Final Essay: Working with poetry considering the reader centerd approach

According to what I have learnt in English Literature during this semester, I believe that the most impresive, interesting, full of feelings and emotions type of literature is poetry. That is why, the purpose of my essay will be; how to work with poetry in the classroom considering the reader centered approach. For that, I will present one poem, What would you fight for? by D.H Lawrence, in which I’ve found several and interesting topics to present to my students. Moreover, I will explain and relate the poem to an EFL lesson considering students’ interests and needs. Apart form that, I will explain how teachers can create a comfortable and enriching athmosphere by having different activities centered in poetry.

There are several definitions for the concept poetry, but in my opinion poetry is the way the writer expresses what he feels according to his own point of view about things. The writer tries to express a vision he percieves about the world, a vision that is full of emotions and feelings. It is also important to bare in mind that poetry is more than words that have an armonic sound, they are words specifically selected for a purpose, the reader response. The writer chooses the words to create a message, not to make them look beautiful in a piece of paper.

Poems have the capacity of moving us deeply in an unknown world. They can transport the reader back in the past, here in the present and beyond in the future. But, obviously there is an individual who utilizes all his thoughts, emotions and imagination to create this amazing works named poems. That is to say, everything written in the poem comes from the author’s background. For example there a lot of poems that talk about the Wars or desasters that happened in the world. There are other authors who enjoys talking about death, nature or mithological concepts. On the other hand, there are poets that write about human relationships, class issues and the natural wordl, that is the case of the fantastic D.H Lawrence.

David Herbert Lawrence is an English writer who was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England 1885. His father was a miner and his mother a house-wife. Lawrence went to the Nothingham’s university and he succesfuly graduated. Years later he graduated as a schoolmaster in London. His poetry was first published in 1909. The writer got married with Frida Von Richthofen. During that time, the World War I forced them to stayed in England. For that reason Lawrence started to write several works against the war. He was always moving between England, the USA, Mexico, Australia. The travelling experiences gave him the possibility to learn more about different cultures and languages, which, obviously, had a big influence on his wrting style. Lawrence’s style always expressed passion and love. I realized about it, because I have been reading several poems written by him. He didicated his writing to controvertial social and human issues, for example middle and low class problems and how people deal with the different penomenas the world has.

The following poem is the one I chose to be presented in an EFL lesson with High School students. Basically, I decided to work with it because I think that pupils who are in 9th,10th, 11th or 12th grade, have to be thinking about what to do in their future. They will be leave school sooner than they think so, I believe it is essential they will know what to do and what to persue when they finish school.


What would you fight for?
I am not sure I would always fight for my life.
Life might not be worth fighting for.

I am not sure I would always fight for my wife.
A wife isn't always worth fighting for.

Nor my children, nor my country, nor my fellow-men.
It all depends whether I found them worth fighting for.

The only thing men invariably fight for
Is their money. But I doubt if I'd fight for mine, anyhow
not to shed a lot of blood over it.

Yet one thing I do fight for, tooth and nail, all the time.
And that is my bit of inward peace, where I am at one
with myself.

And I must say, I am often worsted.


D.H Lawrence

Giving a brief explanation about the poem, I believe that Lawrence is stablishing that we should always have a purpose in life. It is not worth to fight for something that we do not know or it just does not make any sense for us. Every situation we live through our life has a purpose, has a final meaning, but we have to make an effort to discover what the meaning is. The only way to do that is by realizing if that specific situation could have an impact in our lives. We have to analyze and think what pros and cons the action could bring. Moreover, by considering the word money, the poet wants to express that people are fighting for materialistic things, and people do not even essitate when money appears. That is to say, that some of them could die or even kill for money. But, after some negative and ironic concepts, the author expresses that he would fight for his own personal inward peace. That is our safe place, our secret moment when we can think and analyze our life, acts and experiences.

