Bus stop wisdom
Words of wisdom from a bus stop public service announcement: "You serve seven years without parole. Your little brother serves seven years without his best friend."
Here's the thing, though: if you're serving seven years without parole, don't you think your little brother is better off finding a new best friend, anyway?
Here's the thing, though: if you're serving seven years without parole, don't you think your little brother is better off finding a new best friend, anyway?
posted by Kate Marie | 6:50 PM | Permalink
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18 comments
18 Comments:
KM, I need a favor. The rugrat has to read a bunch (not sure how many) of poems by one dead and one living published poet and then write something. Reading, writing, and poetry are deadly words to RR (aka NonReader). Frost and Emily Dickinson are not allowed.
Can you recommend any poets that a NonReader might be able to understand (and whose poetry is readily available)?
CIV, I don't know whether I'll be that much help, especially with the living poet. Can you tell me how many poems the rugrat is supposed to read of each poet? And are poems in translation acceptable? Are excerpts from epic (non-English) poems acceptable, for instance? I'm just trying to get a sense of the assignment.
I'll try to come up with a list now, but if you could answer those questions, that would be great.
Dead poets:
W. B. Yeats -- definitely readily available, and at least some of the poems should be accessible, though I don't know whether they'll be engaging for the rugrat.
Coleridge -- the rugrat might enjoy something like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (but it's a longer poem -- is the teacher going by lines of poetry read or number of poems read).
Let me just throw out some more ideas off the top of my head and then think more about it (and about living poets):
Rudyard Kipling
Wilfred Owen
Edgar Lee Masters (this actually might be really good, if he uses The Spoon River Anthology)
Edward Arlington Robinson
A.E. Housman (another good possibility, I think)
Auden (a little less accessible, I suppose, but I just like Auden).
Still thinking, but let me post this, and continue in another comment.
Will try to extract that info. English teacher doesn't post assignments online. Sigh. In any case, RR is bright but not sophisticated or mature in ways of the world. Also has sequencing issues. So it can't be too esoteric or we'll get the "deer in the headlights" look. Oh, and I think the number of poems is 20, but will need to check that, too.
Living poet . . . Seamus Heaney . . . Gary Soto . . . Paul Muldoon . . .ummmm, still thinking.
20? Take a look at The Spoon River Anthology. That might be your best bet.
For the dead poet, I mean.
If you can find enough of Gary Soto's poems, or find an anthology in the library, he might be a good bet. The poetry is pretty accessible. I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan, but ... you're not really looking for poets I love, but for poets that will work for the rugrat and for this assignment, right?
The Spoon River Anthology is online. Here's the address:
http://www.bartleby.com/84/index1.html
Thanks. You are a peach. I'll check these out and get the full assignment tomorrow. It's late here and Mass comes early.
Too bad we can't use (I assume) my favorite book of poems. I highly recommend this for the princesses.
(I emailed the specs. Sorry I took your blog posting so off topic.)
Well, you two are a bunch of sillies. There is a "Dead Poets Society" and I'm sure you could just ask them for advice.
As for living poets, why. . I didn't hear the name Maya Angelou mentioned. I'll still never forget her going on about dinosaur turds.
Hey, I suggested Rod McKuen, but nobody applauded.
Stewdog, you won't believe this. Or maybe you will.
I stopped at Books A Million while waiting for the young 'un to finish a music lesson. I had to ask for poetry, as it doesn't rate a sign. (It is at the end of literature, after the LARGE PRINT books.) Anyhow, if you knew nothing about poetry, you'd think Maya Angelou was our best poet. Also there was Tupac Shakur (who knew he was a poet?) and Paul McCartney. The rest of the shelves where "100 best" types, love poems, etc.
But of course, CIV. Maya Angelou is the Homer of our generation.
Maya Angelou is the Homer of our generation
Unbelievable.
Hey, KM, how about "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" by T. S. Eliot? That sound like it might stand up to Maya's works? Or should we look at Tupac as our dead poet? I saw a volume by Alice Walker, too, but I think she's still alive. Didn't know she was a poet.
Yes, that works and it's accessible, but I must say I feel sorry for anyone who has to plow through 10-20 pages of Rum Tum Tugger and Old Deuteronomy.
But each one is so short. And you get to choose your favorite 3 to analyze.
Well, it won't be my decision. Besides, after getting about 1/2 way through the book, I can tell the non-reader will miss a lot. How would anyone who doesn't read (and doesn't watch TV or movies) know what a junk or sampan is? "Deuteronomy" will just be a strange name, and Thames, Bangkok, and Victoria Dock might not even connote places. Sigh.
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