8th Grade Poetry Recitation

The 8th grade continued their year-long poetry studies into April, which is National Poetry Month. Earlier in the year, their focus had been on poets who are currently working and writing, who are in the midst of their careers, and who could surprise us at any time with new contributions for our enjoyment and exploration. This existence of immediacy - the awareness that poetry is current and alive and relevant, that you can actually call the writer of a favorite poem and speak with them - exerts a powerful draw to contemporary poetry.

On the other hand, if all that children come up against are rock-hard restrictions, inflexible formats, antiquated language, and obscure, lost allusions, then they are going to avoid engaging with poetry. Much poetry from previous periods falls into this broad category. Fortunately, there are plenty of masterful poems that evade these deadening characteristics.

Recently, the 8th graders were let loose on ‘famous’ poems from previous eras, poems whose voice and content are just as current as anything written today. The students were tasked with finding multiple readings online (by the famous and the professional, as well as the unknown and the amateur), in order to improve their own recital (which were required to record). They were expected to read as much about the poems as they could locate, to help them form their individual interpretations, which they put forth in a short essay. To help the students unfold their poems, each 8 West student was paired with one from 8 East.