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I �d like to ask you a question. I �ve got an advanced student, she �s 23, the same age as me. Recently she asked me to give her some poems as she wanted to learn some =) Actually, we learnt 3 already, i.e. �If � by Kipling, �No Enemies � by Charles Mackay, and "The Arrow and the Song" by �Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. These are �my favourites. We also tried �Hamlet �s �Soliloquy � but Shakespeare is too tough for her overall. Next I �m planning to give some of Burn �s poems.Can you tell me some more works we could learn with her?
Ahhh, this is a lovely thread you have started ... You made me take out my booklet with quotes from my favourite works of art. I �m more of a prose lover, but there were some poets that touched me, one of them being Walt Whitman. This quote is taken from the very end of his "Song of Myself" (Leaves of Grass) "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you."
I love spewing a few lines of poetry in my class including Shakespeare. I found several ESL sites with list of poems using Google and there is a couple interactive sites as well. Problem most of my classes can �t use the interactive sites lack of technology in them. Also you can use riddles and tongue twisters, there are a few on this site as well. I have given a few sheets out to the students to come back to me and say the poem or tongue twister for extra points or goodies. My elementary kids went wild with the Ice Cream tongue twister teaching it to the university students and their parents. For Halloween use some Edgar Allen Poe "The Raven" and "The Tell-tale Heart." They actually requested the latter because I had qouted a line from it a couple times in previous classes. Took turns reading lines and then discussing them. Plus you can go online and find several multipoem poetry books for different age groups.
And I love this one Leisure by W. h. Davies What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare? No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. no time to see in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn to Beauty`s glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began, A poor life this is, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.
If your student finds Shakespeare difficult she may also have a few difficulties with Robbie - his English isn �t exactly Standard British...
I love poets like Andrew Marvell...
"Had we but World enough, and Time, This coyness Lady were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long Loves Day."
or Sir Walter Raleigh...
Your dog is not a dog of grace; He does not wag the tail or beg; He bit Miss Dickson in the face; He bit a Bailie in the leg.
or maybe:
Calling to mind mine eye long went about To entice my heart to seek to leave my breast, All in a rage I thought to pull it out, By whose device I lived in such unrest: What could it say to purchase my grace? - Forsooth, that it had seen my mistress � face. or John Donne...
Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deny �st me is; It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea, our two bloods mingled be; Thou knowest that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead. Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pampered, swells with one blood made of two, And this, alas, is more than we would do.
Enough of this old poetry though, have a browse through some more modern poets too!
Two children (small), one Four, one Five, Once saw a bee go in a hive, They �d never seen a bee before! So waited there to see some more. And sure enough along they came A dozen bees (and all the same!) Within the hive they buzzed about; Then, one by one, they all flew out. Said Four: �Those bees are silly things, But how I wish I had their wings! �
Spike Milligan
If you go to poemhunter.com you will also be able to get plenty of free ebooks of whatever poet you look at (pretty much)
Do you guys think it would be good if I uploaded a little �workbook � with all the poems I �ve used or indend using in future so it could be on the site in case somebody needs that? I �d sure add some activities to prevent the ws from being reported =) it would just take some time to compile...
