3.en.86 Poetry “the legs” by Robert Graves

Last year we learnt some nice words and some onomatopoeia didn’t we?

GURGLE; TAP; TAP….

We read them in a fragment of a poem by Robert Graves. Follow the link if you do not know what I’m talking about.

tap, tap, tapping in the rain, Clip, clip, clip……Xof,xof, xof

I bet you remember them.

gurgle, clapoteig, borboteo

Well, now that you know much more English, you are ready to read the whole poem. We’ll recite it together in class. It is an intriguing poem.

Legs… seem to run away… out of control

let’s see if you like it

• Click here to watch a short video

Difficult words:

rout 1  (raʊt)
— n
1.	an overwhelming defeat
2.	a disorderly retreat
3.	a noisy rabble

dd

3.en.80 First illustrated poems on the blog: Judit and Pep Toni’s

We have spent some lessons working with poems. We started with Acrostics, then with Haikus, Limericks and  Cinquains. Taylor wrote a poem full of onomatopoeias and alliterations and we rapped along with Michael Rosen.

We recited and payed attention to rhythm and rhyme.  We learnt about patterns, and verse combinations. We counted syllables and noticed the stressed and unstressed ones. We looked at the classics (Shakespeare) and at some modern ones (William Carlos Williams). We learnt some poems by heart and tried to memorise  them collaboratively. Much more fun!

We learnt the difference between metaphore and simile and the power of words. We learnt that poetry is not necessarily long and difficult to understand, though it can be so.

We used an on line application to help us get started and some good results came out of it. Now you will decide which poem you’d like to illustrate and learn by heart for San Jordi’s day.

The first two ones to arrive were Judit and Pep Toni’s. They are very nice indeed!

I will open a new google doc presentation for you to upload your illustrated poems. 

• Tuesday 19th April will be the deadline. 

Here you have the first examples. By Tuesday, I hope everyone will have finished the task.

A new set of poems has just arrived (Monday 18th 20:·30)

3.en.75 Some poems and paintings to prepare Sant Jordi’s

This morning we looked at the painting from Demuth. I was impressed, you guessed pretty well what the painting was about. Then, we commented how to prepare our celebration of book day. Last year you did a great job with your book posters. Molly did a great job too with her description of “book”. Do you remember? This year I hope this poster will inspire you to make your own poster to illustrate your cinquain or haiku.

I have cut and pasted the post I had prepared for first year ESO to your blog. This way you will not need to move to find what to do.

Sometimes, painters have turned to poetry or literature for inspiration and sometimes  poets have found inspiration in paintings.

So, I would like to show you two examples of  two poems by a  famous  American poet, William Carlos  Williams.

• The first poem was inspired by a painting from Pieter Brueghel, Children’s Games (1560)

In Brueghel’s painting, there are more than 250 children playing all kind of games. Some of the games have not changed much in four centuries. I know the quality of the pic is not so good and the charachters are tiny, but you might recognise some of the games that are  still played in the 21st century. No consoles on the horizon.

Have you ever had a Where’s Wally book? Well, if you look carefully at this painting you’ll see that there are many things going on as in Wally’s books.

This is William Carlos Williams’ poem

Children’s Games

William Carlos Williams

I

This is a schoolyard
crowded
with children

of all ages near a village
on a small stream
meandering by

where some boys
are swimming
bare-ass

or climbing a tree in leaf
everything
is motion

elder women are looking
after the small
fry

a play wedding a
christening
nearby one leans

hollering
into
an empty hogshead

II

Little girls
whirling their skirts about
until they stand out flat

tops pinwheels
to run in the wind with
or a toy in 3 tiers to spin

with a piece
of twine to make it go
blindman’s-buff follow the

leader stilts
high and low tipcat jacks
bowls hanging by the knees

standing on your head
run the gauntlet
a dozen on their backs

feet together kicking
through which a boy must pass
roll the hoop or a

construction
made of bricks
some mason has abandoned

III

The desperate toys
of children
their

imagination equilibrium
and rocks
which are to be

found
everywhere
and games to drag

the other down
blindfold
to make use of

a swinging
weight
with which

at random
to bash in the
heads about

them
Brueghel saw it all
and with his grim

humor faithfully
recorded
it

• The second poem of William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)  is much shorter and is full of onomatopoeias. This time, the poet did not get inspiration from a painting. It was the other way around. An American painter,  Charles Demuth (1883-1935), who was born the same year as the poet  was inspired by William Carlos William’s  poem  The great figure to paint this work.

• Does it look like a detailed photo?
• Is it an abstract painting?
• Does it look like a poster?
• Are details important , as in Children’s games?
• What about colours?

It seems William Carlos Williams wrote  The great figure after watching a fire engine streak past him on a rainy Manhattan street.

This is the poem:

The Great Figure   Among the rain and lights I saw the figure 5 in gold on a red fire truck moving tense unheeded to gong clangs siren howls and wheels rumbling through the dark city Try to imagine the sound made by the fire engine passing by, at full speed.  Which instruments would you use to imitate the sounds? gong clangs siren howls and wheels rumbling Have a look at some pics of fire trucks.

1.en.1. The forest, much more than wood. First school outing this year

Dear students,

this is my first post this year, I’m glad to see you back after a long, long summer. We did not have time to talk much, as in our first day of class we rushed to see the exhibition on the forest that was on at La Caixa.

Last year, La Caixa was kind of  another classroom for us. Do you remember the times we were there? Well, it was kind of nice to set off with an outing to see an exhibition there, don’t you think?

This year we have four new students with us: Sarah, Neus,  Idaira and Emil. We are happy to have them with us and must try to make them feel comfortable among us and part of the group.

Some of your former classmates are no longer in our group, but the school is not that big and I’m sure we’ll keep on seeing them in the corridors: Llorenç, Juan Miguel, Hao, Alejandro and Johana. Jose Luis is in a different school, outside Palma, and Lucas is very far, it will be more difficult to see him, but the internet makes things easier for us, so we hope they  will visit our blog from time to time. It would be nice to get some news all the way from Argentina. Everybody can visit our blog, so it will be a good way to keep in touch.

The title of the exhibition was, “The forest, much more than wood”

Similarly we could say:

” A book , much more than pages”

“A poem, much more than words”

“A tree, much more than leaves”

“2nd ESO E, much more than  a group of  students”

Homework

1) Can you think of any more examples? Post them to the blog.

singular trees, forests, seeds and poems

On our way we stopped at la Misericordia and took our first pic this year under a singular tree. we learnt some new words:

deciduous= trees that lose their leaves seasonally

evergreen=trees that have leaves in all seasons

On Monday we shall correct the dossier and talk about how to do the power point.

You can see some of the pics I took at la Caixa. You worked very well, but were a too noisy, that has not changed since last year.

Sarah and Neus

Congratulations! You learnt how to collaborate. Backs can be excellent desks, much better to take notes on a hard surface. Gabriel is kind of a lonewolf and seems surprised.

Lovepreet liked this poem and asked me to take a pic. I'm sure Magdalena will like it too

Science and poetry go hand in hand in this exhibition. Which language is this poem written in?

Homework:

2) There were other poems on the walls, each group had to choose one. Post to the blog the one you liked best. Do not repeat it, if it has already been posted.