‘Tactics with Poetry: poem as performance’ by Stuart Henson, 31.3 (1980) Some examples of how Henson has used poetry recitation in the classroom to further students’ understanding of poetry: The phrase ‘making words like music’ I find a handy way of expressing to youngsters the essential difference between verse and prose: the use of rhythm…
‘Choral Speech’, by P. W. R. Foot, 12.3 (1961) A case study in which Foot experiments with a choral performance of a poem with a class of secondary school children.
‘Learning by Heart’ by Richard Gill, 34.3 (1983) Reasons for learning poetry by heart, Gill says, include memorability (that some lines stick, unbidden, in our minds, and therefore learning poems by heart responds to something deep in the nature of the poem itself), privilege and possession (that learning a poem by heart is a way…
‘The Sounds of Poetry’ by Edwin Webb, 37.1 (1985) How giving voice to a poem can empower students to take ownership of a text, exploring all the possible meanings of a poem by speaking them aloud and experimenting with the sounds: To experiment with the poem in this fashion, producing and modifying alternative versions of…
‘Doing Things With Poems’ by Julie Blake and Tim Shortis, 70.1 (2018) A reflection on six years of the Poetry By Heart poetry recitation competition, with a view from Kathryn McAllister, a teacher whose school has participated in PBH since the competition’s inception: Verses are given new life through new interpretations and pupils practise skills…
‘The Problem with Poetry’ by Margaret Matheison, 31.2 (1980) An exploration of the relationship between teaching, examinations, and poetry. Choice and preparation [when teaching poetry] are often much more important than analysis. We should take more care to vary the familiar and the new, and to read poems several time to ourselves until we can…
‘Repeat After Me: A Defence of Learning By Heart’ by Malcolm Hebron, 57.3 (2006) Why (and how) learning by heart can help students ‘savour rather than solve the strangeness’ of poetry.