What's your favorite poem?

What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
Number of replies: 23
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Since teaching a 12-week Intensive English course at my college, I've discovered to beauty of poems. up only now. Yes, I've been living under a rock all this time. Never mind. Better late than never. Anyway, I plan to introduce poems, poem recital and poem memorisation among the 16 students in my class. So for the past three days, I've compiled a short list of my own poem "best sellers".

It wasn't until I surfed around for some analysis or interpretation of the poems that I really savoured the beauty of these poems.

 

Here's my list (which I made a Voicethread of), in no particular order.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost - makes me think about and reflect on the paths I've taken and the choices I've made in life thus far.

High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. - I love flight simulation games and aeroplanes. A tribute to all aviation heroes and the challenger Space shuttle crew.

How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning - ah what would a poem be without love?

If by Rudyard Kipling - character building.

I had a comrade - translated by Frank Petersohn - a timeless classic from the Great War. Poignant stuff!

I Keep Six Honest Men by Rudyard kipling - connected with systems analysis. A checklist for journalists.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne - if someone dies, a part of me dies too. How poignant! Reminds me of a certain B&W movie starring Garry Cooper and Ingrid Bergmann about the Spanish civil war.

 

What's your favourite poem? why?

Frankie Kam

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Glenys Hanson -

Here's one I like that a student introduced me to recently :

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Mary Cooch -
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In terms of philosophical meaning of life, I like Ozymandias by Shelley

Because it makes us realise how petty our great works really are

But in terms of the real world today and modern poets I like this one about "what do teachers make?" by Taylor Mali

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
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Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

 

From the analysis of http://chelm.freeyellow.com/ozymandias1.html

'The poem was written around 1800 ... Great opposition, irony and sarcasm appears when it is said, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains." This negative connotation shows that there once was a vast kingdom, but now that kingdom has disappeared. Neither property nor the king himself is immortal, the sonnet indicates.'

'When it is said that the "lone and level sands stretch far away" (13-14), the reader realizes that perhaps the sand is more vast now than the empire is.'

'Finally, when breaking down the word "Ozymandas" in the original greek, we realize that the kingdom no longer exists. Ozy comes from the Greek "ozium," which means to breath, or air. Mandias comes from the Greek "mandate," which means to rule.

Hence, Ozymandias is simply a "ruler of air" or a "ruler of nothing". It is then obvious that the King of Kings spoken of in the poem is actually nature itself. Nature never disappears and nature represents the immortality not represented by the Ramses or any otherindividual or possession.'

 

I guess that one day, even if I do all my backups right, this precious website of mine that I have invested hundreds or thousands of man-hours in, will come to naught. It  will, by then, be superceded by some new Minority Report-type technology or future major revision of Moodle 2.0/3.0/4.0, etc.  Maybe I should teach my daughters how to Moodle so that they can carry on the family tradition of teaching with technology - Frankie Kam

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In reply to Glenys Hanson

Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
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Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say, It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.


Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman, That's me.

Maya Angelou

From: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2318742/analysis_of_phenomenal_woman_by_maya.html?cat=38

'...In her powerful response to the pressure of society, the female speaker elucidates to her fellow women that it isn't just about how a woman's looks or her built, but it's about who the woman is as a person.

Attractive personality is much more powerful than attractive genetics or any ability to fill in an impossible role. The speaker then explains to these women, and rightly to all women, that it is her own attractive personality that is the reason men "stand or fall down on their knees" before her. It does not mean that she does not try to be her best, but she does not see conformity as justifiable and therefore the reason why "[her] head's not bowed". She then goes on to explain in detail her own reasons and her own aims in attractiveness. She measures her own achievement by measurable decisions she can make such as her "smile", "style", and "stride", not impossible standards. ... that quality of character standards are the only standards by which women should judge themselves and the way they see others.

Her positive decisions give the speaker her well-earned title of "Phenomenal Woman," and allow her to live out her full measure of personal worth.

The beautiful conclusion therefore allows the speaker, and gives hope to all women, that she and they (respectively) can live as beautiful women and enjoy that life in the process.

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Paul Jacobson -

Gawd Frankie - don't get too carried away with the poetic licence!

I suppose the beauty of poetry is its ambiguity - teasing us with what it might mean. In which case, I might stick to my haiku:

  • bamboo shadows sweep the stairs
  • dust rises in a sunbeam
  • there's a mosquito too!
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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
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Haiku. Hmm...

From http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-haiku.htm

--quote--

"construction: The format consists of three sentences, each containing five, seven, and five syllables." For example:

Windows XP crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

--endquote-

Okay, here's my original-thinking-on-the-fly haiku:

Moodle rocks big time!
Let me count the ways my friend.
Alas, Just three lines!

Paul-san, thank you for introducing me to haiku.

Frankie-san
Melaka, Malaysia

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Joseph Thibault -
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haha, I enjoyed that little Moodle haiku...might just have to post that somewhere...

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Anthony Borrow -
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I love haikus, so here is mine:

Learners constructing

community and knowledge

Moodle in action

Peace - Anthony

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Paul Jacobson -

Hey Frankie - no need to be rigorous with the syllables (unless you are composing iambic pentameter):

  • a wild peach dawn
  • poured from the heavenly cask
  • Intoxicating!

PS I came across your contribution to Moodle News - how to embed PDF display in Moodle topics. Sorry Frankie, my Acrobat plug in does not allow this operation (at least in Firefox) and any workaround is problematic. It was frustrating to try all the Preferences to no avail.

