What has happened to Lulu

 Poems are fantastic material for planning whole lessons around them. This time I will focus on a poem which touches on a serious social issue: teenagers escaping home. It is called What has happened to Lulu.

What has happened to Lulu?

What has happened to Lulu, mother?

What has happened to Lulu?

There’s nothing in her bed but an old rag-doll

And by its side a shoe.

Why is her window wide, mother,

The curtain flapping free,

And only a circle on the dusty shelf

Where her money-box used to be?

Why do you turn your head, mother,

And why do the tear-drops fall?

And why do you crumple that note on the fire

And say it is nothing at all?

I woke to voices late last night,

I heard an engine roar.

Why do you tell me the things I heard

Were a dream and nothing more?

I heard somebody cry, mother,

In anger or in pain,

But now I ask you why, mother,

You say it was a gust of rain?

Why do you wander about as though

You don’t know what to do?

What has happened to Lulu, mother?

What has happened to Lu?

By Charles Causley

A sibling fires questions at his/her mother in an effort to discover what has happened to his/her sister. The poem is a series of questions which go unanswered but which clearly suggest that the sister has run away from home.

There are so many ways one could approach this poem. For instance, one could immerse the students in the drama by asking them to provide the answers the mother would give to the questions asked by the child. One group could be working on straightforward answers while a second could attempt to supply more evasive ones. The dialogues could be acted out.

Alternatively, one could ask the students to write a story based on the facts stated in the poem and speculate on a possible end for the story.

Another idea is for the students to draw a sequence of pictures in the order that the events took place. If the students are reluctant to draw, they could search for images online and piece the story together. There is a slideshow I made at the end of this presentation.

In terms of tenses, the poem switches between the past (last night) and the present. One could ask the students to provide an account of last night’s events in the Simple Past and subsequently use the Simple Present to describe the current state of affairs.

If you have been struggling with the use of the Present Perfect Simple, this is an excellent opportunity to practise an aspect of it which is tricky for many foreign students regardless of mother tongue. I call this aspect “in the meantime aspect”: we know the past action, we are confronted with the present situation and we are invited to guess what has caused this change.

In terms of our poem, we know somebody cried last night and we know there was a car outside. We are faced with an empty bed -- apart from the rag doll -- so we assume that Lulu has gone. But what has happened to her? This would trigger a series of contributions on the part of the students.

Perhaps she has found a job in a big city.

Maybe she has eloped.

And so on and so forth.

The poem could be used with more advanced students, in which case one may want to practise modal verbs of deduction or possibility + Present Perfect Infinitive.

Lulu must have run away with a boyfriend. (clue: the engine roar)

She must have used the money in her moneybox to make a new start. (clue: the circle on the dusty shelf)

She might have stolen money from her parents.

She could have met her soulmate.

She might have been misguided by a much older person.

With more advanced students the poem could serve as a springboard for discussion:

·       Why do some young people leave home?

·       What happens to them after they go away?

·       Do they ever get in touch with their family?

·       How does the state deal with the problem?

·       Is the family to blame for this phenomenon? How widespread is it?

The students could be encouraged to do some research online and summarise the results of their research in a brief report.

They could even write a poem about another teenager who has run away.

The possibilities are endless.