1

The Pleasure of Teaching English Poetry

Luke P. M. Chan & Liu Hsiao-Fang
Fooyin University of Technology

ABSTRCT

Students in Fooyin do not show much in studying English poetry. If they have a
chance to select between English Poetry and some other courses, most of them would
rather like some other courses, instead of English Poetry. Hence, how to create a
better atmosphere of learning and develop the pleasure of learning in the classroom is
the most concerned in the teaching of poetry. Are there any ways for teachers to use
in the process of teaching English poetry? In solving this problem, the writer of this
paper presents the following three ways: (1) Using English songs, (2) Access to
Network, and (3) Classroom Activities.
Songs are considered as a very useful supplementary tool in raising students
interest in learning. Therefore, it is a good way to teach English Poetry by using
English songs. There are so many resources and materials related to English Poetry,
which can be found in a variety of websites. With the help of these websites, teachers
of English Poetry can enhance their teaching capabilities and qualities and increase
students interest in studying poetry. As for the classroom activities, students
participation is highly emphasized. The classroom activities include Games,
Paraphrasing, Recitation, Dictation, Group Discussion and a name poem.
Poetry can function as a media between the poet and the reader; it can also
function as a media between the teacher and students. If teachers of English poetry
can find a good way to increase students interest in learning poetry, both teachers and
students will like this magic media. If teachers can employ active ways to teach
students, students will find learning English poetry enjoyable. And teachers will find
that teaching poetry is no longer a burden.
Key words: Rhythm, Traditional Folk Song, Network, Paraphrasing

Introduction
Reading poetry gives us pleasure, as Laurence Perrine said in Sound and Sense,
People have read it or listened to it or recited it because they liked it, because it gave
them enjoyment.1 Poetry gives readers pleasure in two ways: audio and visual
pleasure. In the sense of audio pleasure, reading a poem is really pleasurable, for a
poem intimately connected with music and sound, and the beauty of a poem lies in the
musical sound of words in the poem, as a poem is defined as a piece of writing in
which the words are chosen for their beauty and sound and are carefully arranged.2
Most poets compose their poems by using sound and rhythm. The sound of a poem
can create some mood or feelings. The rhythm is the alternation between the stressed
and unstressed syllables in a poem like the beating of a heart or the breathe in and
breathe out of our breath. The sound and rhythm of a poem produce a pleasing
effect. Besides, poetry also gives readers a visual pleasure. Some poets, such as
George Herbert, John Hollander, and Dorthi Charles3, like to create their poems by
arranging words in the shape of a picture like artists and sculptors by using their
paints or clay. The pictures are of various shapes, including a house, a tree, an altar, a
fish, a cat, a smoke, a swan, etc. These kinds of poetry are called picture poems or
visual poems. Some examples of these picture poems are shown in Appendix A.
However, students in Fooyin do not show much interest in studying English
Poetry. If they have a chance to select between English Poetry and some other
courses, most of them would rather like Tourism and Hospitality English or some
others, instead of English Poetry. Hence, how to increase students interest in learning
English Poetry is most concerned of the teachers of literature. It is also the main
purpose of writing this paper. The thesis of this paper is to enhance students
motivation of studying English Poetry and create a better atmosphere of learning and
develop the pleasure of learning in the classroom. Under this situation, the teachers of
literature can find their enjoyment in teaching English Poetry. They dont think that
teaching English Poetry is a very boring and tedious job.
Facing students without any interest in learning poetry, teachers of literature will
probably ask, Are there any teaching strategies for teachers to use in the process of
teaching English Poetry? The writer of this paper presents the following three ways:
(1) Using songs, (2) Access to Network, and (3) Classroom Activities.
(1) Using Songs:
1

Laurence Perrine, Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry (New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc., 1973), p. 3.
2
Poem, Collins Cobuild, 2003 ed.
3
See X.J. Kennedy, & Dana Gioia, An Introduction to Poetry, 9th ed. (New York: Addison Wesley
Longman, Inc., 1998), pp. 242-245.