After presenting the poem, and according to the reader-centered approach, it is important that we leave our students to construct their own knowledge. We, teachers, have to encourage them to exchange their view points with others, but also respecting the different opinions may appear. Clearly, the poem represents aspects students will find in their lives, that is why I think is interesting to work with it. As I have learned, literature must be discussed in the classroom. It is important that we can hear several points of view and help our students to construct their own ideas about, poems.
According to the activities we can use in an EFL lesson, it will be very interesting to work with Journals, in which readers will freely express their feelings and thoughts about what they read. We can also ask them to write a report about the poem, for example rewrite the poem from a different point of view, write a story about the poem, etc. Moreover, they can create their own poem, maybe talking about their experiences of fighting for an specific situation.

As a conclusion, I took poetry as an enriching and thoughtful experience to be used in class by sharing new ideas and feelings with my students. Moreover, it is important that teachers consider how to present it, so that students do not feel afraid of knowing poetry. Furthermore, it is also important that we could give students previous knowledge about authors and types of wrtiting, that way they will feel more familiarized with the topic. Besides, we have to bear in mind that by the analysis of a poem students are going to comprehend, feel and live the authors’ thoughts. During this process, we have to encourage students to have their own ideas about what they read; no matter if they want to do it aloud or in a piece of paper, but the idea is that they can express what they feel. By poetry, students should be living intense, rich and deep feelings and experiences because poetry is a gift to open students’ minds.


Bibliography


• Elliot, Joan. Dupuis, Mary. Young Adult Literature in the Classroom. Newark, Delaware : International Reading Association , 2002.

• Lawrence, D.H. Estudios Sobre Literatura Clásica. Emece, Buenos Aires. 1948.


Links


• http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Lawrence.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._H._Lawrence

• http://www.lawrenceseastwood.co.uk/

Outline

-Introduction

- Importance of Poetry

-D.H lawrence

-Poem

Analysis

-EfL reader centerd approach

-Conclusion

September 1, 1939 (W.H Auden)

After reading this poem I've realized how World War II had an extraordinary impact in people's lives. Moreover, the author utilized the correct words to express exactly the depression's feelings society had. He described the damage that the war causes, not only physical, but in a psychological aspect. Auden had no problem to represent how people were feeling, due to in a way, he was part of the system, the war system.

I believe that this half part of the first stanza represents exactly how people felt;

Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Here, it is clearly represented how society felt; anger and fear because of this unfair war. Even though they were in calm and not doing any damage to the contrary side (Germany and allied), the darkness of their acts had negative consequences in innocent people. Individuals tried to live their lives normally during the day, going to work, sharing with others, being with their families, but in the night, when they had to go to their houses, was the moment when the bad aspects like fears, desperation, death and weepings raised. They could not scape from the war, because it was in people's mind, dreams and life.

As a sum of all the aspects, I believe Auden tried to imprint all his feelings in this poems. Maybe, he never thought that this enriching piece of work could bring so many controversial issues to nowadays' life. I really enjoyed reading and understanding it. There is no doubt I will use it in an EFL lesson.

Carolina's entry

To be honest I have to say that Carolina's entry fits completely with what I felt and thought about Virginia Woolf. Maybe, this situation happened because we almost share the same feelings and ideas about women's role in the world.

Virginia Woolf was an excellent writer who knew how to express herself and, the most important point, she could gain a place in the world by the publication of her works. Even though V. Woolf lived in a very controversial time, she had the possibility to communicate her thoughts and ideas through writing. Furthermore, she had their own place to write and the money to do so. I believe that the most important characteristic Virginia had was that she pursued and fought with all the stigmatisation society had against women. That is why, she decided to wrote about female roles and, in a way, compare them with men, so that people could realize that we are more than pretty faces who can stay at home taking care of our children.

I really liked the way Carolina connected Jane Austen with Virginia Woolf and how that connection made her reflect about female's situtation in previous years. I know that Carolina is a big fan of J. Austen and she admires and enjoys reading her works, so having thought about a close relation between these two amazing writers gave Carolina a more meaningful idea of females' writing. Carolina is always looking for interesting ideas and topics to write about. I have read all her entries and I believe she really has a gift to clearly express what she feels.

