The Charlotte Mason Girl

Why Poetry is Important in Your Homeschool

I told you last time how I dreaded poetry, but that since I have used poetry in our homeschool, I have grown to LOVE it!  Let's talk today about WHY poetry is important to your homeschool.  

 

Charlotte Mason said, "Poetry is, perhaps, the most searching and intimate of our teachers."  Have you ever noticed that a great poem can instruct your heart in a few short lines better than a whole book on the subject?  For example, in John Donne's Holy Sonnet X, the last three lines read:

 

"One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And Death shall be no more; 

Death, thou shalt die."

 

Dwell on those lines for a moment.  Are you encouraged?  Are you less fearful?  Are you thinking more noble thoughts?  Poetry does that!

 

In teaching my children that there is nothing to fear about death, I share scriptures that point to eternal life, being with Jesus, and we often talk about what eternity will be like (one of my children doesn't like talking about eternity - "It's too hard to imagine!").  We have a lot of great conversations about what it will be like in heaven.  

 

When my 8 year old (at the time) son memorized this poem, and recited these lines with passion, I knew that he had obtained the truth we had been talking about.  Those few lines sealed to his heart the truth about death - it is a door to eternity.  We were all taken up with the emotion of the poem as J expressed with his voice, eyes, and his whole body the message in those words!  

 

There is a wealth of poetry out there - written by good and noble people - that teaches us in ways no other subject can.  

 

In the movie "Dead Poets Society", Robin Williams says to his English Literature class, “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute.  We read and write Poetry because we are part of the human race.  And the human race is filled with passion.  Medicine, law, business, engineering – these are noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life, but poetry, beauty, romance, love – these are what we stay alive for."  Then he goes on to quote Whittman:

“O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring;

Of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities fill'd with the foolish;...

The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these, O me, O life?

Answer.

That you are here--that life exists, and identity;

That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse."

 

Does that not make you want to do great things?!  I am inspired!

 

Who is your favorite poet?  Don't have one, yet?  Well, next time, I'll share how you can get started using poetry in your homeschool - and you may just discover a passion you didn't know you had!

Using Poetry in Your Homeschool

 

Well, I thought this would be a good time to share with you how you can use poetry well in your homeschool!  We have gotten into our homeschool year, now, and we are having a lot of fun with all these subjects that are often considered “extras” in school.  It’s easy to see how this happens.  We focus on reading, writing and math, and that can take up much time and energy, add to that the homemaker responsibilities we have, and we don’t feel we have time to do anything else.  Fortunately, it can be easy to incorporate poetry into your homeschool!

 

Charlotte Mason said about poetry - “Poetry is, perhaps, the most searching and intimate of our teachers.”  And – “Poetry, too, supplies us with tools for the modeling of our lives, and the use of these we must get at for ourselves.”  Aren’t these great benefits from reading and memorizing poetry? 

 

Once again, the aspect of letting the material instruct the child comes up.  Poetry is something that is only harmed when the teacher comes between the child and the material.  If you keep the poem to your breast, and let the child read it only after you have given a lecture about the poet, the meaning of the poem, and the type of poem it is, you have dampened the child’s enthusiasm to discover some new thing.  However, if the child is first introduced to the words the poet put to paper, the child discovers wonderful things on their own!

 

Our son recited the poem “Death be Not Proud” by John Donne when he was 8 years old.  Imagine hearing a boy put voice to these words:

 

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy picture[s] be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou'rt slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke;  why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more;  Death, thou shalt die

 

I must tell you, I got goosebumps when I heard him recite this poem for the family!  As he worked on memorizing the poem, the words began to speak to him.  I didn’t work with him as he memorized, he did it on his own.  By the time he recited it to us, he had gotten the feelings behind the poem, and he expressed them well as he recited the words!  As the lines found their way into his memory, he had a chance to ponder them, to digest them, and he experienced something Miss Mason wrote about.  She said, “As we 'inwardly digest,' reverence comes to us unawares, gentleness, a wistful tenderness towards the past…”  I could see it in my son’s eyes, hear it in his voice, in the cadence of his speech, in the way he held his body as he spoke.  He understood that the words had depth and much meaning to them.  WOW!  All from memorizing a poem!

 

Next time, I’ll share some more ideas on using poetry in your homeschool.  Meanwhile, will you share with me how you like to use poetry in your home?