Songs are considered a very useful supplementary tool in raising students interest
in learning English. Therefore, it is also a good way to teach English Poetry by using
songs since songs are likely to reflect the resonance of students. With the help of
Network, I find so many English poems set to music and sung by people for many
years. Among them, the most popular are Scottish, Irish and British folk songs.
Following are examples I would choose to share with students in the course of
Selected English Verses:
1. Folk Songs of Scotland:
Blue Bells of Scotland
Loch Lomond
My Bonnie lies over the Ocean
Will Ye No Come Back Again?
2. William Shakespeares Songs:
Sigh No More, Ladies
O Mistress Mine
It was a Lover and His Lass
Shall I Compare Thee with a Summer Day?
William Shakespeare was not only a poet and a playwright, but also a
songwriter. Most of his songs are drawn from his plays. For example, Sigh No
More, Ladies, O, Mistress Mine and It Was a Lover and His Lass are drawn
from Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Nights, and As You Like It respectively.
The most common theme of these songs is concerned about love. Besides,
Shakespeares sonnets are popular and also set to music and have become songs.
Shall I Compare Thee with a Summer Day? is one of the best examples. Most
of these melodious songs can be found in the following websites:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/02/19_helmsm_bardso
ngs/
http://www.banchchieri.hu/music/live/vasion/mistress.mp3
http://www.bessbonnier.com/listen,
http://www.musicanet.org/en/CDC/aug01en.htm
http://www.pythagorean.org/k-c/music,htm
3. Ben Jonsons Song to Celia
Ben Jonsons Song to Celia is known to millions of people as Drink to Me
with Thine Eyes. Jonson skillfully quoted the famous line, Drink to me with
thine eyes only, from the love letters of the Greek writer, Philostratus, and
wrote it into his classic lyric. In the following website, we can find the song

which was sung by Linda Maguire:

http://www.lindamaguire.com/audio/audioclips.html

4. Robert Burns Auld Lang Syne

My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose
Auld Lang Syne, a poem by Robert Burns, is one of the best known songs
in English-speaking counties and some of South-East Asian countries. The
melody of this song is traditional Irish folk music. It is generally sung at the end
of a convivial evening and at New Year all over the world. The music of Auld
Lang Syne can be found in the following websites:
http://www.electricscotland.com/burns/langsyne.html
http://web.ripnet.com/~nimmos/auld_lang_syne.html
http://www.robertburns.plus.com/Auldls.htm
And the song of Auld Lang Syne, which was sung by Kenneth McKellar,
can be found in the following website:
http://www.maybole.org/community/celebrations/christmas/greetings/AuldL
angSyne2.mp3
Like Auld Lang Syne, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose is also one of
the most famous poems of Robert Burns. Based upon traditional sources, Burns
wrote this poem-song in 1794. The song can be found in the following
websites:
http://sop1.kaist.ac.kr/~gari/music/Izzy%20Ascolta/03%20-%20My
%20Love%20is%20like%20a%20red%20red%20Rose.mp3 and
http://www.la-nef.com/html/6extras/mp3/red-red-rose/My%20Love%20Is
%20Like%20A%20Red,%20Red.mp3
5. W. B. Yeatss Down by Sally Gardens
Down by Sally Gardens is an Irish song, but the lyrics were written by the
poet William Butler Yeats. According to Yeats, this poem was originally entitled
An Old Song Resung. He explained that this is an attempt to reconstruct an
old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in
the village of Ballysodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself.4 We can find
this song in some websites, which was sung by different singers. In the website,
http://www.folkmusic.com.tw/article.htm, the singer is emi fujita, whereas i n a Korean
website, http://sop1.kaist.ac.kr/~gari/music.html, the singer is Izzy Ascolta.
4

See John, J. Deeney & Yen Yuan-shu & Chi Chiu-lang, English Literature Anthology for Chinese
Student, Volume 2, Revised and Enlarged Edition (Taipei: Wen Lao Publications, 1977), p. 1165.

