The Fruit of the Poet’s Tree
What with getting sick the week before last and zooming back and forth to appointments last week, I never found time to write about something I absolutely must chronicle. I mean, it was only one of the finest surprises of my entire life. As I’ve mentioned, I taught a six-week poetry workshop to a group of our homeschooling friends. These were the same kids as my Journey North group; I had so much fun doing Mystery Class with them that my friend Erica (who generously hosts our meetings at her house and is a far better planner than I am) and I put our heads together and decided to start a Literature Club for this enthusiastic bunch of kids.
Our age range was wide: from a ten-year-old or two up to a number of teens, including one 18-year-old who arrived home from college midway through the session and asked, to my delight, if she could drop in. (Not Jane: her school gets out late and she missed the whole thing.)
Over the course of the six weeks, we discussed rhyme scheme and meter, many kinds of meter, and several kinds of figurative language. We had examples from lots of poets but each week (except the last) I chose one poet for close readings—someone wonderful whose work had example of the meter and/or tropes we were encountering that week. Yeats (you know I had to start with him), Frost, Hughes (Langston, not Ted), Dickinson, Blake.
We had ourselves a fantastic time. Most of our meetings ended with my giving the kid a few starter lines in a particular meter and having them form groups and finish up the poem. This was their favorite part of the class, and the group readings provided much merriment.
For our last session, I wrote a poem incorporating all their names, sorted by meter—a stanza each for our iambs, dactyls, and trochees (written in the appropriate meter), with some lines full of spondees for the single-syllable names. It ends with an appeal for an anapest: we had none in the group.
I was pretty excited about my little surprise, and they seemed to get a big kick out of it. But then they revealed they had a surprise for me: they’d all written poems to thank me for the class. They read them out loud and I was crying before the first poem was finished. These kids, they blew me away.
I sailed away with my good friends three,
Up and out to the Poet’s Tree,
There I wrote poems about sharks and dogs,
And giants galore who got smacked with fat logs
But we couldn’t have done all of this without you,
Yes Mrs. Peterson you’ve made that fact true.—”The Poet’s Tree” by Peter H., age ten
(Peterson’s my married name, as I think most of you know.)
Couldn’t you just melt? Best thank-you gift I’ve ever been given, these poems. All the kids presented me with copies to keep, which I will forever.
Alliteration, synecdoche, and onomatopoeia,
Learned a ton,
Love you lots,
Until next time—see ya!—lines from “My dear Melissa Peterson” by Olivia L., age 13
sarah says:
Oh my, could there be anything better for a teacher’s heart? I wish my dd had been able to attend this class. Heck, I wish *I* had been!
On June 23, 2014 at 8:35 pm
Tabatha says:
Aww! Love those gorgeous poems! Sounds like a delightful class.
On June 24, 2014 at 5:01 am
Ellie says:
Truly magical. What a delight! 🙂
On June 24, 2014 at 5:32 am
Amanda says:
Wonderful! I am amazed by their poetry and also inspired by your class!
On June 24, 2014 at 6:26 am
Susanne Barrett says:
Those poems are precious!! And I love teaching poetry, too! I taught a poetry class a few years ago to 4th-6th graders at our co-op Class Days at Heritage Christian School, and it was the most rewarding class I’ve ever taught. And I love teaching the Playing with Poetry Workshop at Brave Writer every winter–especially when the moms and dads start writing poems, too! 🙂
Have a lovely summer!! 🙂
Warmly,
Susanne in the Mountains (but going to the Del Mar Fair today with my husband–a late anniversary excursion!)
On June 24, 2014 at 9:03 am
tanita says:
WOW. What fabulous ways of saying thanks!
On June 24, 2014 at 9:19 am
Melanie B says:
*Melt*
On June 24, 2014 at 8:13 pm