One cannot exist without the other, yet the sound of words used within a work of poetry is often taken for granted. It has a direct relationship with meaning. If, as Hass states, "the material of poetry is language.," then the spirit of a piece of poetry must be sound (Hass, 119). Robert Hass examined the interconnectivity between words and sound. Reading poetry aloud makes one consciously aware of sound. Prosody is the study of versification - the orally delivered arrangement of acoustic patterns. Limericks and nursery rhymes, for example, allow you to easily hear their form. Many forms do lend themselves to a visual acquisition of structure, such as a poem written in quatrains. For students, the word form conjures thoughts of tangible and visible things, such as a book, tree, or desk. Many of Shakespeare's plays could be categorized this way. Dramatic poetry can often be in play or story form if either of those contains poetic elements, such as the use of rhyme or meter. Dramatic poetry is the third category however, it arguably differs little from narrative poetry. Ballads are much shorter than epics, and focus on one particular person. Epics are long poems that unveil heroic deeds. Examples of poems in this category are epics and ballads. Such poems are generally short and structured, like tanka or haiku. Lyrical poetry is the category in which most poetry falls. Poetry falls into three categories: lyrical, narrative, and dramatic. Poetry is the thoughtful combination of words supported by structural components that enhance the overall effectiveness of the work. A wide variety of poems written by poets from all walks of life can be explored to help reach these students, whereas other forms of literature pose significant time constraints and make it difficult to reach all ethnic and social groups. Most importantly, my large student base contains a constantly expanding spectrum of cultures and an even larger array of learning styles. In addition, the characteristic briefness of poetry allows for a variety of ideas to be explored within a short timeframe. If you're not used to writing poetry, you're not aware of it" (Divakaruni, 5). I'm very aware of the rhythm of prose - which is very different from poetry, but it is certainly there. In Writer's Ask, a periodical that publishes interviews of writers about writing, author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni commented on the crossover from poetry to prose: "oetry.makes me more sensitive to language, particularly to the sound of words. Studying the elements of sound in poetry can help students become more effective writers in all genres. Except for music, no other form of communication lends itself to the study of sound as does poetry. Foremost, other than within music, one will find limited literature that condenses the plethora of ideas and devices, that poetry does. I have been asked, "What value does the teaching of poetry hold in relation to the academic needs of our students?" The answers to this question are innumerable, but let me point to the most academically compelling. Each course meets for 1.5 hours per week over a 16-week semester. The students have the rare, college-like opportunity to choose the courses they will take each semester. Each student attends the program one day per week. These students have extremely high cognitive abilities and need strength-based enrichment activities in addition to what they receive in the mainstream curriculum. This stand-alone course was designed for seventh and eighth grade students in the Humanities Department of the Pittsburgh Public Schools gifted education program. Students will explore the elements of sound in the three categories of poetry, lyrical, narrative, and dramatic, through reading, listening, analyzing, writing, and peer-response activities. The poems referenced in this unit were chosen for the over-arching theme of perseverance that each supports - either because the poet has overcome adversity, the poem's content implies such, or because of the consistent pattern of sound that ripples through the poem. The unit was developed to help students make a connection between what words mean, how the words sound, and how the two support one another within poetry. The focus of this unit is the exploration of that phenomenon - auditory imagery. Save for the sound of your voice if you read the passage aloud, sound does not physically exist in this memory, yet you can hear the lap, lap, lapping of the rope and the pattern created within the chant. All the while the chant rises, ‘ Down in the valley where the green grass grows. The rhythmic lapping of a jump rope marks a steady beat as the children giggle, swaying to and fro, each child anxiously awaiting her name to be called. The Sound Within: An Exploration of Prosodic Elements in Poetry by Cheree Charmello Overview
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |