my life

I have some great cadets.

Today we did "anyone lived in a pretty how town" by ee cummings. I also had "Recital" (Updike), "The Winter Evening Settles Down" (Eliot) and "Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer's Day?" (Shakespeare, Moss) on the syllabus. However, their change in attitude toward cummings was remarkable.

I began class by asking which of the poems they liked, and I got a few mumbled answers along with a couple of vehement "I hate ee cummings!" comments. I caught the nearest one and asked him to please come up before the class and give us a dissertation on exactly why cummings is awful while I take roll. He dutifully stood before the class and talked about how all the cummings he's read is just a jumble of words, and it looks like cummings just threw up all over the page. It was really cute. When he was finished, I had the class applaud his performance and offered them the opportunity to add something to it, if they durst. No one took the opportunity.

I asked how many just didn't understand it. I got about six hands raised high. I said, "All right. Why not?"

They said, "It just doesn't make sense."

One guy said, "I kinda like the way it sounds. I mean, it's catchy. I just don't get it."

We talked about this a bit, then I explained that you must approach cummings by not trying to understand him. Wrestling with something so...abstract violates the cadets' rectilinear thinking, you see, to the point that some of them become so frustrated that they're actually angry. It was an interesting moment, to be honest. Most of them are on board with me now. I think they've decided they like me and trust me, but they struggle with the literature itself. This poem is pretty rough if you have decided all people must just say what they mean, and do so clearly.

Anyhow. I explained that the music of the poem leads you to the meaning, but the trick is that you have to not try to understand it. Just listen with your emotions and understanding will come.

One of my cadets asked several times for me to read it to them. (I just did "My Last Duchess" two days ago, and my reading it to them helped them understand what was happening, and facilitated class discussion.) I tried to get a cadet to read cummings, but no one understood the poem well enough to try, so I gave up and read it to them.

I'm beginning to believe that my reading poetry to them as I believe it should be read teaches them how to read it. Perhaps I should read it aloud to them regularly.

I love the "anyone" poem, and I must have done it justice. They were quiet, following along in their books, or just watching and listening. When I finished, I let silence reign for a moment, then said quietly, "Now what do you see in the poem?"

Several hands went up. One said, "It has kinda a rhythm." Another: "It's...in cycles." Good! Another: "That one line. 'And down they forgot as up they grew.' I like it. It makes sense." (That's one of my favorite lines, too.) Another said, "It's about someone dying, isn't it?" Yes! What else do you see? "These two people...maybe they live in a town in Nebraska. They seem isolated. It's like...they fall in love but on one cares." Yes! "Ma'am?"--timid--"Did they maybe die together?" Good!

One kid, formerly undecided about this poem, said, "You know...I can see it. It does make sense. But it doesn't. But it does. I can see how it takes skill to write something like that...."

Score.

It didn't matter what we did after that. They walked in there hating ee cummings and walked back out thinking maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

I told them I'd give them a boost on their first journal grade--they just got their first journals back today--if they'd write me a limerick over the weekend. (I was amazed that almost no one knew what a limerick is. Where have these kids been?) I told them to google it and they'd get the idea. As a matter of fact, they'd probably be screaming to one another in the dorms tonight, "Hey! Listen to this one!"

The catch is...they have to write a limerick with alliteration. Then I explained briefly what alliteration is. I also reminded them to remember their audience and don't bring in anything vulgar. The rule is three instances of alliteration in the long lines and two in the short lines.

The reason I gave them for this assignment is this: because I used to hate to watch golf on TV.

(Make sense? :D )

Then one day, I picked up a club and tried to hit a golf ball, and I tried putting. Now, I can sit and watch Tiger Woods attentively, because I recognize and admire the ease with which he accomplishes the impossible.

The best way to develop appreciation for poetry is to try to write it yourself.

Plus, while their backs were turned, I taught them what alliteration is. Now they'll see it and appreciate it in every poem they read.

I can't wait for Tuesday. We'll do "Prufrock"--and their limericks.

I love my job.

d