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Subject: English and Language Arts
Grade Level: Elementary 2 to 12
Overview
Students will explore a variety of poems related to the ocean and sailing.
They will gain a greater appreciation for poetry as a medium for expressing
feeling and images and create use their own experience to create sailing,
ocean, or adventure poems.
Skills
produces quality work;thinks creatively;communication
Background Information
Often, we cannot express true emotion through conventional writing. Poetry
allows us to convey strong feelings and images by freeing us from the
constraints imposed by prosaic writing. Poets find inspiration in everyday
life and objects and make the ordinary extraordinary.
Generations of poets and dreamers have found inspiration in the ocean
and sailing adventures. This lesson provides a framework for bringing
some of this poetry to life and helping students find their own inspiration
and nurture their own poetic instincts.
Students are notoriously reticent to study poetry and even more fearful
of attempting to create their own. This lesson is designed to take place
over several periods or days, allowing students to immerse themselves
in the beauty of poetic language and get past that fear. It can also be
used as part of a larger poetry unit in which students explore the many
poetic forms and a variety of inspirational themes or objects.
Sample Poems
SEA FEVER
I must go down to the sea again,
to the lonely sea and sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by.
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song,
And the white sails shaking,
And a Grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the sea again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
And the sea gulls crying.
I must go down to the sea again,
to the vagrant gypsy life;
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow-rover,
And a quiet sleep and sweet dream
when the long trick's over.
John Masefield Salt-Water Ballads, 1902
THE SEA GYPSY
I am fevered with the sunset,
I am fretful with the bay,
For the wander-thirst in on me
And my soul is in Cathay.
There's a schooner in the offing,
With her topsails shot with fire,
And my heart had gone aboard her
For the Islands of Desire.
I must forth again to-morrow!
With the sunset I must be
Hull down on the trail of rapture
In the wonder of the Sea.
Richard Hovey
A WANDERER'S SONG
A wind's in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels,
I am tired of brick and stone and rumbling wagon wheels;
I hunger for the sea's edge, the limits on the land,
Where the wild old Atlantic is shouting on the sand.
Oh, I'll be going, leaving the noises of the street,
To where a lifting foresail-foot is yanking at the sheet;
To a windy, tossing anchorage where yawls and ketches ride,
Oh, I'll be going, going, until I meet the tide.
And first I'll hear the sea-wind, the mewing of the gulls,
The clucking, sucking of the sea about the rusty hulls.
The songs a the capstan in the hooker warping out,
And then the heart of me will know I'm there or thereabout.
Oh, I am tired of brick and stone, the heart of me is sick,
For windy green, unquiet sea, the realm of Moby Dick;
And I'll be going, going, from the roaring of the wheels,
For a wind's in the heart of me, a fire's in my heels
John Masefield
OLD SHIPS
There is a memory stays upon old ships,
A weightless cargo in the musty hold, --
Of bright lagoons and prow-caressing lips,
Of stormy midnights, -- and a tale untold.
They have remembered islands in the dawn,
And windy capes that tried their slender spars,
And tortuous channels where their keels have gone,
And calm blue nights of stillness and the stars.
Ah, never think that ships forget a shore,
Or bitter seas, or winds that made them wise;
There is a dream upon them, evermore;
and there be some who say that sunk ships rise
To seek familiar harbors in the night,
Blowing in mists, their spectral sails like light.
David Morton
SEA CALL
My old love for the water has come back again --
I had forgotten its surging, so long, so long away;
Sapphire blue in the sunlight and green-grey in the rain,
And the same waves cresting, and the same sharp spray;
There was left a wave in my heart when I went to the inland towns,
Something that moved and murmurmed in the days when I forgot;
Vivid flowers of the gardens or thick long grass of the downs --
What were the sweets of the summer days, where the calling waves
were not?
My old love for the water has come back once more;
The wave of the deep draws full, and the wave in my heart lifts
high;
This is my own old country and my own old shore . . .
And I cannot leave the water till the day I die.
Margaret Widdemer
HIGH-TIDE
I edged back against the night.
The sea growled assault on the wave-bitten shore.
And the breakers,
Like young and impatient hounds,
Sprang, with rough joy on the shrinking sand.
Sprang, but were drawn back slowly,
With a long, relentless pull,
Whimpering into the dark.
