Creativity Through Control - Writing Poetry in the English Classroom
Lector drd. Angela STANESCU,
Universitatea “Valahia” Târgovişte
The paper proposes a number of techniques aimed at encouraging creativity while providing
support through the medium of fixed frames for poetry writing. The activities illustrated can be
adapted for all levels of language ability, and provide motivating opportunities for self-expression
and linguistic experimentation. At the same time, these techniques offer a process-oriented
approach to creative writing, while promoting enjoyment of the final product-the learner’s own
poem.
Writing poetry in the foreign language must not necessarily mean a time of frustration, of
racking one’s brains for a topic, a figure of speech or for a rhyming word. Approaches like ‘I’d like
you to write a poem today’, with or without a given topic, can be utterly off-putting and confusing.
The freedom of producing a poem by relying entirely on internal resources cannot but prove a
drawback and a return to the captivity of uninspiring helplessness. The saying ‘ninety-nine per cent
of inspiration is perspiration’ might not be worth applying in this situation.
That is why control can be the name of the game in this area. By control we do not mean
thought or content control, but a prescribed outline of form, something like fixed-form poetry. The
use of models is an essential first step. The model need not be a mere object of contemplation;
students should be given tasks by which they can interact with the text and thus get involved in
recreating it - to rearrange jumbled words or lines, to fill-in gaps or even reconstruct the text from
initial letters. The tasks may help to set the students’ minds in tune or to whet their appetite to
produce their own version, after having got familiar with the overall structure and organization of
the poem. Once the right mood has been created, students are ready to endow their ‘skeleton poem’
with new flesh and blood.
Of course, creation is not seen as instantaneous. It is preceded by establishing a theme - the
model outline can lend itself to any topic area - by discussion and a session of idea generating,
selection and sequencing of ideas. The procedure can make full use of collaborative writing, carried
out in groups or pairs and can easily lead to integration of skills.
Writing a poem does not have to constitute an isolated activity, it can be a follow-up or corollary to
a sequence of lessons, where a discussion, a listening or a reading task centred on a certain theme or
topic are meant to strike a chord and stir the students sensitivity before the model text is actually
introduced.
What is more, writing poetry does not involve abandoning more pragmatic concerns such as
grammar or function practice. In fact, this kind of activity can be extremely fruitful and, most of all,
a memorable opportunity for reinforcement of grammar.
As marvellously demonstrated by Gunter Gerngross and Herbert Puchta in their ‘Creative Grammar
Practice’, poetry can become a vehicle for reinforcement, revision, or recycling of language
structure. The model text exploits a certain grammatical area, and the outline to be filled out
provides a highly melodic structure where various tenses or structures become a kind of leitmotif.
In fact, their book offers a complete grammar course in disguise and teaches us the art of mixing
nothing more than a repetition or substitution drill with loftier elements of poetic feeling, brooding
mood and alert sensitivity distilled in the magic potion called memorability. What more memorable
way of learning grammar than one’s poem, where a personally evocative association of emotional
content, language and rhythm is transfixed through the means of a structural pattern. As in the
procedure already discussed above, the production of the students’ own texts is usually the final
stage in a whole sequence of listening, reading, speaking or other pre-writing activities, often
carried out in groups.
Of course, the issues of formal control and language practice do not imply an emphasis on
form to the expense of content or personal _expression; nor can they be a hindrance to self_expression. On the contrary, they provide guidance and a foundation on which to use language
imaginatively and construct meaning and poetical effect.
Apart from the grammar-focused outlines mentioned above, there are several well-known
models which we can use with our students. Their virtue is that they lend themselves to different
levels of attainment or age-groups, and usually result in satisfaction and further motivation to write.
They are usually fairly simple poetical forms and though they might feed on the language of
imagination, it is clear and comprehensible language expressed in a simple form. Some of the most
popular forms used to enhance creativity through control will be examined below.
a) Name poems (Acrostichs)
For those students who cringe when the word ‘poem’ comes up in conjunction with ‘writing
assignment’, writing name poems can be a fun way to help them with this problem. If they start
working on their names, the resulting poems will be a very telling embodiment of their perceptions
and opinions about themselves or about each other and the activity will help to enhance mutual
knowledge and understanding and good class relationships. They can also work with names of
things, concepts, etc. They will write the word vertically and use each letter as the first letter of a
line. Here are some examples of name poems:
Jumping
Out of her chair she
Yells ‘That’s right!’ all the time.
