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I owe it to my teacher

Mr. James taught us English Literature in secondary school. We were a class of twenty-five 16-
year-olds, and we liked him. But we didnt like poetry. Poetry wasnt connected to real life and it was
written by old dead people in funny costumes.
We were reading No Second Troy about Yeats doomed love affair with an Irish nationalist called Maud
Gonne. This meant nothing to us.
Then Mr. James read aloud an extract from Yeats biography, which said that he was so consumed by
sexual frustration over Maud that he used to go into the woods and scream at the trees.
When Mr. James started reading, we sniggered. But he kept reading, and the passage grew more and
more real. Was Mr. James reading about Yeats, or about himself? It didnt matter he had broken a
barrier, and we understood that poetry talks to us about common experiences over the years.
It was brave teaching, and inspired. I went on to take two degrees in English after that. And I owe it
to Mr. James.

Name: Jim Rose, author of Go! Series


Ideas to get students involved in poetry.

One of the keys to getting involved in poetry is for the reader/speaker to understand the emotions the poem
is about. Sometimes EFL teachers have to consider cultural differences, which make popular poems from one
culture cold and uninteresting to students from a different age/location. If it is possible to find English
translations of popular poems/rhymes this can grab students interest, as they know the subject matter, and
only have the new vocabulary and the pronunciation of it to learn.
Often poems about love/death/separation seem to dominate a curriculum, but universal themes which are
upbeat and enjoyable can include poems about winning (a race/game/competition), celebrations (coming of
age/ births/ marriages), nature (weather, rivers, stars). Most students learning English will have covered basic
vocabulary from these sections and will be able to engage with the subject easily, adding new vocabulary and
grammar to what they have already learnt.


Have you a good idea for engaging students in poetry? Please share your idea with us.

The curriculum is to be though of in terms of activity and experience rather than knowledge to be
acquired and facts to be stored.

Haddow Report, UK 1931