Say what you really mean

Why is it that studying English in high school is so hard to some? Either one is a wordy person and loves language with all it's symbolism and metaphor meanings (right brain) or they totally want the bottom line and want to cut out all the crap...the flowery language, the thought of several interpretations, the creative side of the brain (they are left brain people.) Which brain are you?

While teaching the poem "The Darkling Thrush" by English poet and novelist, Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), I truly felt sorry for some of my 12th graders. How many people sitting in an English class are going to major in English in college? I'd ask that question every year - and MAYBE one would raise their hand. (Then I'd try to explain that an English major just isn't for teaching...one could work at a newspaper, an advertising agency, write a novel, be an editor of some sort, a writer for television, etc.) However, for those who did not/do not really like English...this story is for you.

Now, I have to write this little ditty so you can understand. And, bear with me, I have to interpret the meaning for some of you so you'll appreciate the punch line. Here goes:

"The Darkling Thrush" by Thomas Hardy

"I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was specter-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day. (Stop here. Question: What is the setting?
Answer: Winter twilight)

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like string of broke lyres, (Stop here. Question: What figure of speech is
being used here? Answer: Simile - compares two apparently dissimilar things by using key words such as like or as)

And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.


The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outlent,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry.
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervorless and I. (Stop here. Question: This poem was written
on 12/31/1900, the last day of the 19th century. What are the images
of death in this stanza? Answer: "Corpse", "crypt", "death lament",
and "spirit" create a feeling of gloom and dispair. )

Discuss imagery- the descriptive language used in literature
to re-create sensory experiences.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong,
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In glast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom. (Stop here. Question: What is this stanza saying?
Answer: The joyful singing of the weak, old, thrush begins to lift the
gloom of the preceding stanzas.)

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware. (Stop here. Question: Which word contradict the spirit of
the poem? Answer: "Hope" Question: Which words contradict the
bleakness of this poem? Answer: "happy", "good")

Critical thinking: The thrush seems small and vulnerable to the cold. It must deal with the harsh climate, but it keeps on singing anyway.

OK - now this 32 line poem with all its stops and starts would probably take at least 30 minutes to discuss with students' input. Especially if you stop to give the definition of many words they might not understand. In English, you tear the literature apart, in this case, this little poem, and dissect every little thing one could possibly define and describe about this poem. The literary elements. Themes. Author's meaning. Why the author wrote this poem. I mean, English can be wordy and endless (notice how long my stories are?) Got it?

So, with many more poems in British Literature by the likes of Emily Bronte, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman and others regarding the "Gloom and Glory" themes (how hope can exist even in the midst of loneliness and despair) that lasted a couple of weeks, it is now time to have a test. I like to review before my tests.

While describing each poem by the above poets, I would give hints of what each poem was about. But when I got to this poem, for some reason, they just didn't remember it. I started off with who the author of the poem was, imagery from the poem, setting, and clues that I just knew would jog their memory. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Finally in a huff and hurry to move on to review more in my time frame, I said, "Come on! You remember it...'Bird survives Winter.' " Took 2 seconds.

One particular student looked up from her notes and said, "Mrs. Webster!!!!! If that was all it was about, why didn't you just say that when we discussed that poem?" (Must have been a left-brain student. )

Why didn't I?