘We are the kickers of footballs…) or from those of other people or even animals (‘We are the chasers of cats…’). They should aim for at least four lines and perhaps try to write from at least two different viewpoints. O’Shaughnessy’ poem has a very distinct rhyme but a verse on this theme will be effective without. The underlying beat, though, is something they should notice and try to incorporate.

The first two lines are quite famous; the rest of the poem less so. Here is the first stanza:

We are the music makers,And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,And sitting by desolate streams;—

World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakersOf the world for ever, it seems.

It is also, I believe, the origin of the term ‘movers and shakers’. The poem can be found on a number of sites, though often only the first three stanzas are reproduced, as here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54933/odeThe complete ‘Ode’: en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ode_(O%27Shaughnessy)

One may also be reminded of the speech from Henry V which does not, however begin with this extract.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;For he to-day that sheds his blood with meShall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,This day shall gentle his condition:And gentlemen in England now a-bedShall think themselves accursed they were not here,And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaksThat fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.



The fourth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores rhyme, characterisation and form.


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“Form echo poems borrow the structure and some of the words from other examples of writing, echo or copy some of their features, but aim to do something new. They are sometimes quite funny, sometimes ironic, sometimes deadly serious.”

Step 10Form EchoForm echo poems borrow the structure and some of the words from other examples of writing, echo or copy some of their features, but aim to do something new. So you may write a poem in the form of a recipe, or a diary entry, or an obituary, or a Lonely Hearts letter and so on.

They are sometimes quite funny, sometimes ironic, sometimes deadly serious. Readers enjoy spotting where the form comes from and that adds to the pleasure they get out of the poem.

Of course, style, mode and register will be explored further in English Language studies. Form Echo allows student to play with the ideas without getting bogged down in terminology.

Teaching TipsYou could ask the class to write a poem that echoes the form of menu, an invitation to a party or a recipe. But the recipe might be the perfect recipe for romance (nothing to do with food, but echoing the style used by recipe writers). Do you see the idea? What might be the recipe for War or a recipe for Peace? Form echo poems are amazingly good fun to write, especially if you can think of a good twist.

Examples include Edwin Morgan: “Little Mr Lonely Hearts”, and Peter Porter: “Your Attention Please”. Here’s a 1940s Glenn Miller hit song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e42mD7OW4U

Moonlight CocktailCouple of jiggers of moonlightAnd add a starPour in the blue of a June night And one guitarMix in a couple of dreamersAnd there you are:Lovers hail the moonlight cocktail

Now add a couple of flowers,A drop of dew;Stir for a couple of hoursTill dreams come true;As to the number of kisses It’s up to you -Moonlight cocktails need a few!

Cool it in the summer breeze;Serve it in the starlightUnderneath the trees;You’ll discover tricks like theseAre sure to make Your moonlight cocktail please

Follow the simple directionsAnd they will bringLife of another complexionWhere you’ll be keen;You’ll awake in the morningAnd start to sing:Moonlight cocktails are the thing!

Writing SuggestionsWhy not try echoing the form of these types of writing?

• A menu

• A recipe

• A government document

• An article from a tabloid newspaper

• Instructions for a game

• A problem page letter – or the reply to one

• Book cover blurb

• Book review

• Safety warnings

• A shopping list

• Adverts of one kind or another

• Writing on gravestones or other memorials




Step 11MentriloquismVentriloquism is the art of throwing the voice. A ventriloquist can make a puppet seem as though it’s alive and talking.

Mentriloquism is a made-up word – it means the art of throwing the mind. A mentriloquist imagines what someone else is thinking and makes that person come alive as fully believable. Or picks an inanimate object and makes it talk.

It’s a very common trick with dramatists, who have to create a great range of characters, some of them very, very different from the writer.

Mentriloquism is popular in poetry too. You invent characters, concentrating on their thoughts and emotions, and then make them say or do things in line with the personality you’ve created. It isn’t exactly like a play (though it can be very dramatic) because in a poem you’re sometimes trying to say something extra – make a point or argue an idea that isn’t said easily without poetry.