Then I saw who held them captive;
And I saw how they were bound
With a broad and quivering leash of light,
Held by the moon,
As, calm and unsmiling,
She walked the deep fields of the sky.
Jean Starr Untermeyer
Objectives
To help students see the beauty and power in poetic language
To expose them to a variety of poetic styles and poets
Students will be able to:
1. Determine what poetry is and what it does
2. Listen to and discuss the success of poems based on the criteria of
what makes a poem
3. Read poetry aloud, using proper expression and inflection
4. Write their own poems, evoking images and feelings
Materials
Copies of poems provided here, or of your own choosing, related to ocean
voyages or water
Poetry journals, one per student
Poetry Rating Worksheets
A variety of poetry collections and books with ocean themes
Procedure
Lesson One: Reading and Listening (may take several periods)
1. Choose a variety of ocean related poems, between 10 and 20, depending
on their length and the attention span of your students. Decide in what
order the poems will be read and prepare the poetry rating sheet according
to your chosen poems.
2. Hand out the poetry journals and explain that they are for recording
any thoughts, feelings, images, etc. related to poetry. They can write
about poems they hear or read, or can record images or lines whenever
inspiration hits. They should be able to draw in these, as well. The journals
are private, and it is understood that they will only be shared with the
teacher.
3. Explain that you will be reading some poems aloud. It is expected that
students will listen quietly and respectfully, not making any noises that
in any way express their feelings. Poker faces only. After the poem has
been read, they should rate the poem from 1-10, 10 being the best poem
they ever heard, 1 being the worst.
4. Dim the lights, if possible. Set the tone as serious and mysterious.
Tell students to listen carefully and decide how the poems make them feel
or what they picture. Read each poem through twice, slowly, with expression.
Allow a minute or two afterwards for students to rate each poem.
5. When you have finished (or when they have had enough), discuss what
poems are and what they do. What makes a good poem? Students can use examples
from the poems they just heard to illustrate their points. Keep a running
list of their ideas.
6. Use the rest of the period, or the next few days, for poetry immersion.
Make the poetry collections and anthologies available and invite students
to choose a book and explore it, copying any particularly meaningful lines
or poems or thoughts into their poetry journals.
7. Allow 5-10 minutes at the end of each period for optional student sharing.
Bring the whole class together and invite each student to share a meaningful
discovery, even if it is just one line or image.
Lesson Two: Writing and Creating
1. Once students have become comfortable with poetry as a medium, allow
them to explore creating their own images.
2. Begin with a motivator. Dim the light again, and ask students to close
their eyes and listen to your voice. Describe a peaceful scene on a sailboat.
Ask students to imagine being there. Look around -- what do they see?
What do they smell? How do they feel? Take them on an imaginary journey
across the ocean.
3. When they open their eyes, they should record their feelings, thoughts,
or any images that come to mind. Some may evolve into a whole poem, some
may not. It is important to emphasize that they need not have a completed
poem by the end of the class period. They should be given time to experiment
with language.
4. Again, allow 5-10 minutes at the end for class sharing. Everyone should
share something -- a line, an image, a completed poem. It is important
that everyone feel like a poet.
Final Assessment
Put together a class poetry anthology. Each student should submit a final
draft quality copy of their best written poem. They can choose anything
from their journal, homework, etc. Poems can be illustrated and should
come with a short paragraph about why they chose the poem they did, where
they found inspiration, what techniques they used to convey feelings and
evoke images, and what they feel was most successsful about their poem.
Once all the poems are collected, have them collated, with a cover and
title page, and present one to each student.
Further Exploration
POET OF THE DAY (for longer poetry units)
Assign each student to be Poet of the Day. Start each lesson with their
presentation. They should read about 10 minutes worth of poems they have
discovered and chosen. Special attention should be given to variety and
expression.
Resources
Calkins, Lucy McCormick. The Art of Teaching Writing. 1994
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. The Sea is Calling Me: Poems. New York, Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1986.
McKay, Amy. Sailing Stories and Poems. 1998.
Windham, Sophie, ed. The Mermaid and Other Sea Poems. New York,
Scholastic. 1994.
The Singing World
Links
http://www.washingtonparent.com/articles/9709/poetry.htm
- Ideas on how to share the joy of poetry with your family
http://www.ipl.org/ - An
on-line public library, with separate teen and youth sections
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