Poetry-Making

Why and How We Started Writing Poetry

The word poetry can conjure up many thoughts and emotions in different people. Some remember with fondness a favourite poem or two; others reflect on a favourite poet; there are those who can recite any number of poems; and then there are those who are filled with a dread or numbness due to lack of proper exposure.

Growing up, I was not exposed to poetry except for the odd poem we had to dissect and analyse in school. In the primary years, we recited a few poems and wrote one or two in a specific style. This, however, did not leave me with a sense of beauty and enjoyment for any verse. On the contrary, I was of the opinion that there was an elite group who alone could understand and appreciate poetry.

When I started homeschooling, I had not heard about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education. I bought a boxed curriculum which was rich in literature and one of the aspects it included was a book of beautiful poems. We read from this book daily and enjoyed the rhyming words, mental pictures, and feelings they evoked. About two years after we began, I encountered Charlotte Mason’s philosophy for the first time. Each year my understanding of implementing her methods increased and my appreciation for the breadth and depth of the thoughts and ideas grew. Since then, it feels as if I have been on my own educational journey alongside my children. The richness and riches of each subject have altered my outlook on life and my general disposition. Homeschooling my children has opened up so many beautiful doors—one of them being poetry. We faithfully read poetry daily, using Ambleside Online as a guideline of poets appropriate for each age. This has been such a help to me in curating our poetry reading.

About three years ago, I discovered that I should be setting exams for my children. Some of the questions that I saw asked were along the lines of:

Write an account of (subject) in prose or verse of (𝑥 amount of lines). Write a poem on (subject) in the voice of (a specified poet).

The following passage from A Philosophy of Education p. 242 also struck me when I encountered it:

Sometimes they are asked to write verses about a personage or an event; the result is not remarkable by way of poetry, but sums up a good deal of thoughtful reading in a delightful way…

What I saw was another way to narrate. It requires much thought to take what you have read and tell it back in a few lines of poetry. You need to sift through the information and skilfully word your choice thoughts. Since then, I have tried to include a question which requires an answer in the form of verse, for my Form II students and up, in each term’s exams. Thus far, it has pertained to their literature, but I plan to expand this to other subjects such as history or Plutarch in the future.

The more I have pondered on the beauty and skill of poetry, the more I have realised that I need to include the writing of it, in some way, in our schedule. The following quote, from Home Education p. 231, talks about narration, but has a key idea on poetry that I like to keep in mind:

Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.

This mention that poetry is an art and is in every child’s mind waiting to be discovered, made me realise that I had a responsibility to create a space for this discovery. With this in mind, I introduced a short time during our lessons of the last term, where we each worked on writing a poem. We took two lessons of fifteen minutes each to write down our lines. I decided to work alongside my children for two reasons. Firstly, I would like to grow in expressing myself in verse. Secondly, I felt the need to understand the effort required of my students, and in this way I would be able to sympathise with their difficulties, encourage them through the hurdles, and praise their effort and completion—in other words be their guide, philosopher, and friend.

Up until this stage there have been no formal lessons in the different styles of poetry. My sons have noticed the rhyming styles of different poems, the structure and metre merely through our daily reading. I have not given any explanations or definitions. They have also noticed that not all poems rhyme and that the sentence does not always end at the end of a line. This will, no doubt, shape their thoughts as they contemplate forming their own thoughts in a poetical way.

Now, I am aware that my explanations of how we have approached the writing of poetry might create a picture of smooth sailing with regard to this aspect of our education. I would like to put your mind at ease. We are a normal family and I have met with occasional resistance; but because I have kept the reason for why we are doing this as my motivator, I have been able to continue with fortitude and conviction. I have also worked alongside my children continually and so hope that in modelling an attitude of constant learning, I will inspire them to push through their difficulties and occasional dislikes.

Just as illustrating or describing a flower in our nature journal draws our attention to something we might not have noticed before and creates an intimacy with that object; so does poetry-making increase our intimacy with the subject matter we are writing about. My aim is not that my children will become great poets—although they might—but rather that they will discover the beauty of a well-crafted piece of verse as they express their thoughts about what they know.

René du Plessis lives in a beautiful town on the Garden Route of South Africa. Before marriage and children she worked as a physiotherapist for sixteen years. After marrying Jean she exchanged her daily city commute for life between the mountains and ocean. René counts it a pure privilege to homeschool her two pre-teen sons using Charlotte Mason’s philosophy. When not cooking or baking, she relishes long walks on the beach or hikes in the mountains with family and friends.

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