Chapter 14: Poetry

After practising the activities in this chapter, you should be able to:

• Understand basic poetic features such as stanzas, rhythm and rhyme schemes.
• Compare poems with a similar theme.
• Analyse your response to poetry with reference to a particular poem.
• Property of Government of Uganda

Keywords 

• simile
• personification
• regular length
• irregular length
• metaphor
• end of line rhyme


Introduction

In this chapter, you will read about poetry and different families and their different levels of happiness. You will engage with poems about family life and think critically about their meaning. Your home and family are supposed to be a happy and safe place for you, and in many cases they are.

Parents are loving and take good care of their children. You probably know, however, that this is not always what family life is like for children. Sometimes parents treat their children poorly, and they are very unhappy as a family. There are often rebellious children, who think their parents do not allow them enough freedom to do as they please.

Do you know such families? What do you think the ideal family should look like? Do you know of examples of such ideal families?

Activity 6.1 Poem about family life

Read the first of the three poems you will be comparing. All of the poems are about family life, and how it is experienced by the poets. Write notes in your exercise book on anything in the poem that draws your attention. Make use of the glossaries provided, and a dictionary, to look up any words you do not understand.

The Secret Heart

Across the years he could recall His father one way best of all.

In the stillest hour of night, The boy awakened to a light.

Half in dreams, he saw his sire
With his great hands full of fire.

The man had struck a match to see
If his son slept peacefully.

He held his palms each side the spark
His love had kindled in the dark.

His two hands were curved apart
In the semblance of a heart.

He wore, it seemed to his small son, A bare heart on his hidden one,

A heart that gave out such a glow No son awake could bear to know.

It showed a look upon a face Too tender for the day to trace.

One instant, it lit all about,
And then the secret heart went out.

But it shone long enough for one To know that hands held up the sun. 

by Robert P. Tristram Coffin

Activity 6.2 Study the poem, The Secret Heart

1. Identify the poetic features in the poem.
a) How many stanzas are there in the poem?
b) Are there lines that rhyme? If there is, is there a pattern? What is the pattern or rhyme scheme?
c) How is the poem punctuated? Is there any variation in the punctuation? d) Does the poem have a rhythm to it? Try tapping it out softly on your
desk. Make a note about the rhythm or lack of rhythm in the poem. e) Can you find examples of metaphor, simile or personification in the poem? Write them in your exercise book.
2. Compare your answers with those of your partner. Discuss any differing
answers.

Activity 6.3 Read the next poem
1. Read the poem silently.
The whipping tree Her arm rises and falls; rises and falls.
His breath hitches; holds.

I will not cry. I will not cry.
Her face is terrible to see. Is that anger or fear?

The bruises rainbow on his back
until skin breaks; he bleeds.

The blood brings pause;
She wipes her face and holds.
He is silent still; air huffs
In short gasps through his lips.

The red haze clears; her eyes
wake and see. The blood, the boy
her son, her judge,
lies still upon the ground.

She wails, runs to the tree
Tries to hide her inside from
her out.

The neighbours see the bad mother, the whipping tree.
His eyes are open, and he sees

His mother bowed and shaken
by her beast. He licks the blood; the taste of strength. He loves her still.

by Anonymous

2. Write two sentences explaining how this poem and the first poem differ
from each other.

Activity 6.4 Analyse The whipping tree

1. Describe the structure of the poem. How many stanzas does it have? Are they of regular or irregular length? How is the poem punctuated? Is the punctuation the same throughout?

2. What do you notice about the rhyme and rhythm of the poem?

3. Find examples of the figures of speech in the poem, and explain them.

a) Metaphor
b) Repetition

4. The second stanza and the last stanza give a clue to the woman’s abuse of the child. Why does she abuse the child physically by beating him so brutally?

5. The word ‘still’ is used in different ways in the poem. Write down two different meanings of the word ‘still’, from the poem.

6. Exchange books with a partner and consider each other’s answers.

Activity 6.5 Read the third poem

Let me grow
My mother raised me well Nurtured me, like a seedling

Fed me like a young plant Kept the weeds away

Let me grow, let me be Let me be, young and free

She guided my growth Up the trellis of life Watered me with wisdom Then left me to my way

Let me grow, let me be Let me be, young and free

She knew my roots are firm 

My growth is straight 

My leaves seek light 

And I am ready for my day
Let me grow, let me be 

Let me be, young and free
Who are you to cut me back?

To nip my promise in the bud

To prune my growth
To make me do what you say?
Let me grow, let me be 

Let me be, young and free
I am strong; I grow true
And it’s not because of you

Bless you mother
For showing me the way

Let me live, let me be
I am young, I am free.

by Anonymous

Poetry……… Poetry………..Poetry……………..Poetry……………..Poetry………………Poetry…………Poetry……….Poetry

1. What effect does the repetition of the couplet have? (The couplet is the two-line rhyme that repeats.)

2. What is the theme of the poem?

3. Who do you think is being addressed in this poem?

4. In each stanza, except the last, the poet uses a figure of speech to describe of a plant growing.

Draw a table with two columns. Write the name of the figure of speech in one column, and its meaning in the next.

5. Exchange books with a partner and mark each other’s work.

Apostrophe

You know that an apostrophe is a punctuation mark that shows possession, speech? for example, the man’s hat. But do you know that apostrophe is also a figure of

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are. 

Up above the world so high, 

Like a diamond in the sky.

Here the person is speaking directly to the star, asking it what it is. This direct speaking, to a lifeless thing, is called an apostrophe. It can also be used to speak to an unknown, unidentified person.

Activity 6.6 Compare the three poems
Work in groups.

1. What is similar about the themes? How do the themes differ?
2. Have you enjoyed reading the poems? Give a reason for your answer. 3. Do the poems reflect your own experiences of family life?
4. Which words made you respond to the poems, either positively or negatively?

Activity 6.7 Prepare a poem for the presentation
Work in groups.

1. Choose a poem from an anthology, or from the Internet, about family life. Make sure that every member of the group has at least one stanza to read.
3. Take turns to read your group’s poem to the class.
4. Your group from the is to explain the theme of the poem, citing words and phrases poem to support your point of view.