THOUGHT
ADVENTURE
IS THIS A POEM?
Thinking about poetry
Approaching poetry and engaging students with poetry is always a
challenge for teachers, but one way to do so is to invite students to think
about what poetry is (and what it’s not).
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Anchor the children (see page 7, and box) to the poem’s question, making sure you open
them up (see Appendix 1).
•If they say ‘yes’ then ask, ‘Why is it a poem?’
•If they say ‘no’ ask them, ‘Why is it not a poem?’
•In order to begin drawing up a definition of poetry with the class, always follow up with this
task question:
Equipment and preparation needed
A whiteboard and board pens
Have the poems ‘A Shopping List?’
and ‘Am I a Poem?’ ready to project or
hand out
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Key facilitation tool
Anchoring (see page 7)
Subject links
Literacy
(poetry)
Key controversies
Can poetry be clearly defined?
What is and what is not poetry?
Key concepts and vocabulary
Couplet
Poetry
Scan
Form
Prose
Simile
Line
Rhyme
Stanza
Metaphor
Rhythm
KEY FACILITATION TOOL
Anchor
See also ‘Anchoring’ on page 7. In this session, the key question is: ‘What is a poem?’ So when
the children answer the task question ‘Is it a poem?’, in order to encourage the students to make
their answer relevant and informative, it will often (though not always) need to be anchored to
the main question: ‘So, if it is not a poem then what is a poem and why?’ Or if the task question
is: ‘Does a poem have to rhyme?’ and the answer is ‘no’, anchor like so: ‘So, if a poem doesn’t
need to rhyme what does a poem need, if anything?’ If you continue anchoring throughout the
session you are much more likely to have a rich list of possible necessary features of a poem,
and (probably) many of them will be what you were meant to teach that day, such as rhyme and
rhythm and possibly a few extras too, such as artistic intention or free verse.
Task question:
If this is not a poem, then what is a poem?
Do: Record the answers on the board using a concept-map (see page 88).
Nested questions
Is ‘Is This a Poem?’ a poem or not?
If so, why? If not, why not?
What if it was written out like this: Is this a poem?
Or backwards: ?meop a siht sI
How many different ways can this poem be presented?
What is a poem?
What if it was called (and read) ‘This Is a Poem’ – would it be a poem then?
And what if it was called (and read) ‘This Is Not a Poem’ – would it be a poem then, or not?
What about ‘I Am a Poem.’ Or ‘Am I a Poem?’ (See ‘Am I a Poem?’ on the next page)
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EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Borderline cases
Here are some more examples of short poems.
Mattina
M’illumino d’immenso
(Ungaretti)
Task question:
Say: Today’s question doesn’t come from me; it comes from a …
well, that’s just it – that’s what we’re going to have to investigate.
Do: Write this up on the board:
“
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Is
This
A
Poem?
”
Fleas
Adam
Had ’em
(anonymous)
Poet
Poet?
Know it!
(Peter Worley)
Task question:
Can you translate ‘Mattina’ from Italian into English?
Me
We
(Muhammed Ali)
Three Things I hate
Hate
Lists
Irony
(A variation by Peter Worley on popular Internet posts)
Are the above examples poems?
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Shopping list?
Shopping List A
Shopping List B
Cereal
String
Strawberries
Flour
Pots
Toms
Cream (sour)
Cereal
String
Strawberries
Flour
Pots
Toms
Cream (sour)
Task question:
If one of these was written to be a poem and the other was
written to be a shopping list, are either of them poems?
Nested questions
Go through your list of features of poetry (see concept-map instruction). Does ‘Shopping List
A or B’ have any of the features you listed? For example, does it rhyme? Does it have rhythm?
Is there any perceptible difference between the two examples?
Is there any (non-perceptible) difference between the two examples?
What is a ‘non-perceptible difference’? Does it make sense?
Does the intention of the writer make any difference as to whether it’s a poem or a shopping
list? If it is a significant difference, is intention a ‘perceptible’ or ‘non-perceptible’ difference?
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Am I a Poem?
I am a poem
Though you may not agree
I rhyme and have rhythm
And a little imagery:
‘Like a small framed painting’
– Or at least I do now.
It’s a simile as well,
To make you go ‘Wow!’
(Peter Worley)
Task question:
Shortings
Thoughtings are poems written to get you thinking. A shorting is a Thoughting for the Twitter
generation, written to get you thinking in 140 characters or less. Here are a couple of examples.
“
Space To Think
Nospacetothinkmakesnosense
Space to think makes sense.
B ut notw hen thes p ace s
A r ei nthew ron gp lac e s.
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See ‘The ghost’ (page 1) for a model for approaching the interpretation of poems, and see also
PaRDeS (Appendix 2) for some ideas of how to put a poem like this to the children.
“
Sort of
I could of. I should of. Would I of? Sort of. But could of is sort of short of should of.
So did I?
I – sort of just short of – did.
Task question:
”
Did whoever it is do whatever it is they’re talking about doing?
Nested questions
Can you read the poem out loud, replacing the incorrect words with the correct words?
Should all the ‘of’s be replaced with ‘have’s?
What’s the difference between ‘short of’ and ‘short for’? Which one is being used in the poem?
What does ‘sort of just short of did’ mean?
In what way is ‘could of’ short of ‘should of’?
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Do: Have the children write their own shortings (in 140 characters or less).
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Is ‘Am I a Poem?’ a poem?
Nested questions
The poem says that it has rhyme, rhythm, imagery and a simile. Is the poem right? Check to
see if it has these features. If it does, does that make it a poem?
If the poem says that it’s a poem, does that mean that it is a poem? Compare this with:
If you say that you’re a girl, does that mean that you are a girl?
If you say that you are saying something, does that mean that you are saying something?
If you ask your smartphone if it’s happy and it says ‘yes’, does that mean that it is happy?
Is the poem ‘Am I a Poem?’ cheating? If so, in what way?
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Links
The Philosophy Shop: Philosophical Poetry; Said and Unsaid;
What We Talk About When We Talk About Words
Thoughtings: Puzzles, Problems and Paradoxes in Poetry to Think With
by Peter Worley and Andrew Day
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