7. A. E. Housmans When I Was One-and-Twenty

When I Was One-and-Twenty is Housmans most familiar poem, number
XIII from A Shropshire Lad, a collection of 63 poems, which he published at his
own expense in 1896. The song which we find in the following website was
sung by Bryn Terfel: http://www.klassikakzente.de/product.jsp?
eanPrefix=00289&articleNo=4775336&mode=productDetails&name=Silent+N
oon
8. Thomas Moores Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, now best remembered for the lyrics of
The Last Rose of Summer. He was also a good musician and skillful writer of
songs, which he set to Irish tunes. Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young
Charms is one of his best known songs. According to the following website,
http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/believe.html, it is said Moore wrote the
lyrics for the wife of the Duke of Wellington when she suffered facial scars from
smallpox, though there is some doubt that this is true, as they were married in
1806, and their relationship was known not to be an affectionate one. Another
theory is that Moore wrote it for his own wife. This beautiful song can be
found in the following website, http://www.folkmusic.com.tw/article.htm.
9. Christina Rossettis When I am Dead
Christina Rossetti, a poetess in the nineteenth century, was a devout High
Church Anglican. On two occasions, Christina broke off her plans for marriage
for religious principles. Most of her love lyrics are records of frustration and
parting. The poem When I am Dead, My Dearest was one of them. Although I
couldnt find the song made into music directly from this poem, I can find a
Chinese song, which was translated by a famous writer Hsu Chi-More from
Rossettis lyric When I am Dead, My Dearest. The singer is Lin Ching-Hsar,
and the composer is Lo Ta-Yiu.
Advantages of Using Songs to Teach English Poetry
(1) Practicing English Sentence Pattern
The repetition of the lyrics or words of songs can contribute to students
understanding and practicing of English sentences patterns.
(2) Cultivating students cultural awareness
Most of the ballads or folk songs in some countries reflect their culture.
Hence, students can be aware of American and British culture through

learning the folk songs.

(2) Access to Network
In Network, there are so many resources and materials concerning English
Poetry. Most of these websites provide detailed information about the life and
works of English poets and the texts of their poems. Some websites even give
readers the historical background of certain poems and critical essays on them.
Through the access to Network, we find all these materials are very useful to
teachers of literature who want to improve their teaching qualities and enhance
students interest in studying English poetry. Some websites provide us with
some useful methods of how to teach poetry and how to hold poetry activities.
Following are some examples:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/sl/kazakhstan-english-teachers-resources.htm
http://www.poetryteachers.com/
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html
http://teacher2b.com/creative/poetryl.htm
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePlan.do?planId=887
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/poetry_beast/index.html
In some websites, we find some native speakers read their own poems and
the poems by some other poets. All these readings are good models for students
to follow. Following are a few of them:
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/laura_lee_parrotti.htm,
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/richard_stevens. htm,
http://www.eaglesweb.com
http://www.nlu.edu/~eller/amlit/focus/gothic/poegoth.htm,
http://www.mathcs.duq.edu/~tobin/PR_Critic/Audio.html,
http://www.aoxy91.dsl.pipex.com/spokenpoems1.htm
http://www.poetrytheatre.org/main.htm
In some websites, we find some poems presented through videos, such as
http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=597
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/index.html
How to Use Network to Teach English Poetry?
1. Listening to Native Speakers Reading of English Poems

With the help of Network, we play the poem recordings in the classroom and we
encourage students to listen to English poems read by such native speakers as Walter
Rufus Eagles, Richard Stevens, Laura Lee Parrotti, Edward Eller and others. Walter
Rufus Eagles was a poet himself. In his personal website Eaglesweb.com, Eagles
not only read his own poems, but also read the poems by some other poets. His
readings are totally six hundred traditional poems and modern poems on the site.
Richard Stevens reads his favorite classic English poems. Laura Lee Parrotti read
most of Emily Dickinsons poems. And Edward Eller read Edgar Allen Poes
Annabel Lee.
2. Singing the Song after Learning the Poem
Not only listening to the poem, students will also have a chance to sing the song.
We will play the song for students to sing together in class after they learn the poem.
For example, after they learn Edwin Arlington Robinsons Richard Cory, we will
play the song for them to sing.
3. Watching Videos about Poets and Poems
Besides, we also play some videos for students in the audio-video classroom or
the computer classroom. Some websites offer some good programs or projects to help
us in presenting videos. The Favorite Poems Project is one of them. It was founded
by Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States. The Favorite Poem
Project collects 45 short videos of Americans reading and speaking personally about
poems they love. Here are some of the examples:
My Papa's Waltz
by Theodore Roethke
read by William Van Fields
Retired Corporate Executive
Stockton, CA

A Psalm of Life
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
read by Rev. Michael Haynes
Roxbury, MA

#288 ("I'm nobody! Who are you?")

by Emily Dickinson
read by Yina Liang
Student
Decatur, GA

"OUT, OUT
by Robert Frost
read by Elizabeth Wojtusik
Teacher
Humarock, MA

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost
read by Jessie Alpaugh
Student
Berkeley, CA

