Poem for the Day

I've been sifting through a lot of poems lately because we're working on a Poetry Slam in each of my classes. This is a competitive form of poetry reading, and the kids have really gotten interested. Originally I'd only planned to have the slam in my highly capable block. I made a competition bracket for them and posted it on the board so they would know when their turn was coming.

Then, my small, TLC block saw the bracket and begged to be allowed to do their own! I found myself saying "I don't know kids; you'll have to read a lot of poems..." This only made them beg harder, so I finally "relented" and they are having their own little competition. All the kids come prepared with poems, and then they compete in pairs. After the second reader is finished, the audience votes to decide who will go through to the next round.

I created a blog so they would have a "safe" source of poems from which to choose (lots of sites on the web include some really, ahem, mature material). The nice part is that I can see which poems they're looking at, and which ones they ultimately choose. Of course not everyone uses the site, and I've had to nix one poem about boobs and another about toilets. It's a weird thing to be the censor, but there you are.

The great part about all this is watching the kids discover poems for the first time. One boy ran up to me in a panic before class one day and said "Miss X I think I picked a dumb poem! Have you ever even heard of a poet called Emily Dickenson?!" I reassured him that "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" is not a "dumb" poem by any means. I swear I'm not making this stuff up.

Another boy chose the poem "War is Kind" by Stephen Crane. He has always been an angry and difficult child who often refused to do the simplest tasks. For a while, none of his peers would sit next to him because he was so unpleasant. However, when he read this tragic piece about the horrors of war, all the kids were transfixed. His hands were shaking as he went up, but he did such a beautiful job that no one said a word when he was done. Who knows what that moment might have done for him, but it certainly made an impression on everyone else.

Here's the poem he read, and don't worry, we spent quite bit of time discussing the use of irony. We also talked about how the ultimate message of the poem was very much an anti-war sentiment.

War is Kind

by Stephen Crane

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment
Little souls who thirst for fight,
These men were born to drill and die
The unexplained glory flies above them
Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom--
A field where a thousand corpses lie.
Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,
Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Swift, blazing flag of the regiment
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die
Point for them the virtue of slaughter
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.
Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
Do not weep.
War is kind