By Donna Hruska

Great poetry? Perhaps not, but certainly acceptable light verse. This was written by a fifth grade boy, as you might surmise from the sentiments expressed. Perhaps these next lines, also written by a fifth grade boy, come closer to true poetry:

THE ROBIN

With his wings

So bright and brown

This bird frowns.

He flies through the air

So gracefully.

He never seems

To have a care.

Poetry was the form of man’s first creative efforts in language. Before there was a written language folk tales and great events were passed from mouth to mouth in poetic form. But through the years poetry has been eclipsed by prose as the language of the people. Yet, poetry is still, for those who take the time to study it, a source of great joy.

Any mother or teacher can tell you that while little children at the pre-school and primary level love poetry and verse, the mere mention of poetry to most older children brings only groans. Somewhere that natural love of rhythm and rhyme is lost as children get older.

Why does this happen? There are many reasons. Perhaps one of the most important is that teachers themselves lack enthusiasm for poetry because they do not feel confident with it. Another factor is that boys of this age, who steadfastly maintain that they hate girls, often have the idea that poetry is effeminate.

At the same time, how often do we hear complaints that our children are not learning to express themselves clearly in school? If we leave creativity completely aside for the moment, we still hear business men complain of secretaries who graduate in the top of their classes, but who are unable to spell or punctuate correctly. The noted publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, in a recent article in the SATURDAY REVIEW, complained that even our authors cannot write “simple… English.” English teachers are working as hard as ever, but few children are stimulated by drills to learn the rules of grammar. What is needed is something to catch their interest.

Recently, in discussing these problems with a fifth grade teacher at the Leavitt Avenue School in Flossmoor, Illinois, we devised a plan to try to combat both of these problems by having the students write verse of their own. Since poetry requires the use of good grammar and spelling just as prose does, it offers an opportunity to practice the rules of composition in a different and, we hoped, more interesting setting. Poetry also requires a more precise use of language and we hoped to stimulate the children to search for just the right word to express their feelings. We also thought that when the children learned some of the technicalities and difficulties of writing poetry and experienced the thrill of creation, they might gain a greater interest in the writing of other poets–perhaps even, in time, a true love of good poetry. Of course, in the back of our minds there was always the hope that we might find one budding poet in the group.

One of the first requirements for this project was teachers who liked poetry. The teachers tried their own hands at poetry writing. When they found that it was an enjoyable and rewarding past-time, their enthusiasm naturally communicated itself to the children.

We began with haikus, simple Japanese poetry, whose form can be quickly grasped and enjoyed by children. A haiku must express an emotion within three lines. The first line has five syllables, the second, seven, and the third, five. For example,

WINTER

Cold, gray light filters

Softly onto damp leaf beds.

It is long till spring.

The introduction of the lesson was simple. The children were given a definition of the haiku, several examples which the teacher had written herself, some suggestions of possible topics and set to work. When the students were first told that they were going to write poetry, they groaned and complained. By the time they were reluctantly pulled away from the task over an hour later, they were confirmed haiku writers. Their subjects ranged from nature to the Beatles:

DUSK

Then as the day ends

Down upon the sun-bleached shore

The seagull retires.

BIRDS

When birds are in flight

They fly in a special shape.

When they land, they feed.

THE BEATLES

I love the Beatles

Because of their long black hair.

They are very cute.

As a reward their contributions were sent to the children’s column of the local newspaper. A week later, they were still begging to write more haikus.

The second lesson in poetry writing came about a week and a half after the first. This time the emphasis was on quatrains. The quatrain, while it is a simple form of poetry, is slightly more difficult to write than the haiku. Instead of just syllabication the poet must be concerned with both metre and rhyme. Since we primarily desired to stimulate an interest in poetry and expression, we endeavored to keep the rules to a minimum. We concentrated mostly on rhyme, getting the children themselves to explain what it is and give examples. A tow-headed boy in the back of the room explained that rhyming words were words that sounded alike and gave “go” and “toe” as examples. A little girl contributed “fly” and “pie.” With a few more examples we were sure they understood rhyme. We decided to rely on the children’s’ ears to tell them how long the lines should be, our cardinal rule always being that the experience should be simple and fun.

We gave them many examples. First among them was “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which we told them was a perfect example of a quatrain that they could always easily remember. We quoted several short and amusing children’s poems. Then, to quash any lingering doubts in the boys’ minds that poetry was sissy stuff fit only for girls we read “The Tree Toad” by Monica Shannon and the ballad “Jesse James.”

By the time we got to:

How people held their breath when they
heard of Jess’s death,

And wondered how he ever came to die.

‘Twas one of the gang, dirty Robert Ford,

That shot Jesse James on the sly.

we had the boys with us. The children fell to writing with gusto. We suspected Jesse James’ influence in this boy’s poem:

THE LITTLE MILL

The little mill sat on a hill

Being just a little old mill.

Ever since the old man was shot

The little mill has gone to pot.

The girls also produced some interesting poems, many of them on the more traditional subjects, as in the following two examples:

SPRING

Spring is coming soon;

I hope the birds will sing.

Oh, what a pretty sight

When the flowers bloom bright!

HOLIDAYS

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Valentine’s Day

Is coming near.

This time we printed all of the poetry in booklet form to distribute to the students themselves and to other classrooms in the school. They took great pride in making a suitable cover and putting the books together.

Of course, the project has only begun. Throughout the year more poetry writing projects will be introduced. The children need to learn about metre and line length, blank verse and free verse. It is too early to see any definite carry-over of grammar and precise word choice. We have great hopes, however, for this aspect of the program over the long range. There is no doubt that we have generated some enthusiasm for poetry. Each new poetry writing project is greeted with enthusiasm. When poetry reading is announced in class, it is accepted with pleasure instead of groans or tolerance.

We have found some unexpected aspects to this project. One of the most important is that children who had previously shown no great creative ability sometimes excelled at writing poetry, revealing creative abilities that the teacher had heretofore not discovered. Another interesting discovery is that the children reveal themselves more than we expected and certainly more than they realize when writing poetry. This opens up interesting possibilities for further study in use with disturbed children. We also found that the children are every bit as possessive of their creations as any adult author could ever hope to be. They greatly resented any editorial changes made in their poetry.

Is fifth grade the right time to start a project such as this? We feel that it should perhaps begin as early as third grade. Why should a child ever lose his natural love for poetry–a love that is older than recorded history? Haikus and quatrains are not beyond the ability of third graders.

Creativity is such a fragile thing. It must be nurtured before it is bruised. We do not expect to make a great poet out of every child. But we do hope to teach every child to communicate effectively. And with effective communication we can perhaps make a better life.

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