Poetry & Shakespeare's Sonnets

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There are mysteries all around us. Like was there a real King Arthur? What happened to the colonists on Roanoke Island in 1590? Who was Jack the Ripper? Who killed JFK? Is Big Foot real? While these and many other mysteries perplex us, in the literary world, the mystery of who inspired Shakespeare’s Sonnets, who is supposed to be the sonneteer, and who are the young man and dark lady in which the poems address, baffles critics and lovers of poetry to this day. But despite the musings and gallons of ink spilled in writing about these mysteries,  Shakespeare’s Sonnets are a fascinating poetic creation to be admired and enjoyed simply for its beauty of language and artistic feat. 

Poetry is like performing magic with words. But instead of turning you invisible or levitating a chair, your heart feels pain and joy, solitude and curiosity, anger and wonder. Raise your hand if you like poetry? Raise your hand if you studied poetry in school? Raise your hand if you keep volumes of poetry in your bookshelves. I wonder if not many of you raised your hands. Is it because you were never exposed to it? Or was it because your only experience with it was to dissect it and try to figure out what the poet was meaning, only to end in frustration and confusion?

Today we are going to explore the beauty of words, the world of poetry, and the magic of Shakespeare. I hope that you will come to see that poetry speaks to us, challenges us, and changes us in various and surprising ways.

Poetry is a staple in a Charlotte Mason education. Charlotte Mason said that “Poetry is a criticism of life; so it is, both a criticism and an inspiration; and most of us carry in our minds tags of verse which shape our conduct more than we know” (Vol. 4, Book 2, p. 10). She recommended that children should practice reading aloud, “for the most part, in the books he is using for his term’s work. These should include a good deal of poetry, to accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour; and that a beautiful word deserves to be beautifully said, with a certain roundness of tone and precision of utterance.” (Vol. 1, p. 227)

Today I have with me a returning guest, Dr. Kathryn Smith, who was my co-director and professor at the MAT program at Templeton Honors College. You may recall her intriguing explanation of the genres of literature back on Episode 12, where we discussed the Lyric, Tragedy, Comedy and Epic forms of literature. Now you won’t find Dr. Smith on the east coast anymore but all the way across the country in Colorado, teaching Humane Letters classes. So I am excited to have her back and to talk about one of her passions and expertise, Poetry and Shakespeare’s Sonnets – those 14-line marvels that are not only works of art but windows into love, beauty, time, and humanity. 

Favorite Resources:

• A Child’s Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll
• R is for Rhyme: A Poetry Alphabet by Judy Young
• A Treasury of Poems for Almost Every Possibility edited by Allie Esiri and Rachel Kelly
• Favorite Poems For the Garden: A Gardener's Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems of the Sea: A Coastal Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems of the Wild: An Adventure Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems for Bedtime: A Child's Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Favorite Poems for Christmas: A Child's Collection by Bushel and Peck Books
• Poetry Patterns published by Evan-Moor Corp.
• The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets by Helen Vendler 
• “On Teaching Poetry” by Mary A. Woods -   https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR02p111TeachingPoetry.shtml
• “The Teaching of Poetry to Children by Mrs. J. G. Simpson   - https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR12p879TeachingPoetry.shtml
• see "Favorite Resources" from Episode 12 for more poetry books

 “Poetry is a criticism of life; so it is, both a criticism and an inspiration; and most of us carry in our minds tags of verse which shape our conduct more than we know”  - Charlotte Mason, Volume 4: Ourselves, Book 2, p. 10

“These should include a good deal of poetry, to accustom him to the delicate rendering of shades of meaning, and especially to make him aware that words are beautiful in themselves, that they are a source of pleasure, and are worthy of our honour; and that a beautiful word deserves to be beautifully said, with a certain roundness of tone and precision of utterance.” - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 227

Poetry is “the musical expression, by means of words, of thought charged with emotion . . . . the elements of poetry are thought, emotion, music; and I lay stress upon the music, because I believe it to be not only an element essential to poetry, but an element too apt to be overlooked. Poetry appeals primarily to the ear, and its sounds out to satisfy the ear. . . . For the child the order I have given is reversed. It is not, ‘thought, emotion, music,’ but ‘music, emotion, thought.’ A child will hear and enjoy the music of a poem before he can appreciate the emotion; he will appreciate the emotion before he can understand the ghost. Now this order, which is the natural and therefore the healthy one, is obviously to be followed in all attempts to teach young children.”  Mary A. Woods, “On the Teaching of Poetry," The Parents' Review, Vol. 2, 1891/2, pp. 111-116

“Most people will agree with me that poetry ought to be taught. Doubtless there are still some who hold that [poetry] is a mere amusement, a trifle fit only for the nursery or the drawing room, and unworthy to encroach on the sacred hours devoted to science and mathematics and physical exercise. And others will tell me that it is too good for the schoolroom. Poetry, they say, the ripest fruit of the ripest thought of mankind, should not be squandered on minds too crude or too weak to receive it: the audience of the true poet, if fit, must always be ‘few.’ But these two classes are in a minority, and I do not propose to deal with them to-day. I must assume that poetry is good, and that, being good, it cannot be too good for our children.” -  Mary A. Woods, “On the Teaching of Poetry,” The Parents’ Review, Vol. 2, 1891/2, pp. 111-116

"To withhold good pictures from children because we thoughtlessly conclude them to be incapable of noticing anything but grandness of colour, is to despise them, to value them too lightly," so with poetry you must believe that a child is capable of enjoying and admiring the very best, if only you show him how to begin. You must let him see that you yourself delight in well chosen epithets and true pieces of word painting; you must let him feel that you only care for poems which put a pleasant thought into your mind or a pleasant picture before your eyes; you must let him realize that when you go with him for a country walk, you can add a charm to the brook or the meadow, or the oak tree, or the wild rose, by a familiar quotation, and his taste will not be long in forming itself. This taste should be formed, or should be in process of forming, before the child goes to school.” - Mrs. J. G. Simpson, “The Teaching of Poetry to Children,” The Parents’ Review, Vol. 12, 1901, pp. 879-883

“We must change all this if we want our children to have the real poetic feeling in them drawn out and developed. We must read our poets and learn them by heart till our minds are full of the best thoughts and the loveliest expressions that the world has yet uttered; and be sure that as we read and learn, our own appreciation will grow, and we shall begin to understand more fully why we must teach our little ones only what is good, and why we are doing them a real wrong if we let their minds be filled with what is poor and trivial, while all the world's richest treasures are lying ready for them to take and use as their own possessions.” - Mrs. J. G. Simpson, “The Teaching of Poetry to Children,” The Parents’ Review, Vol. 12, 1901, pp. 879-883 

". . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . " - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174

1. Read samples of haiku poetry and check the syllable patterns. Discuss how the imagery helps paint a picture or evoke a feeling. Help your student write their own. First brainstorm descriptive words and phrases about a nature subject. Then use that list to write a sentence about the subject using three ideas/concepts. Finally, cut and adjust the phrase to follow the 5-7-5 syllable pattern. Encourage your students to copy it out and illustrate their poems.
2. Host a Poetry Tea where each student must bring and read aloud a narrative poem of significant length. Make sure they are all different so that they can enjoy hearing something new and appreciate the attention, creativity, and time such a lengthy poem requires.
3. Take one of Shakespeare’s sonnets and have students pick out a few beautiful lines. Then have them paraphrase it. Together as a class, consider what wonderful things have been lost (ie. rhyme, alliteration, consonance, word order, sounds, syllables, rhythm). Notice that the words are just as important as the plot/meaning.