PPS. Iambic pentameter is Shakespeare's favourite rhythm: da-da da-da da-da da-da, da-da da-da da-da . . . eg. something from Yates: "If I had the heaven's embroided cloths, enwrought with the golden and silver light - the blue and the dim and the dark cloths of light and the half-light and night - I would lay these cloths under your feet."

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
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Hi Paul

You got me there with the iambic pentameter..I had to Wikipedia it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter

Okay, I didn't know that poems had rhythms. Like a metronome. Guess you learn something new everyday. What happened to the "dums" in Shakerspeare's favourite rhythm? All das and no dums?

Sorry to hear about the PDF embed not working out for you. Strange.

 

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Glenys Hanson -

Hi Frankie,

Yes, Paul was simplifying a bit: the iambic rhythm is daDUM daDUM daDUM and is one of the basic rhythms of English.

For me as an English teacher it's essential to get students to feel this. It's very difficult for students whose native language has a quite different rhythm and is not "stress timed". It's not an intellectual learning process it's a question of feeling and breathing.

That's why I agree very much with you that using poems can help student to feel the rhythms. However, most of the students I deal with don't have the level of English to understand the "great" poems and if they're puzzled about the meaning they won't be attending to the rhythm. So I use quite quite different "poems": limericks.

Even in the classroom face to face, it takes a long time to get students to change the way they make sounds come out of their mouths . I have managed to make exercises with limericks on Moodle but they're just a complement to what I do in the classroom. Here's one : The lady from Ryde It's part of a set of exercises and each poem has an exercise on stress and one on the schwa. But this is a bit technical for this forum - not eveyone's an English teacher here and knows what a schwa is - maybe it should be continued over in Lang Teaching. thoughtful

Cheers,

Glenys

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Paul Jacobson -

Dear Glenys -

I acquiesce to you, it seems

daDa and DaDum as it streams

internal language flowing round

with all its colour and its sound

I feel the rhythm not the rules

and leave the DaDum to the schools

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Glenys Hanson -

Dear Paul,

But you can write poetry and I can't!

I'm just a harmless drudge of a language teacher.

Glenys

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Paul Jacobson -

Dear Glenys - you seem to have a skilled turn of oxymoronic phase! LOL!

In one terse sentence I can almost hear you speaking French and rolling your "RRRRs".

Keep well over there on the other side of the world . . . and thank you for being in so many places at once in our Moodle community.

PS: I was on the train on Friday and the young woman sitting opposite had a Moodle uniform on! How about that!

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
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Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now...poems and recitations in the movies.

Our Greatest Fear - found in the movie "Coach Carter" about a true story of a US basketball coach who transforms youth through basketball.

Source: http://explorersfoundation.org/glyphery/122.html

Our Greatest Fear
it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

[Often said to have been quoted in a speech by Nelson Mandela. The source is Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, Harper Collins, 1992. —Peter McLaughlin]

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
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Ah yes, it's all coming back to me now...poems and recitations in the movies.

Who could forget Invictus? And Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the movie by the same name?

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Frankie Kam -
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In case
you're wondering what all this poetry rhyhmy stuff has got to do with Moodle, believe me, there is method in my madness of poems.
I'm actually doing TWO things at once, and having fun at the same time:

1. Compiling a list of good,...I mean, GREAT poems;

2. learning how to introduce GREAT poems to young students, in an engaging fashion, inside a Moodle webpage resource.

Specifically, experimenting with embedding various Web 2.0 technology into a Moodle book resource.  So far, I have experimented
with Voicethreads and Dipity.com timelines, and other Web 2.0 as a means to not only introduce students to poems, but to also
engage them with online Web 2.0 content within Moodle. Here's a peek at my current-live-4-week-old-course production
Intensive English course found at http://scm.moodleace.com. It's open to Guest access.

So go ahead, be my, erm ... guest.

 

Below is a screenshot of what I've built so far inside one of the Moodle Book resources. It's a Dipity timeline, focussing on Invictus.

Since no man is an island (Inspector Clouseau would pronounce that as "is-learn"), I would like to mention thanks to this
slideshare slideshow by Jason De Nys,  this post by Joseph Thibault of Moodlenews.com, as well as Joseph's Moodle LtBlue course.

So far, it's been pretty exciting. I'm learning new stuff like Haikus - from Paul, rhythms, famous poets like Maya Angelou,
Presidential Inaugaration poems, and more.

I've also made use of Voicethreads (for voice recordings!), Wordles (for abstraction and word clouds), Moodle MindMap module
(for outlining) and Glogster posters (for stirring creativity) to introduce poems to my Malaysian 18-year old students, but for now
I will have to restrain myself from posting about those other Web 2.0 goodies.

That's for another post.

Frankie Kam

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Colin Matheson -

I sing of Olaf glad and big by e.e. cummings because it speaks of objecting to war in the most personal, concise, and beautiful way. Also it has two swear words.

Theme for English B by Langston Hughes because it shows what happens when you give a genius a homework assignment. It reminds us that racism (classism, sexism) are branded upon us as both oppressed and oppressor. It has some suprisingly funny lines.

Both poems reveal amazing hope grounded in despair, a brave pacifist who is killed and a young black man caught in American racism. Both acknowledge the terrible power of the group and yet remind us of the potential of the individual.

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Re: What's your favorite poem?

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
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Something from the master of nonsense, written specially for our geek friends:

Alice! a childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers
Plucked in a far-off land.

http://ivyjoy.com/fables/aliceintro.html
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