Jane Austen

For a long time, I have been a fan of Jane Austen’s novels. I have read almost all of them, and I really admire her for everything she accomplished. Virginia Woolf made me appreciate Jane Austen much more than I did. Woolf was the author I needed to support me in my enjoyment of Austen.

Jane Austen lived in a time where women could be nothing but daughters and housewives. She was a writer in a time where nothing could be expected out of a woman. However, she wrote 6 of the most beautiful novels in English although she had no money and no room. She is world-wide recognized and dearly loved. Woolf states in many parts of her essay that Jane Austen proved the world, and men, that women could perfectly write as good as men. In some extent, Woolf compares Austen to Mozart in the following quote: “For while Jane Austen breaks from melody to melody as Mozart from song to song...” Therefore her genius is as Mozart’s or Shakespeare’s, to whom she also compares Jane Austen.

“Here was a woman (Jane Austen) about the year 18oo writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching.” Thus, Jane Austen could write as the best of men and none of her conditions such as having no room, being poor, being interrupted and being a woman interfered in the complexity and richness of her writing.

The Waste Land by T.S Eliot

Honestly, it was very difficult for me to understand this poem. It has too much narrators and, sometimes, talks about things that, I know, I will never understand. Event though, there were some stanzas and parts that I understood and could get an image from them. What I got from this poem is that the main issue here was the period after the First World War and how its consequences and modernity were affecting peoples’ lives.

I found several elements and feelings inside the poem, such as sadness, nothingness, hopeless, fear which are very related with people’s mood in that time. In one hand, individuals felt so disappointed and full of doubts that nothing was clear, but unknown. This waste land was falling down in little pieces day by day, that’s why people felt so unprotected frustrated and doubtful about their future.

In my opinion I could say that Eliot represented and expressed himself so deeply in this poem that, in a way, I could imagine how people felt after the war. How could they create a sort of positive feeling if they only perceived pain and discourage to continue living their lives? I think we will never know until we live it.

The rocking-horse winner by D.H Lawrence

After reading this poem I could realize how important could be a mother to her child. In this case Paul was so concerned about the money problems his mother had that the only thing he wanted was helping her. Suddenly, he discovered that he could get some money with lucky so rides his little rocking-horse and figured out that it gave him the name of the winner horse in the races. He was so preoccupied about getting more and more money that he forgot about everything in his life and started riding the horse so fast and constantly that he got very ill and dies.

I believe that he wanted to help her mother so badly and replace the lack of a paternal image that he believe he was the provider of the family. I really don’t understand how a mother can permit a situation like this. It is supposed that a mother must provide and pay attention to every single need the child could have, but in these case was the other way around. The only consequence this situation causes was the child death, the mother changes money for the life of her own son.

I enjoyed reading this short story, but it has a lot of negative aspects of life. I think it is good to learn about your mistake and thinks that money is not everything in life. Money can help you to be happy but you can't buy happiness with it.

A room of one’s own by Virginia Woolf

Trough the pass of time, women had built and gain their own space in the world. During the time V. Woolf lived there was no space for women to express themselves.

A room of one’s own states that women had the same capacities that men had, they were able to write and think as men do. The problem was that they did not have the space to express themselves because, in a way, opportunities were close for them. Women did not have the chance to say what the really wanted to communicate. That is why, Virginia referred to several female authors that did not have too much impact in those times, due to the fact they were women. Male authors had lots of opportunities and were, in some point, more important and credible than women authors. Men had their own space, a place that was settled inside of the society. But, what happened with women? Their image and role was to take care of children, stay at home cooking, doing the cleaning but society never thought that they could develop other abilities like writing or belonging to a political party.

I believe that this essay, even though it was very controversial, changed people’s mind. It was very useful for me to know a little bit more about women in those times and the need to have their own place. I choose a quote from the poem that I think represents my post; "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."