If only I could be a dog,
how easy life would be.
I wouldn’t have to do this blog.
My evenings would be free.
A dog’s life
14 Tuesday Sep 2021
Posted Ditties
in14 Tuesday Sep 2021
Posted Ditties
in
If only I could be a dog,
how easy life would be.
I wouldn’t have to do this blog.
My evenings would be free.
07 Tuesday Sep 2021
Tags
A.E. Stallings, Edna St. Vincent Millay, George Mackay Brown, Iambic verse, Prosody, Shakespeare, Timothy Steele
Here’s another essay that looks at a piece by George Mackay Brown, at its outset at least, a poem this time. It is, after all, the centenary of his birth this year. This was originally published in a poetry theme issue of Anglo Files: Journal of English Teaching in Denmark in 2015. I have tweaked it a bit since. What was the last part of it has since become the second part of my essay on cryptic structures in Farjeon and Stallings.
I do like to introduce my students to iambic verse before they tackle Shakespeare in their final year. At times, it’s a struggle, and one that most of my colleagues sidestep. And understandably so. They may well not have been taught it themselves, and many of my students also find the topic difficult. Some of them have never been asked to consider stressed and unstressed syllables before and are slow to even understand the concept. But I have never been someone to avoid a challenge. That’s what makes teaching interesting. Also for the students.
Blank verse, i.e. non-rhyming iambic pentameter (IP), is the basic pattern of Shakespeare’s plays. If students don’t understand how it works, how are they going to appreciate them? I was taught Shakespeare for O-level (in Scotland) without any mention of IP. I found it dull (although my fascination with language meant that it was not intolerably so) because I was unable to appreciate the craft that had gone into creating the text. Sidestepping the whole issue of prosody does students a disservice. They should have some experience working with IP before being introduced to Shakespeare, whose language is difficult enough in itself.
Some people might say that English prosody is too difficult for Danish teenagers. I tell my students that it’s quite an advanced approach, and they shouldn’t worry too much if they are unable to grasp too much of it. But I do have some bright students who rise to the challenge of writing rhyming iambic verse themselves, as this essay shows.