That's how we do it: quick speech on the dramatic monologue the day after the midterm, then a class reading. A few years back Don Share came and talked to some of our classes when he was head of Poetry magazine, and Prufrock was the poem he talked to them about, too. It was very cool.
Burned into my memory: freshman year of college out on the lawn on a spring day reading this poem from the Norton Anthology, and a beautiful senior girl came over and sat on the grass with us and asked what we were reading. She proceeded to read this through, slowly and dramatically, and I closed
my eyes and felt the sun and it was the first time I knew what poetry was for. I’ve never lost that deep “click” of understanding that this poem and that moment unlocked.
When I go to a poetry reading, the poets always use a deadpan style, I guess to leave the meaning and response open to the audience.
I read a lot to all levels I taught, and went for the dramatic style. Emphasizing certain word/rhythms helped bring meaning off the page for struggling readers.
Could easily spend a half hour simply reading aloud (taking turns) with a class, observing rhythm, language, placement imagery. Then more later, exploring context.
Kids are surprisingly ready for it, I find. Slows down the world, raises the focus and reflection. What is a classroom for, anyway?
(I mean, common practice in, say, a Latin 4 class, but there we already have a permission slip to do just this on account of having to render a poem from Latin to English, and that experience comes out in the translation process. But English class gets pulled by so many different demands, sadly.)
I do this with the final paragraphs of Joyce’s The Dead when I teach it and it always works. Students get beautiful language when there’s time to absorb it
So many lines here achieved the amazing feat of passing into the general culture as quotable mass memory. Curious whether that penetration and reach remains. Do students recognize any of these lines? Also curious how they see E’s annoying practice of erecting language gates as epigraphs.
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https://julianpeterscomics.com/page-1-the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock-by-t-s-eliot/
I read a lot to all levels I taught, and went for the dramatic style. Emphasizing certain word/rhythms helped bring meaning off the page for struggling readers.
Kids are surprisingly ready for it, I find. Slows down the world, raises the focus and reflection. What is a classroom for, anyway?