Maybe
Another woman would not
Understand, but she is
Really
Amazing.
Classrooms
Have
A lot of these
Interesting and useful items,
but they’re not
Recliners.
Woe
Anger
Regret
b) Haiku
The teacher will introduce the idea of a haiku as a long-standing, culture-specific form of
_expression, and provide some examples. Attention should be drawn to the characteristics and
conventions which distinguish such a text - the brevity and the way the essence of the subject is
conveyed in the three line structure: short - long - short, not necessarily observing the precise
number of syllables. However, the idea of the 5-7-5 syllable-lines may prove an additional
challenge, so we can encourage the students to try their hand at it.
As a preparation, we choose an object or a word with many associations. The students will
provide as many words as they can connected with this word. Each student will then choose the ten
or twelve words they like best, which to them are most strongly associated with the subject. The
teacher will construct a haiku with the whole class, using some of the words and ideas on the board
and asking for suggestions from the students. There may be disagreement, and alternative versions
produced. The students can be encouraged to say why they think one version or another is better, or
means more to them.
At this production stage, each group is given a different topic card or is allowed to choose its
own topic. We can set a time limit and ask students to write as many haikus as they can in the time
allowed. We can ensure further involvement if we ask them to write their haikus on separate pieces
of paper, without giving a title. When the haikus are displayed on the wall, students will walk
round, reading them all and trying to guess what the topic is.
Examples of haiku
SUMMER grasses All that remains
Of soldiers’ visions.
SPRING:
A hill without a name
Veiled in morning mist.
Clouds now and then
Giving men relief
From moon-viewing.
The winds of autumn
Blow: yet still green
The chestnut husks.
You say one word
And lips are chilled
By autumn’s wind.
A flash of lightning:
Into the gloom
Goes the heron’s cry.
c) The diamond poem
Structurally more complex than the haiku, the diamond poem draws on the same principle of free
association, both emotional and conceptual and of distillation of personally meaningful notions.
The format is characterized by a fixed morphological configuration disposed in a diamond-shaped
contour. The exercise requires the students to give the essence of their ideas and to express them
concisely (after a previous word association session, as with the haiku). For lower level students, we
need not use grammar terms in the instructions; rather, ‘noun’ can be replaced by
‘person/place/thing’ and adjective by ‘descriptive word’.
(article) noun
adjective and adjective
participle, participle, participle
noun, noun, noun, noun
participle, participle, participle
adjective and adjective
(article) noun
As far as the overall tone of the poem is concerned, the convention is that the top and the bottom
lines are antithetical in meaning. The top part is an exposition of a conflict in a pessimistic tone, the
middle section can be a point where opposites converge and intermingle, while the bottom is a kind
of resolution, a triumph of optimism and hope - like the silver lining of every cloud…
fall
misty and sad
falling, blustering, freezing
cold, darkness, blizzards and thaws
melting, dripping, blossoming
misty and happy
spring
Father
stubborn and taciturn
doing, going, getting
Parents, respect, man, woman
supporting, watching, helping
strict and reasonable
Mother
d) The prepositional poem
Similar to the diamond poem, a prepositional poem fosters self-_expression along the same lines, on
the basis of a different format:
Adjective, adjective, noun
Verb, verb, verb
Prepositional phrase
Prepositional phrase
Prepositional phrase
A noun synonym for the rest for the poem
Examples:
1. strict, taciturn parents
2. Tedious, boring grammar
teach, lead, love
frustrates, confuses, astonishes
from wherever
in the classroom
at whenever
in the library
on whatever
on dates a lifelong model
wonderful English.
e) The Finnish poem
This differs from the formats above in that the prescribed morphological configuration is not
specified, but ‘encoded’ or translated into lexical symbols (we can pretend it is written in Finnish or
in an unknown language). The students will have to ‘translate’ it into English, with the help of clues
to the code - ‘ja’ means ‘and’; all the other words are nouns.
Kadut
Kadut ja kukat
Kadut ja naiset
Kadut
Kadut ja kukat ja naiset
Ja lapset
Seeds
Seeds and roots
Seeds and plants
Seeds and roots and plants
And life.
f) Chinese poem
This explicitly introduces the idea of imitation of form or repetition of theme as a matter of keeping
up literary tradition or paying homage to the past and one’s predecessors.
As with the haiku, a suitable amount of exposure to authentic poems is required. Tricia Hedge
proposes a work card including a short presentation of the particular form accompanied by several
examples. Besides giving the students a chance to exploit these forms creatively, these activities
entail cross-cultural interferences and expanding their aesthetic and cultural perspective.