These poems usually focus on one character.

Teaching TipsFind as many examples as you can and enjoy them with the class. Give students a free rein in inventing characters or characteristics but explain that there’s only one rule – don’t completely make up the details. Everything invented should be based on something they’ve felt themselves or seen in other people. They can distort it or exaggerate it, but it still needs to be based on something real. If this rule is not kept, it’ll be like watching a useless ventriloquist – the magic just doesn’t happen. For a poem of this type to work, the audience has to believe in the character. The trick to creating ‘believability’ is to keep the connections with reality, even if they are stretched a long way!

Some examples:

Duffy: Education for Leisure; Stealing Armitage: HitcherBrowning: His Last Duchess Plath: The Mirror

Writing SuggestionsInvent a character very different from yourself.

• Rich or poor

• Good or evil

• Old or young

• Troubled or carefree

• Male or female

Take an everyday object and give it a voice. For instance:

• a crushed beer can

• an angle-poise lamp

• a pair of scissors

• a reel of sticky tape

Step 12Clever PatternsThis is an activity suitable for students in Y7 or 8, though the ideas could be applied elsewhere.

If they think about it at all, students tend to view the organisation of poems as words in ragged lines or in neat couplets or four line verses. However, the variety of forms used by poets is something worth exploring – and enjoying.

Teaching TipsHave some anthologies or, if there is internet access, a site such as Poem Hunter available, so that students can research different verse patterns. There might be a competition for those who can come up with the most unusual. Now ask them to write a poem of at least two verses using a specific pattern of their own invention. It may include a rhyme scheme but does not have to: rhythm / syllable count can be sufficient to define a pattern. If they are stuck for a topic, suggest focusing on another creature – hedgehog, mouse, caterpillar, moth…

The example here, ‘The Snail’, manages to employ an unusual pattern. The rhyme scheme incorporates three successive rhymes as well as a rhyme which is echoed in the preceding or succeeding verse. Some of the words (betides, chattels) might need explaining. Word order is also something to look at: verbs (for instance) moved to the end of lines to allow a rhyme can sometimes confuse readers and is a trick used less often by contemporary writers.

To grass, or leaf, or fruit, or wall,The snail sticks close, nor fears to fall,As if he grew there, house and allTogether.

Within that house secure he hides,When danger imminent betides Of storm, or other harm besidesOf weather.

Give but his horns the slightest touch,His self-collecting power is such,He shrinks into his house, with muchDispleasure.

Where’er he dwells, he dwells alone,Except himself has chattels none,Well satisfied to be his ownWhole treasure.

Thus, hermit-like, his life he leads,Nor partner of his banquet needs,And if he meets one, only feeds The faster.

Who seeks him must be worse than blind,(He and his house are so combined,)If, finding it, he fails to findIts master.

William Cowper (pronounced Cooper)



The fifth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores observations, negatives and powerful phrases.


Step 14Just Say NoA Just Say No poem defines things through negatives. Instead of saying what a thing IS, you say what it is NOT. Simple as that. This can lead to quite complicated and interesting pieces of writing.

Writing SuggestionsImagine, like Larkin, that someone has got into your head. First say what that person would NOT find. This could reveal what the person is expecting to find – their prejudices or assumptions about you. You could finish the poem by say what’s really there, and it could be startling or strange.

Step 13Life DrawingLife drawing poems mean literally that. They are not done from memory. Writers sit in front of the object, or experience the feelings and sensations, as they write. It means picking up a notebook and going out to look at a river if we want to write a poem about a river.

Look. Listen. Absorb all the sensation you can. Think hard. Then write. Take down notes, words, or phrases and let the ideas flow. Keep writing.

Extracts from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ notebook…the moon outside was roughing the lake with silver and dinting and tooling it with sparkling holes.

DAY bright. Sea calm, with little walking wavelets

Looking down into the thick ice of our pond I found the imprisoned air-bubbles nothing at random but starting from centres and in particular one most beautifully regular white brush of them, each spur of it a curving string of beaded and diminishing bubbles.