On a Quiet Night
by Li Po
read by Hui Xia Chin Hong
Student
Elmhurst, NY

Sonnet 29
by William Shakespeare
read by Daniel McCall
Retired Anthropologist
Boston, MA

Block City
by Robert Louis Stevenson
read by Andrew Toporoff
Student
Yorktown Heights, NY

To His Coy Mistress

by Andrew Marvell
read by Kathleen Rogers

Writer
Hull, MA

Advantages of Getting Access to Network:

(1) With the help of the Web, teachers can save much time of preparing teaching
materials.
(2) Owing to the abundant resources in the Web, teachers can enhance their
teaching capabilities and qualities by getting access to network.
(3) The classroom will become animated with music and songs after bringing the
Web into the classroom.
(4) Students attention will be secured and they will focus more attention on their
lessons than before when teachers present audio and video clips.
(3) Classroom Activities:
1. Games
Games are always considered as a good device for teachers to use to motivate
students in study, no matter whether they teach English language or English poetry.
Games not only enhance students understanding of a poem, they also help students
cooperate each other in the processes of playing the games.
Game 1: Ordering the lines of a poem
1. The class can be divided into several groups.
2. Every group consists of four or five students.
3. Every group will be given some pieces of slips with some lines from a poem.
4. Each group will be asked to arrange the order of lines
Sample:
Following is a poem by William Wordsworth. Students will be asked to put all
these lines into good order so that it becomes a complete poem.
1. (
2. (
3. (
4. (
5. (
6. (
7. (
8. (

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)

And I could wish my days to be

A rainbow in the sky:
Bound each to each by natural piety.
The Child is father of the Man,
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
My heart leaps up when I behold
So is it now I am a man,

10

9. (

) So was it when my life began,

Game 2: Completing the poem

1. Every student is given a piece of paper with an incomplete poem on.
2. Students will be asked to complete the poem.
Sample 1:
Directions: Complete the following poem with the suitable expressions:
O My Luve is ______________,
Thats newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is ________________,
Thats sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, ______________,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till ____________________.

a. ten thousand mile

b. the sands o life
c. like a red, red rose
d. melt wi the sun
e. like the melodie
f. my bonnie lass
g. a the seas gand dry
h. fare thee weel awhile

Till a the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks ____________
O I will luve thee still, my dear,
While __________ shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And ___________________
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho it were ____________.
Sample 2:
Directions: Choose the suitable adjective for each blank space of the
following poem.
grey
loud
yellow
sea-scented
fiery
black
lighted
pushing
blue
sharp
slushy
startled
The 1____ sea and the long 2____ land;
And the 3____ half-moon large and low;

11

And the 4____ little waves that leap

In 5____ ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with 6____ prow,
And quench its speed i' the 7____ sand.
Then a mile of warm 8_____ beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick 9____ scratch
And 10____ spurt of a 11____ match,
And a voice less 12____, thro' its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!
2. Paraphrasing
Procedure:
Step One:
I write down the following stanza on the blackboard and ask one student to
paraphrase:
Mak Haste, mak haste, my mirry men all
Our guid schip sails the morne.
O say na sae, my master deir,
For I feir a deadlie shorme.
Step Two:
The student paraphrases as follows:
Hurry up, hurry up, all my happy men,
Our good ships have started sailing in the morning.
Oh no, dont say that, my dear master,
For Im afraid of a terrible storm.
Step Three:
Students will be asked to compare the original text with the students paraphrase.
Through paraphrasing, students will not only understand what the poem means, but
also realize the style between poetry and prose.
3. Reciting Poems:
Procedure:
a. Ten students will be chosen to recite the poem.
b. These ten students can be divided into two groups.

12

c. Each group of five students will stand face to face in front of the class.
d. The first students of each group will start to recite the first lines of the poem
e. The second ones will continue to recite the second line.
f. If any one student of the group cannot continue, that will fail.
4. Dictating:
In Dictation as a Language Learning Device,5 Scott Alkire, English Teacher of
San Jose City College, California, presents twenty-two advantages of dictation in
language learning. Although Alkire didnt mention about dictation as a tool for
teaching English poetry, I like to try it on English poetry teaching. Sometimes, I will
ask students to dictate the poem after they learn it.
5. Group Discussion:
Group discussion is an essential activity in my course. Students will be divided
into several groups; each group consists of four or five students. Each of them will be
given some questions. After they finish discussing, each group will choose one
student to present the results of discussing on the stage.
Sample:
Questions for Group Discussion
(William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree)
1. Is the speaker of this poem on the lake isle of Innisfree or in the city when he
utters this poem? Why?
2. Why does the speaker want to go to the lake isle of Innifsree?
3. Discuss the changing of time and space in the poem.
4. Talk about the structure of the poem. Is this structure correlated with the
theme of the poem?
5. Try to talk about the meaning of the title and its implication within the poem.
6. Writing a name poem
A name poem is perhaps not a poem, but it is an assignment that
most students can do to begin to write a poem. Some examples are
shown as follows:
_________________________________________________________________

