Chapter 8.... Poetry
Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.
It is a common notion that most people do not appreciate poems due to extensive memorization drills and in-depth analization during their school years. I thought that it was interesting that the book mentioned how most people prefer limericks and narratives, while free-verse and haiku's are some of the poems that people avoid. I also like how this chapter brought back the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends", by Shel Silerstein. This book contains several humourous poems that anyone can enjoy.
Another point that this chapter makes about poetry is that orignally, poetry was meant to be oral. Poems seem to be enjoyed more when read aloud, rather than when read to oneself.
I also thought that one of the poems that the book uses as an example was really cute. It is from a collection of poems chosen from the National Council of Teacher of English, titled "TeeVee", and is as follows:
In the house
of Mr and Mrs. Spouse
he and she
would watch TV
and never a word
between them spoken
until the day
the set was broken.
Then "How do you do?"
said he to she
"I don't believe
that we've
met
yet.
Spouse is my name
What's yourse?" he asked.
"Why, mine's the same!"
said she to he,
"Do you suppose that we could be--?"
But the set came suddenly right about
and so they never did find out.
-EVE MERRIAM, 1981
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1 comment:
Jessica: this is a fantastic poem. I can see/hear myself reading something like this aloud to my students and having so much fun with it, then the kids can make a play out of it, where there might be a narrator, a Mr. and a Mrs. Spouse, and the poem would be that much cooler. Hear then hear and see.
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