FIRST fine; then on the road a thunderstorm with hard rain, the thunder musical and like gongs and rolling in great floors of sound.

DROPS of rain hanging on rails etc. seen with only the lower rim lighted like nails (of fingers).

Teaching TipsIf it isn’t feasible to take a class out into the field to write, you may wish to set this task as a homework challenge. Perhaps a visit to a favourite place. But the key thing is that the writing needs to be done there, and not recalled in tranquillity after the event. Notebook and pen, or Dictaphone, essential equipment.

Example: Philip Larkin – ‘If My Darling’

If My Darling (extract)

If my darling were once to decideNot to stop at my eyes,But to jump, like Alice, with floating skirt into my head,

She would find no table and chairs,No mahogany claw-footed sideboards,No undisturbed embers;

The tantalus would not be filled, nor the fender-seat cosy,Nor the shelves stuffed with small-printed books for the Sabbath,Nor the butler bibulous, the housemaids lazy:

She would find herself looped with the creep of varying light,Monkey-brown, fish grey, a string of infected circlesLoitering like bullies, about to coagulate; …

Examples include:

• Hopkins: ‘The Windhover’, or any sample from his notebooks (the description of the bubbling brook is especially good.)

• Lawrence: plenty of examples – e.g., Mosquito

• Larkin: ‘Whitsun Weddings’

Teaching TipsAs an introduction, perhaps, play this game: describe a mystery object with one rule – you can’t say anywhere what the object is directly; you just describe what it is not like. Can your audience guess the identity of the object?

Read the poem. Put emphasis on the argument, as you read it, stressing “not” “no” and “nor”, then stress “would find”, “she would also”. Ask class to investigate the basic structure of the poem – what is it about? Draw as many responses as you can. Finally try to direct the attention to:

a) the images and what they imply

b) the positive and negative definitions of personality, based on misguided expectations

Ask the class to write a poem about another person entering their minds – mother, brother, sister, beloved, father etc. The first part of the poem will be about what that person will not find, the second part will be about what the person will find (and some things in the dream-like world of the mind will be distinctly strange! Surrealist art could be used here.)

Stress that the approach should be through images and metaphors (look at the original).

Writing SuggestionsGo out and sit under a tree. Look very, very carefully at it. What’s the bark like? What is its colour? What sound is it making, if any (trees can be very noisy in the wind)? Record little incidents (a leaf suddenly falls; a bird, disturbed, flies off in a panic; a fly lands on your notebook). All that directly observed writing is part of life-drawing.

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Step 15Setting a JewelA lovely way to write spin-off poems from almost any text you are studying. The technique goes like this: choose an especially numinous phrase (the jewel) from a poem or other text and put it into a poem of your own (the setting). The subject of your new poem can be completely different from the original.

Writing SuggestionsYou don’t need to take anything more from the original poem than the special phrase you have chosen, but you may, like me, want to copy the way that the poet used the phrase, but with words of your own. It’s open to you!

Example: Powerful phrases can be found in a wide range of texts and what strikes one person as special may leave someone else indifferent. It’s a personal choice. For illustration purposes, I have chosen a phrase from ‘Hurricane Hits England’ by Grace Nichols.

Hurricane Hits England (extract)What is the meaning of treesFalling heavy as whalesTheir crusted rootsTheir cratered graves?

The jewel in this example is ‘What is the meaning of trees’. Below I use the same word-patterns as the poet, but alter the subject. I marked with a blue and yellow highlighter the patterns I wanted to recreate in my setting:

What is the meaning of fliesbuzzing frantic as beestheir furry legstheir feverish wings?

What is the meaning of cloudssailing white as sheepTheir fluffy locks Their fleecy loneliness?

Teaching TipsSometimes when we read a text a word or a phrase jumps out and resonates very strongly. We can’t always explain why the words are attractive. They just are. This technique celebrates, and allows focus on, these special, almost magical verbal encounters.

A way into it might be to choose a poem where there are a number of lovely turns of phrase, then ask students in pairs to identify the ones they especially like. A gentle discussion of ‘why?’ could follow, always allowing the response that it cannot be explained. Then each student takes their chosen phrase and writes a poem inspired by it, and including it.



Gaerard Manley Hopkins

Grace Nichols

Philip Larkin


The sixth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores questions and answers, compound words, and ‘plus and minus’ lists.



Step 16Compound wordsCompound words are created when two words are joined together to do a new job. They are most commonly joined by a hyphen, but sometimes poets decide to hide the join, and they spell the two words as one long new word. It’s like marrying words! You can generate hundreds of new words this way. Simply grab two unsuspecting partners, put them together, and bingo, they give birth to a whole new idea, with both parents’ genes mixed in.

Compound words team up, like a pair of yoked oxen, to do the work you want them to. Sometimes the words don’t get on with each other, like partners in an unhappy marriage, and then sparks fly. Compounds like this are sometimes oxymorons, where the meanings of the words fight and you have a mental paradox to deal with – ‘the sharp-soft grass’.

Making compound words is addictive and fun. Some well-known poets and writers are especially fond of them. You can spot thousands of compounds in Shakespeare and Dickens. GM Hopkins, Ted Hughes and James Joyce were all addicts too.

Writing SuggestionsDo a bit of research. Make a list of compound words:

a) in everyday use

b) in poetry you are studying

What features do they have in common? What word-classes are used to create the most common compound words? Look at the Hopkins poem and analyse these.

Try loading a large chunk of text into a Word document (a novel, grabbed from the Internet?) and then search for the hyphens. Some will be in the middle of compound words. There isn’t an easy way to search for compounds that are spelled as one word, except careful reading. Try some of the patterns you have found through your research. For instance, you may want to experiment with NounAdjective compound words, or NounNouns.

When you make a compound word, you can decide what work it will do. You can force it to do the job of the main word classes – Verb, Noun, Adjective. For example, when Hopkins uses the phrase ‘horseback brown’ he uses a common compound (Noun+Noun=horse+back=horseback) to define the exact colour of the stream. Brilliant!

Now try using compound words in a poem of your own.

Teaching TipsA good place to start might be with oxymorons, since they are great fun to create, and the word itself has amusing appeal. Oxymorons show the power of paradox and opposites; they snap the mind from one pole to the other, making a spark jump across the terminals with a sudden jolt of energy.

As with the Hopkins example, a piece of creative writing describing a scene from nature – an insect, or a stream, or an ancient tree – gives plenty of scope for inventive uses of language, and the generation of brand-new compound words!

Or you could use the James Joyce example – a string of new compound words to describe a single person or thing.

Examples:

‘Inversnaid’ – Gerard Manley Hopkins

This darksome burn, horseback brown,His rollrock highroad roaring down,In coop and in comb the fleece of his foamFlutes and low to the lake falls home.

A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróthTurns and twindles over the brothOf a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.

Degged with dew, dappled with dewAre the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

What would the world be, once bereftOf wet and of wilderness? Let them be left,O let them be left, wildness and wet;Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Ulysses – James Joyce. Here Joyce describes a giant:

The figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower was that of a broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed redhaired freelyfreckled shaggybearded widemouthed largenosed longheaded deepvoiced barekneed brawnyhanded hairylegged ruddyfaced sinewyarmed hero.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

James Joyce

Features: Creative Reading


Step 18Plus and MinusPoems that weigh up the positives and negatives of something.

Writing SuggestionsTry using the same model as the example:

• Write a poem about someone’s actions

• 4 lines per verse, all starting with the word ‘and’

• Alternate lines rhyme

• Two or three positive comments with a last line that suggests something negative.

Or you could try two or three negative actions with one redeeming positive.

Example:

‘Poem’ – Simon Armitage (an extract)

And if it snowed and snow covered the driveHe took a spade and tossed it to one side.And always tucked his daughter up at nightAnd slippered her the one time that she lied.And every week he tipped up half his wage.And what he didn’t spend each week he savedAnd praised his wife for every meal she madeAnd once, for laughing, punched her in the face.