Scott Alkire posed this article on the following website: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/AlkireDictation.htm

13

Love thy neighbor as thyself, says He

Is it true, you may ask, He sets me free?
Unselfish, He loves the world, you see.
_________________________________________________________________
Laura, a little angel of mine,
Unlike the other birds, all day for long she sings
Keeping on singing songs line by line,
Ever no more she sings until she has no wings.
_________________________________________________________________
In the world no one loves me as deep as you,
Reading me to sleep and dream when I was young;
In my dreams Im always missing, missing you,
Sitting by your side and singing the songs unsung.
_________________________________________________________________
In the assignment above, the students spell their names
vertically, first or last names. Use the letters of their names to
write a short poem. If the students with longer names, they will
have a longer assignment. With the help of a dictionary, students
enjoy writing their own name poems.
Advantages of Proceeding with Classroom Activities:
(1) Stimulating students interest in learning.
(2) Encouraging students participation in activities.
Conclusion
Poetry has magic. It can touch us and delight us. Sometimes it makes us laugh;
sometimes it makes us cry. Poetry functions as a media between the poet and the
reader; it also functions as a media between the teacher and students. If teachers of

14

English poetry can find good ways to stimulate students interest in learning poetry,
both teachers and students will like this magic media. If teachers can employ active
ways to teach students how to appreciate poetry, students will find learning English
poetry enjoyable. And teachers themselves will find that teaching poetry is no longer
a burden.

15

REFERENCES

Books
Collins Cobuild. 2003 Edition.
Deeney John, J. and Yen, Yuan-shu. and Chi, Chiu-lang. (1977). English
Literature Anthology for Chinese Student, Volume 2, Revised and Enlarged
Edition. Taipei: Wen Lao Publications.
Kennedy, X. J., and Gioia, Dana. eds. (1998). An Introduction to Poetry, 9th ed.
New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Perrine, Laurence. (1973). Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

Websites
American gothic Poe
http://www.nlu.edu/~eller/amlit/focus/gothic/poegoth.htm
Annenberg Media Learner
http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=597
Banchieri Singers
http://www.banchchieri.hu/music/live/vasion/mistress.mp3
Bess Bonnier
http://www.bessbonnier.com/listen,
Eagles Web
http://www.eaglesweb.com
Favorite Piece of August 2001
http://www.musicanet.org/en/CDC/aug01en.htm
Favorite Poem Project
http://www.favoritepoem.org/poems/index.html
Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and America
http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/believe.html,
Klassik Akzente

http://www.klassikakzente.de/product.jsp?
eanPrefix=00289&articleNo=4775336&mode=productDetails&name=Silent+Noon
Linda Maguire Audio Clips

16

http://www.lindamaguire.com/audio/audioclips.html

Minnesota Public Radio

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/02/19_helmsm_bardsongs/
Music from the European Renaissance
http://www.pythagorean.org/k-c/music,htm
Musical Activities for Young Learners of EFL
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Cakir-MusicalActivities.html
My Favorite Music
http://sop1.kaist.ac.kr/~gari/music.html
Poetry Teachers
http://www.poetryteachers.com/
Sing Love Spoken Poems
http://www.aoxy91.dsl.pipex.com/spokenpoems1.htm
Taking a Simple Experience
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePlan.do?planId=887
The All-Purpose Multimedia Poetry Beast
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/poetry_beast/index.html
The English Teacher
http://teacher2b.com/creative/poetryl.htm
The Pre-Raphaelite Critic
http://www.mathcs.duq.edu/~tobin/PR_Critic/Audio.html
Wired for Books
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/laura_lee_parrotti.htm
http://wiredforbooks.org/poetry/richard_stevens. htm

