Poetry can be hard. Just hard. But poetry is also the flavor to our language. The creative license to morph, change, manipulate, and even make a joke of our words gives the poet power to communicate beyond the written words on the page. It is this space between the lines of poetry where the true artistry lies.
When we teach poetry to children, we might stare it down like a deer caught in the headlights of a quickly approaching vehicle. We can certainly present it as a battery of literary devices, such as alliteration, metaphor, consonance, etc., to check off our list, or we can simply require the memorization and subsequent recitation of the “great” poems. They will catch an idea of poetry and be able to recognize its shadow, but really getting to know poetry will draw attention to the message or impression that is covertly placed between the words. The beauty of poetry really lies in the relationship between the concrete and abstract, and our children are still working to create a category in their world for the abstract. So…teaching poetry to children can be very hard.
Enter the well-written song! If I were writing a comic book right now, this would be the entrance of the super hero. A song can be your best and first tool to help your children move away from dissecting poetry like a science project and start to notice the many elements which make poetry the art of language.
To begin, let’s take a moment to define a well-written song. All songs are not created equally! The first quality of a well-written song is that it must be crafted with intentional meter and sound devices. Secondly, a well-written song will have a melody which supports and gives deeper meaning to the subject of the song. This connection between music and meaning provides the bridge for children to begin understanding the unspoken communication of poetry. Finally, a well-written song will evoke emotion of some sort because the message has stretched past the intellect to reach the heart. Think of your favorite song, and you will most likely feel an emotional rise from within. You probably have great appreciation for your favorite song, so how wonderful would it be for our children to have the same appreciation for poetry? How much wider their world would be!
A well-written song provides hand holds for children to concretely “see” the abstract qualities of poetry. Additionally, most children naturally love music, and it can lighten the task ahead. Through the song, children can hear the rise and fall and the predictable nature of the meter because the melody calls attention to these features. The melody is also the avenue for discussion about climax and resolution or discord. The key and arrangement of the song will open the door to mood and atmosphere, and the goosebumps you experience from a truly touching song provide the element of excitement to ignite a love of artistic language.
So are you ready to give it a go? In the next two posts, I will walk through a song to illustrate the process and give practical steps to implement this process for different age ranges. You might be surprised, though, to find even your young children hanging with your older children.
As always, I encourage you to sing with your children daily. They will not remember if you always have your laundry folded and put away, but they will remember singing together and often with you!
Come Sing Together 