Teaching TipsThe model example talks about a man’s role as a father, husband and son. It has the feel of an honest appraisal of a life, perhaps at a funeral – the theme being ‘everyone has a mixed record; no one is perfect.’

Students could write about sportsmen and women, politicians, singers, or celebrities. They could point up the flaws in otherwise excellent careers. Or they could tackle a mother’s record. Or perhaps the redeeming good actions in a life of crime. They could perhaps take the perspective of looking back on a life, listing good deeds and bad, as if remembering someone who has gone.



Step 17Question and AnswerA poem that asks itself a series of questions and then answers them. A poem where the poem has a conversation with itself.

Writing SuggestionsIn the Levertov example there are six numbered questions, followed by six numbered answers. This is an excellent model to follow. Once you get the idea, you might want to vary the pattern, but to begin with try a numbered set of questions, and then a set of answers to your own questions.

You may want to imagine a conversation with a reporter (as in ‘What Were They Like’), so that the questions are in one voice and the answers in another character’s voice. Perhaps the questioner doesn’t really know and the answerer knows more than he or she is saying. In the Shakespeare example the questions and answers are all inside Juliet and explore her deep fears.

Imagine a visitor from another planet were to ask six questions about Earth. What would be the answers? Or imagine an Interview with someone who doesn’t know you or who has misguided ideas about you.

Teaching Tips• The Shakespeare extract shows the power of this form to explore internal

dialogue.

• The questions can be about some universal worry, or something deeply personal.

• Once writers have generated the questions, the answers will flow.

Examples:

‘What Were They Like’, Denise Levertov

Romeo and Juliet, Act 4, Scene 3 – where Juliet contemplates drinking the potion

In Act 4, Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet will do anything to avoid the arranged marriage, set for the following day. She’s desperate to the point of suicide. Friar Lawrence has come up with a plan involving a sleeping potion. She asks herself a series of questions. Is she being tricked? Is the potion really a poison? She tries to answer the questions to help herself decide, and to calm her nerves

What if this mixture do not work at all?Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there.[Laying down her dagger]What if it be a poison, which the friarSubtly hath ministered to have me dead,Lest in this marriage he should be dishonoured,Because he married me before to Romeo?I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,For he hath still been tried a holy man.How if, when I am laid into the tomb,I wake before the time that RomeoCome to redeem me? there’s a fearful point!Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?


The seventh instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores poems with a twist, poems with an unusual perspective, and poems that exploit compressed expression.


Features: English – The Big Picture


Step 19DistillationOne of the ways of looking at poetry is to see it as a compressed form of expression, in which every word that is not absolutely necessary has been squeezed out. Thinking of the poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins, you can see where this might lead: sometimes a compression so severe that it is hard to comprehend. Nevertheless, the idea of distilling sentences or thoughts until they become more focused and intense is a useful way of talking about poems with students, especially if they don’t ‘get’ poetry.

Teaching tipsSet students a homework task to observe an animal, whether it be a pet, a bird in the garden or even an insect on the window pane. They should write down everything they see or hear: what it looks like, what it does, how it moves, what it reminds them of… These notes are to be brought back and written up into a short descriptive passage. These descriptions can be shared in groups with group members underlining or highlighting phrases they like. The descriptions are then returned to their authors to whom it is suggested they remove all the words that have not been highlighted and see what is left. Further small edits can be made but the aim should be concision. Arrange each phrase on a new line and the result will almost certainly be a poem.

This activity should not only produce some interesting writing but act as an eye-opener with regard to the nature of poetry. Many poems appear to have gone through such a process, whether literally or in the mind of the poet. Think of Edward Thomas’s ‘Tall Nettles’ for example.

ExampleHere’s an example from a Y9 student:

My catis as vain as a film star

her green eyes shinelike emeralds

she dribbles in contentmentlazy as a cow

but graceful as a ballerinashe’s a tightrope walker

on padded pawsmy furry

fat cat

You can see how the poem has been distilled from a much longer description:

My cat is as vain as a film star or a queen like Cleopatra. She purrs like she has an engine deep down in her throat or her chest and her evil green eyes shine in her face like emeralds. She meows pathetically and gets ignored or fed. But later behind her half-closed eyelids she dribbles in contentment. She sleeps all day, lazy as a cow but I suppose she’s as gentle and as graceful as a ballerina when she wants to be. When she walks along the wall it’s as if she’s a tightrope walker on padded paws. When she’s asleep she’s just like any other furry fat cat.

Writing SuggestionsIn addition to the approach described above, students could take an existing passage of fiction or non-fiction and select the phrases that appeal to them, copying them out and arranging them as they think most effective. The description of the Red Room from Jane Eyre would be one powerful passage to use. Do not exclude non-fiction. Travel books and even cookery books can provide some rich material!


Step 20Life seen from another anglePoems can offer a way of looking at life from an unusual perspective. For example, from the point of view of an animal or an outsider. The ultimate outsider is the alien or a robot.

Writing SuggestionsStudents generally find it enjoyable to write from the point of view of an animal but may need help in order to give the poem structure. ‘A day in the life of…’ or ‘Five things I dislike about my human’ provide plenty of opportunities for an unusual take on life and for humour, of course. Humour would be replaced by serious message if the animal in question was an endangered one, for instance. Alternatively, they might like to consider themselves robots. ‘Beep beep / I wake / voice calls / I eat’ – and so on through a school day with bells determining one’s actions.

ExamplesCraig Raine’s ‘A Martian Sends a Postcard Home’ is one of the most well-known and can easily be found on-line. It begins:

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wingsand some are treasured for their markings --

they cause the eyes to meltor the body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, butsometimes they perch on the hand.

The poem becomes a series of metaphors to unravel or, really, riddles to solve. Students shouldn’t leave it at that, though. Get them to discuss how successful they think the comparisons are. Are some better thought out than others? (‘…cause the eyes to melt’ might be deemed effective whereas ‘snores’ might be questioned in the lines ‘a haunted apparatus sleeps, / that snores when you pick it up.’) The next stage would be to invent some descriptions of their own. For example, ‘Bright metal capsules eat their owners and hurry along dry river beds’.

The poem that begins ‘Now I lay me down to sleep, / The king-size bed is soft and deep... / I sleep right in the centre groove / My human can hardly move!’ is variously titled ‘A Cat’s Prayer’ and ‘A Dog’s Prayer’. Either way, it sees the world from the point of view of an animal. Can students find others written from an animal’s point of view?

Teaching TipsUse this opportunity to discuss the notion of persona. We all tend to assume that, if written in the first person, the voice of the poem is the voice of the poet and this, of course, is often not the case. The use of a Martian voice, or a dog’s voice makes it clear that the poet can write from any viewpoint. Some poems are not so obvious, especially when the poet is employing irony. If appropriate, seek out and discuss one or two of these.


Features: English – The Big Picture


Step 21A Bit of a TwistThese poems seem to be going in one direction and then at the end, there’s a twist, something unexpected.

Examples:– from the sublime to the ridiculous:

‘Remember’ – Christina RossettiRemember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.Remember me when no more, day by day,

You tell me of our future that you planned:Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:For if the darkness and corruption leaveA vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smileThan that you should remember and be sad.

Teaching TipsTake any of the poems mentioned above and read them aloud until the point where the poem changes. Alternatively give students a copy with the last lines omitted. In each case ask how they think the poem might be finished. They could try writing a few lines or simply suggest the kind of ending.

Rossetti’s poem seems to be heading in an obvious direction and then in the last few lines, she switches, with powerful effect.

‘My Seven Days of Dieting’ employs a switch for comic effect, which is a more common use of the technique.

In ‘My Seven Days of Dieting’, the last verse is also a relief from the repetition of the previous ones. (It’s a poem which is best read aloud as there needs to be variation through the verses.) (See also Leigh Hunt’s ‘Abou Ben Adhem’ and Louis Macneice’s ‘Prayer Before Birth’.)