HSU KAN
A wife’s thoughts, III2
Since you, sir, went away,
My bright mirror is dim and untended.
My thoughts of you are like flowing water;
Will they ever have an end?
WANG JUNG
In imitation of Hsu Kan
SINCE you, sir, went away,
My golden burner has had no incense,
For thinking of you I am like the bright candle,
At midnight vainly burning itself away.
g) The Shape poem
This draws more on the visual effect than the diamond poem and involves a freer choice of
language and shape. That is why the outcomes may be as various as there are learners. The principle
of presenting model texts remains an essential one. The procedure involves brainstorming and
listing of things which have a distinctive shape, such as animals, flowers, toys, machines. Another
tip could be getting ideas together for the kind of things that might be put into the poem, in order to
ensure a perfect match between content and shape. With elementary students upwards, irrespective
of age, a shape poem would provide satisfaction on several levels: intellectual, emotional and
visual.
h) The Sensorial poem
This offers the possibility of perceiving and capturing tones of meaning underlying abstract notions
or situations of everyday life. It entails a process of free association, of digging up personal
connotations attributed to a certain abstract noun and a synthesis between the senses (sight, hearing,
smell, taste, touch) and the associated emotions. The outcomes can be some outstanding evidence of
deep insight, sensitivity and evocative power.
(Sunday morning) is … (colour)
It looks like…
It smells like…
It sounds like…
It tastes like…
And it feels like…
i) The definition poem
This format appeals to the same faculty of making associations and encapsulating them in selfcontained gems of meaning and _expression.
Students are given a topic (things, people, concepts) and asked to write metaphorical definitions on
separate strips of paper. Each student will contribute to the pool with three strips. Groups select the
definitions they like best and incorporate them in an up to ten lines poem sequence. Each line will
repeat the topic: X is/are …
j) Poem outline - sociological profiles
Starting from a given outline, the poem aims at discovering the essential features of a certain human
group. It can refer to age, sex or professional groups or people in certain situations.
Again, it draws on the power of association and on emotional glimpses into the essence of human
condition and existence - a kind of quintessential poem, term equally applicable to practically all the
forms listed above.
A possible outline can look like this:
Old people are like…
Their clothes are/they dress…
They walk…
They like…
They don’t like…
They talk about…
They are afraid of…
Their secrets are…
And they dream of…
A common feature characterizing all the poetic forms discussed above is their suitability for
collaborative writing and integration of skills, alongside with guidance through the thorny paths of
creative _expression backed up by a success-oriented approach.
Though most of them offer a frozen structure to be observed, they are a springboard for language
eploration, with particular focus on lexis, in such areas as synonymy, antonymy, collocation,
connotation.
Playing with language is encouraged as a means towards a product with content at its core.
Using form as a springboard for content-based poetry is an easy and smooth way towards peaks of
lyricism and poetic _expression. The quite simple formats described above can pave the way for
more complex and ambitious forms of poetry - why not, the sonnet, if we are to think of English
literary traditions. And if we wax too lyrical or overawed by the depth of our own poetic feeling and
by the seriousness of our writing task, we can always turn to the more playful resources of English
literature: the limerick tradition and all the range of nonsense rhymes which make a unique literary
tradition.
Of course, controlled poetry writing is not to be regarded as the only approach to poetry. At more
advanced levels or within literature lessons, writing a poem can follow as a response to reading
authentic poetry. After careful reading and personalizing the ideatic and emotional texture of a text
in the light of one’s own experience and outlook, attempting to respond through poetry, would be in
the natural course of things.
Writing poems in blank verse gives students the opportunity to explore the language, to organize
their ideas with great care, to manipulate sentence structure, to select words, and to think about
appropriate collocations. It also encourages the drafting process, as students are anxious to make
their poems sound right.
Of course, the need for ‘publication’ or display of their work remains a sine-qua-non requirement,
as a source of satisfaction and further motivation to write.
References:
Byrne, Donn- Just Write (Macmillan, 1988)
-Teaching Writing Skills (Longman, 1988)
Gerngross, Gunter and Puchta, Herbert- Creative Grammar Practice (Longman, 1992)
Hedge, Tricia- Pen to Paper (Nelson, 1983)
- In a Word (Nelson,1983
Klauser, H. A.- Writing on Both Sides of the Brain. Breakthrough Techniques for People who Write
(Harper and Row, 1986)