Smithereens or breaking poems down to gold nuggets

My thesis is that you can do anything you put your mind to with a poem as long as you let your mind wander off. What is more you can crank up the depth of the perusal of a poem tailoring it to the level of your students. Perhaps this is not always feasible, but a lot of times it is and the result could surprise you.

I will use a simple, linguistically, poem to illustrate the endless possibilities poems offer teachers. The poem is entitled Smithereens and the poet is Roger McGough.

I spend my days

Collecting smithereens.

I find them on buses

In department stores

And on busy pavements.

At restaurant tables

I pick up the leftovers

Of polite conversation

At railway stations

The tearful debris

Of parting lovers.

I pocket my eavesdroppings

and store them away.

I make things out of them.

Nice things, sometimes.

Sometimes odd, like this.

I suggest you walk into the classroom with a heap of glass fragments in one hand and another of tiny pieces of paper in the other. Show your students one and say the word “smithereens” and repeat with the other. Challenge the students by asking them what you can do with those smithereens:

·       You can put them in a jar.

·       You can throw them away.

·       You can blow them in the wind.

Then go on to tell them that you collect them and elicit a response out of them. This might work better with more advanced students. For example:

·       Are you out of your mind?

·       What use are they? They are practically worthless?

·       I don’t see the point in hoarding stuff like that.

You could then present the first verse of the poem, which doesn’t let on much about the particular meaning the smithereens will take on in the next verse.

Many times, in both factual reading and literature or poetry students come across words for the first time used in a figurative sense. I feel very strongly about preparing your students to understand and appreciate the metaphor, and this is only possible when they are aware of the literal meaning of the word.

So before moving on to the next verse, find some images of leftovers and some more of debris. In this way, your students will realise that when we say “leftovers” we usually mean food. You could even start a conversation, at the end of the poem presentation, about how leftovers could be put to good use.

When you show images of debris make sure to ask your students what debris is usually the result of. They are expected to come up with words like disaster, accident, crash, explosion, erosion etc.

You could also show lovers in tears parting at a railway station or, more excitingly, play a relevant film scene.

The parting scene in the ET film is well-known, and the words are: I’ll be right here. You could tease the students’ brains by first showing the words and asking which film these parting words come from, and if they don’t ring bells, simply show the following YouTube clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75M1XXEZciU

The time is now ripe to read out the second verse of the poem and let it sink in.

Before the third verse, explain the word “eavesdrop” by miming or paraphrasing it and go through the motions of putting some pieces of paper in your pocket. Ask what you have just pocketed, which might generate various responses – hopefully, “eavesdroppings” too! Do not become daunted if “eavesdroppings” doesn’t come up.

You are now set to read the last verse and ask the one question which is left:

What is meant by “nice” or “odd things” like “this”?

More mature students could be invited to elaborate on the “raw material” of poems and the process of composing a poem out of this material.

I also have some suggestions for more straightforward language work:

·       Find all the adjective+noun collocations in the poem.

busy pavements, polite conversation, tearful debris

·       Extend the above simple task by asking the students to find more nouns that collocate with those adjectives.

·       Take out the prepositions and get your students to fill the blanks with the right ones. (“On”, “in”, “at” can be challenging even for intermediate students.)

Here are also some more creative projects your students could engage in:

Think of an alternative title of a poem, which will denote the stuff poems are made out of. The answers can turn out to be unpredictable, but do use a couple of them and set the students a writing assignment – individually or in groups, depending on how well-matched the students are.

For instance, if some students come up with “Memories” for a poem title, they could be asked to write a poem keeping, if they find it easier, the mould of the original poem. It could be something to this effect:

I spend my days

Retrieving  memories.

I find them in drawers

On dusty shelves

And at the back of my mind.

(my example)

If writing a whole poem is tough, they could limit themselves to one verse of their choice –the first one would be more doable for young, less advanced students.

The rest of it I leave to your imagination!