Natalie,

It is not 'words, words, words' that we must begin with but the fun of the
rhythm and of the word-PLAY.  Lots of rhythmical engagement with verse of
all kinds where the rhythm is a dominant feature is the best place to start
with younger (and older) pupils.  There are many excellent anthologies of
children's verse (and nonsense and whimsical verse) that can be mined for
examples.  I find rain-chants and war-chants go down well -- though I always
keep them for the end of the lesson as they are hyper-excited by the time we
have got the chants powerfully presented (the teacher in the next lesson can
calm them down!)

A good reading must be based on a thorough acquaintance with the text.  One
has to insist with older students that the poem has to be read through at
least three or four times aloud before an understanding can even begin.  The
next step is to ask 'What is your first guess as to what this poem is
about?', coupled with the reassurance that, just like a scientist, one has
to begin with a rough hypothesis and then test it to see whether it will do.
Once some brief guess had been suggested, they have to find something in the
poem that appears to bear out that hypothesis.  It doesn't matter whether
the guess is 'right' or 'wrong':  the important thing is to produce some
part of the poem that seems to bear out the guess.

Here I apply a crude instrument for ferreting out the meaning.  They have to
check that portion they have selected against the 'CRID grid' -- CRID being
an acronym for 'Contrast, Rhythm, Imagery, Diction'.  I say "Has the poet
used any contrasts to bring out the point you have detected (any ironies,
puns, paradoxes, antitheses, etc)?  Any rhythm (alliteration, assonance,
word-repetition, etc.)?  Any image (metaphor, metonym).  Is there anything
unusual about the words that have been chosen (simple, sophisticated,
Anglo-Saxon, Latinized, informal, formal, modern, old-fashioned -- a
mixture)?  Do any of these work together -- for example, is a contrast
helped out by a balancing rhythm?  Is there anywhere a contrast on the
choice of words?  Are any of the images standing in contrast?"

By this time I say "Have you learned anything more about what you think the
poet is trying to say?" and, in most cases, by this time, some refinement of
the thought and feeling has emerged.  I say that to them that they have
'improved their hypothesis', and now is the time to test it again, and so I
ask them to find another place in the poem where this NEW hypothesis seems
to be borne out.  Once more, fortunately, it is not a case of being right or
wrong about the interpretation, for that is what they are coming up with,
THEIR individual interpretations, supported by evidence from the text.
Helpful to ask "Any similar contrasts to what we found before?  Any similar
rhythms?  Any similar images, or choice of words -- on any sharp contrasts
to what we found before?"  The students are well into following out the'
hermeneutic circle', by which the text can be returned to again and again,
producing a spiralling upward of understanding (which cannot be purely the
teacher's understanding for what the students contribute can be novel and
enlightening).  The great thing is that teacher and students are engaged in
a common process of discovery, and it is never the case that students are
trying to guess what 'the right' interpretation is.  I recommend that in
writing on their own with a new poem that they always begin tentatively,
saying 'At first glance, it would seem that the poet is trying to . . .' --
'Let us see whether this guess can work as a key for us into the mystery'.

You will see that this process can be repeated as long as is needed.  What
results is a gradual revelation of the poem's rhetorical force.  What is
bound to emerge is a better understanding of how to say the poem, where to
pause, where to stress contrasts of words, where to link one's intonation in
one part of the poem with that in another.  One can't read poems
successfully without having some grasp of what they are all about.

Edmond Wright


Dr. Edmond Wright
3 Boathouse Court
Trafalgar Road
Cambridge
CB4 1DU
England

Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~elw33
Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256

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