17

APPENDIEX A
Picture Poems or Visual Poems

A
TALL
A
LONELY
house
OAK TREE
Can be tall,
WINDS HOWL
short, wide or thin,
LEAVES SHAKE
with many rooms, or only
ACORNS CLATTER
a few. It can be
D
home for all the
O
family or simply
W
me and my pets.
N
TO THE DRY GROUND

Smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke

smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke
smoke smoke smoke smoke
..smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke
. smoke smoke smoke
smoke smoke
smoke smoke
smoke smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
smoke
fire

18

Dusk
Above the
Water hang the
loud
flies
Here
O so
gray
then
What
A pale signal will appear
When
Soon before its shadow fades
Where
Here in this pool of opened eye
In us
No Upon us as at the very edges
of where we take shape in the dark air
this object bares its image awakening
ripples of recognition that will
brush darkness up into light
Even after this bird this hour both drift by atop the perfect sad instant now
already passing out of sight
toward yet-untroubled reflection
this image bears its object darkening
into memorial shades Scattered bits of
light No of water Or something across
water
Breaking up No Being regathered
soon
Yet by then a swan will have
gone
Yet out of mind into what
vast
pale
hush
of a
place
past
sudden dark as
if a swan
sang

19

APPENDIX B
DEMONSTRATION of Teaching English Poetry

1. Content: William Wordsworths The Rainbow

My heart leaps up when I behold
A Rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
2. Introduction to the Poet: William Wordsworth:
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was a major English romantic poet. He was
born in Cockermouth in Cumberland, part of the scenic region in northwest
England called the Lake District, where he spent most of his boyhood. After
graduating from Cambridge, he visited Revolutionary France and supported the
Republican movement. Because of Britains tension with France, he returned to
England and lived with his sister Dorothy in the Lake District. In 1798,
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge co-published Lyrical Ballads. In the
autumn of 1798, Wordsworth, Dorothy and Coleridge traveled to Germany, where
he wrote several poems including the Lucy Poems. During the winter of 17981799, Wordsworth began to work on an autobiographical piece later entitled The
Prelude. In 1843 he succeeded Robert Southey as Englands poet laureate, and he
died on April 23, 1850.
3. Analysis of the Poem:
Wordsworth is not only interested in the natural world, but also in the

20

relationship between the man and nature. One of the most consistent concepts in
Wordsworth is the idea that man and nature are inseparable; man is an active
participant in the natural world, so nature is considered as a guide to the spiritual
and moral life of man. On the other hand, Wordsworth thinks that childhood is the
most important stage in mans life, because the childs emotions are retained in the
memory: memory is the major force in the process of growth and it is essential for
poetic creation too. In this poem Wordsworth expresses his joy at the sight of a
rainbow in the sky when he was a child, he remains his love of it when he grows
up, and he hopes never to lose adoration and appreciation of nature until he dies.
This poem is composed of a stanza of nine lines; its rhyme scheme is
abccabcdd. In the poem, Wordsworth employs three metrical patterns: di-meter,
tri-meter, and tetrameter.
4. Classroom Activities:
Pre-reading Activities:
1. Showing the pictures of rainbow to students through the following website.
http://www.missouriskies.org/rainbow/february_rainbow_2006.html
2. Encourage students to share with classmates their experience and feelings of
beholding a rainbow.
While-reading Activities:
3. Play the poem in the classroom once through the following website:
http://www.eaglesweb.com/poets.htm
4. Give an introduction of the poet and explain the theme of the poem.
5. Explain the Biblical allusion of the rainbow.
6. Explain the word usage, phrases, structure of the poem, and symbols.
Post-reading activities:
7. Group Discussion:
Give each student a hand-out with the following questions and have them
discuss in class:
a. Explain the rhyme scheme of this poem.
b. In the poem Wordsworth employs three metrical patterns. Give these.
c. Under what circumstances, Wordsworth says, would he wish for his
own death?
d. The poem considers a human life as being made up of three phases,
what are they?
e. What is the significance of the shift in tense in lines three to five?
f. Explain the meaning of the phrase natural piety (line 9)

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8. Homework: Ask students to paraphrase the poem at home.

2. Related Websites:
http://www.missouriskies.org/rainbow/february_rainbow_2006.html
http://www.eaglesweb.com/Sub_Pages/wordsworth_poems.htm
http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww194.html
http://www.enter.net/~forester/rainbow.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth
http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/wwov.html