Writing SuggestionsTo create a poem with a twist at the end, try this simple pattern, which can be applied to almost any topic, for example, Winter. ‘I hate the way the cold nips at my toes; / I hate the way I can’t see the ball at night …’ and so on until ‘But I love the cosy evening firelight.’ Or the reverse, of course.

Or the description of a person. ‘X was no good at …, X couldn’t ever …’ and so on until ‘But X saved my cat from next door’s dog.’ This simple form can be used with serious effect to tackle stereotypes, for instance.

‘My Seven Days of Dieting’On the first day of dietingThe only thing I ateWas a piece of crispy rye bread

…

On the sixth day of dietingThe only things I ateWere 6 grated carrots5 lettuce leaves4 chopped-up walnuts3 natural yoghurts2 tubs of coleslawand a piece of crispy rye bread

On the seventh day of dietingThe only things I ateWere 7 choc-chip cookies6 white bread sarnies5 jam doughnuts4 English muffins3 Eccles cakes2 chip buttiesand no bloody crispy rye bread.

Christina Rossetti.

Craig Raine.



The eighth instalment of this series, in which Trevor Millum and Chris Warren suggest 39 enjoyable approaches to poetry in the English classroom, explores parodies and homages, settings, and narratives.

Reviews and Columns


Step 23PlacesPeople and places, what else is there to write about? Feelings, perhaps? But they don’t exist without people … Discuss.

The poetry of place is a huge subject and one specifically covered in many a GCSE Anthology. From ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ to ‘Mametz Wood’, places are central to poets’ inspiration. In some cases the poem will simply be an evocation of a special place, in others it will serve as a springboard to other things, memories being the most prevalent.

Teaching TipsThere is plenty to discover in this outwardly straightforward poem but, to begin, we suggest concentrating on how place and human feelings interact.

Ask students to mark all of the references to weather and place and list them. Now organise them in order of how positive or negative they seem. What do we make of the ‘little cloud that cloaked us’ or ‘a dull misfeatured stain’, both of which are replaced by a burst of sunshine? Are we reading too much into these phrases simply because we know what happened with Thomas and Emma? The story of Hardy and his wife Emma is well documented and the significance of Beeny Cliff can easily be researched – but first, see what students make of the poem without knowing the context.

Step 22Parodies and HomagesA parody generally uses a well-known poem as the basis for a humorous imitation, though sometimes the humour has a serious, usually satirical, intention. A poem written as a homage to an existing poem recognises the importance of the original and pays tribute to it through its employment as an inspiration: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery in this case. The original may be used as a starting point or referenced throughout the parody or homage. Usually the form sticks closely to the original in order for the comparison to be clear and, of course, if the reader or listener is not familiar with the original, the point is pretty much lost!

Teaching TipsReading a parody of a well-known poem can often provide an insight into the original but writing one is far more effective. The original needs to be studied closely in order for an imitation to be written and this can be an engaging way to bring students closer to a text. Do not worry that the poem beginning ‘Kevin, Kevin, turning right/on the highway late at night’ (as written by a Y10 student) is somehow going to devalue the original. Many serious interests begin in a light-hearted way.

ExampleThomas Hardy frequently uses the significance of a place to remind him of past lives and lost loves.

Beeny Cliff O the opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea,

And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free –

The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me.

The pale mews plained below us, and the waves seemed far away

In a nether sky, engrossed in saying their ceaseless babbling say,

As we laughed light-heartedly aloft on that clear-sunned March day.

A little cloud then cloaked us, and there flew an irised rain,

And the Atlantic dyed its levels with a dull misfeatured stain,

And then the sun burst out again, and purples prinked the main.

Still in all its chasmal beauty bulks old Beeny to the sky,

And shall she and I not go there once again now March is nigh,

And the sweet things said in that March say anew there by and by?

What if still in chasmal beauty looms that wild weird western shore,

The woman now is – elsewhere – whom the ambling pony bore,

And nor knows nor cares for Beeny, and will laugh there nevermore.

ExamplesHere’s the first stanza of Frost’s well-known poem and Henry Beard’s parody of it:

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningWhose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

Whose woods these are I think I know

Sitting by the Fire on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost’s CatWhose chair this is I think I know.

He’s somewhere in the forest though;

He will not see me sitting here

A place I’m not supposed to go.

Notice how the parody uses the same form (line length, rhythm and rhyme scheme – and sometimes the exact same rhymes). The collection, Poetry for Cats, contains a masterful range of parodies from Chaucer to Dylan Thomas

Writing SuggestionsAsk students to recall a place that has significance for them. Let them spend a few minutes with eyes closed, remembering it. Get them to jot down what they recall in terms of the physical aspects of the place, then anything of significance that took place there and finally their feelings about it now. This could be worked into a poem but might remain as prose, as disjointed as a stream of consciousness.

Writing SuggestionsThe writing of a parody is not easy, though. It may well be that you need to provide some starting lines or ideas:

‘My owners kept me from terriers who were tough’

‘Eurostar of Gare du Nord from distant Paris/Gliding home to London under the sea/With a cargo of...’

‘Twas the day before term ends, when all through the school/Not a pupil was stirring, on chair or on stool.’

‘Shall I compare thee to a pot of tea?’

‘Twas Thursday and the bottom set/Did gyre and gimble in the gym./All mimsy was Miss Borogrove/And the Head of Maths was grim.’

Have fun!

39 Steps to Engaging with Poetry


Step 24Telling a StoryNarrative poetry has been immensely popular throughout the ages, whether in the form of oral retelling or in written verse. When Longfellow’s ‘Evangeline’ was published in 1847 it sold an amazing 36,000 copies. It’s hard to think of any poem like that today, at least in English. It’s not that we don’t read anymore: novels are as popular as ever, it’s just that the taste for reading stories in verse form has died out. The exception to this is poetry for younger readers where ‘The Highwayman’, ‘The Song of Hiawatha’ and similar poems are still read or listened to with enjoyment.

Teaching TipsShare some narrative poems, or extracts, with students. Discuss what, if anything, they have in common besides the fact of telling a story. Do narrative poems tend to tell the same kinds of stories? What about form: ballads and older narrative poems usually have a very regular form, with a definite rhythm and a rhyme pattern. Why was this? Notice any exceptions, such as ‘The Prelude’ and ‘Paradise Lost’.

ExamplesOne of the shorter narrative poems you may have come across is ‘Out, Out’ by Robert Frost. Other exam favourites include ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Tennyson, Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and extracts from Wordsworth’s ‘The Prelude’. Then there’s ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe’, ‘Lamia’ and ‘The Eve of St. Agnes’ by John Keats, and Burns’ ‘Tam o’ Shanter’. Plus any of ‘The Canterbury Tales’ of course. Many stories, such as ‘Sir Patrick Spens’ are told in ballad form, which would originally have been sung. For some lighter examples, don’t forget Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ and ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’.

Writing suggestionsIt might seem a daunting task to write a story in the form of a poem. However, it can be liberating for students who struggle with orthodox sentences and conventional punctuation to write in free verse. Try to find a copy of one or two of these to demonstrate the possibilities:

• ‘Switch on the Night’ by Ray Bradbury

• ‘The Story of Canobie Dick’ by Libby Houston

• ‘Jonah and the Whale’ by Gareth Owen

• ‘Annabel and the Witches’ by Mick Gowar

• ‘Mary Celeste’ by Judith Nicholls

Don’t discount form altogether. A class of Yr 4 pupils wrote a retelling of the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops in ballad form. Each group of four or five pupils took a bit of the story and created one or two four-line verses which rhymed and scanned. It began:

Some sailors coming back from war

Decided they needed to eat.

They saw an island approaching close

And started to imagine fresh meat.

The sailors landed on an island.

They were in a hungry mood.

They walked round and found a cave

And in the cave they found some food.

The result may be simple in content but the learning which accompanies the creation, discussion and editing makes the project worth undertaking for its own sake, to say nothing of the feelings of achievement when the result is shared beyond one classroom.


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Robert Frost

Thomas Hardy

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