Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Literature Part 2

We should not argue that the best way to appreciate music is found in following the symbols on the music sheet. It is only the highly educated musician who can imagine the delights of music by an examination of the written text. To some degree, it is the same with poetry. The music of the words and the appropriateness of the rhythm cannot be fully perceived by merely silent reading. The eye alone would never detect the exquisite music of such a poem as _Hide and Seek_, Third Reader, p. 50, or _Break, break, break_, p. 201. Nor could it perceive the suitability of the rhythm to the theme, as exhibited in _How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix_, Fourth Reader, p. 351. In this poem, we can hear in the rhythm the hoof beats of the horses as they gallop along.

How often have we felt a new meaning and appropriateness that our voice alone has suggested!

2. To the listeners. The contagious nature of emotion has already been pointed out. The good reader, by his sympathetic and expressive rendering of the poem, may reveal to his listeners depths of feeling, the existence of which they had not before suspected. We have often been thrilled by a new emotion, upon hearing a familiar pa.s.sage read by another.

Every teacher should be a good reader. His tone of voice, his movement, his gestures are the signs by which the pupils interpret his emotional att.i.tude. If he is not already a good reader, he should bend all his energies to become one. Persevering practice, attention to mechanical features, such as distinct articulation, pausing, flexibility of voice, and, above all, a sympathetic appreciation of the author's thought and feeling, will soon convert a poor reader into a good one. He will soon find that his voice will accommodate itself insensibly in pitch, tone, and movement to the changing emotions of the poem. The delight of the lesson will be greatly enhanced where the reader lends to the rhyme of the poet the music of his voice.

The reading reveals the general thought of the poem. In simpler poems, the pupils will recognize in the reading the relationship and the intent of many of the subordinate parts. But the intellectual side is only secondary. Literature, in its finer forms, is not primarily an intellectual subject, such as grammar or mathematics. The emotional tone, the spiritual meaning, and the artistic form--these are the main elements, and these can be best developed by good reading. The teacher should acquire the habit of reading poetry aloud in his home, and should induce his pupils to follow his example. Further, as two senses will give a more vivid realization of thought than one, the pupil, in the cla.s.s, should follow with his eye the reading of the teacher; and it is helpful for a church congregation to follow with the eye the reading of the scripture lesson by the minister.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAIN THOUGHT

The teacher should next a.s.sist the pupils to discover the main thought of the lesson. In many cases the meaning will be very vague, and the pupils will have difficulty in formulating a terse and comprehensive statement of the subject of the poem. If the question is asked in a stereotyped form, such as "What is the main thought of the poem?" the enthusiasm of the pupils is often chilled. The teacher may, if it is a narrative poem, ask for the main points in the story, and may a.s.sist the pupils by calling attention to some pertinent pa.s.sage, or by removing difficulties by means of questions or explanations. In all cases, it is well to accept a partially correct answer by the pupils, and to try to improve its imperfection by questioning, until a fairly complete and substantial statement has been given. Every answer which contains even a fragment of sound thought should receive due recognition. In some cases it is sufficient, at the outset, to take an imperfect statement of the main thought, since the study of the poem will reveal its defects. The teacher must keep before his pupils this statement, so that at the conclusion of the lesson they will be quite ready to replace it by a more accurate one. The teacher should be careful that the emotions aroused by the poem are not unduly weakened or dissipated by the a.n.a.lysis of its intellectual content. Many lessons by young teachers fail just at this point, by reason of questioning unskilfully or by rejecting answers that do not correspond to their own cut-and-dried preconceptions.

The teacher should follow a similar method in discovering the leading thought of the subdivisions of the poem. These often correspond to the stanza forms, but the lesson may become very wearisome by insisting on too great detail. The poem often falls into two or three main divisions, into which the various stanzas may be grouped. With Senior Forms it is a good exercise to ask the pupils to make this grouping, but, with those not so advanced, the teacher himself may make it and ask the pupils for the central thought in each group. In the teacher's anxiety to have these subjects clearly stated, he runs the risk of wasting time and, worse than that, of killing whatever interest the pupils may have had up to this point. If the pupils could give these subjects with perfect clearness now, there would be little else to do. The greatest care must be exercised to prevent the work becoming mechanical, thus destroying the interest and making the selection distasteful.

With some pupils, the logical sense is quite strong, and they find their greatest delight in seeing the purpose of each part in a complex mechanism. With others, this work does not afford much pleasure. These are children who, later, can take delight in the flimsy plot of a musical comedy. Such pupils should be encouraged to do their best to discover some points of beauty or skill in the arrangement of the selection. In different lessons there is a difference in construction.

In some, the logical connection and development is so important that this quality must be stressed, but the works of some authors have merits which throw the arrangement into a very subordinate position; for example, "Ring out, Wild Bells", from _In Memoriam_.

MINUTE a.n.a.lYSIS

The next stage in the a.n.a.lysis is the examination of the pa.s.sage minutely. There is always a place in the lesson for the study of words and phrases. The teacher should ask questions on these, in order to ascertain if the pupils have felt their force and vitality. They are to be taken up only to illuminate and impress the main thoughts and emotions of the poem.

In some cases, as in prose lessons, the pupils may acquire the dictionary habit. This develops and cultivates a studious disposition and accuracy of statement. But in poetry there are many subtle meanings that the dictionary will not give, but which the pupil has learned through contact with educated people and acquaintance with books. Most of the words that people use have not been learned from the dictionary, but from their context in reading or conversation.

On the other hand, many lessons are spoiled by too constant inquiry into meanings. There is much mere learning of meanings without reference to the thought or emotion that they are intended to explain. Many words are explained that are already understood. The fault may be due to the teacher's experience with annotated text-books of literature. The teacher, who has been prepared for his examination by this method, is disposed to carry it into Elementary School work, till even _The Recessional_ becomes merely a theme for learning verbal meanings.

ALLUSIONS

There are many references in the text-books to geographical, scientific, and historical matters. If these allusions. In poems such as _The Armada_ there must be a preliminary lesson such as has been indicated.

Very often the enthusiast in these subjects will make literature a mere peg on which to hang much information. Teachers often make long digressions in connection with these allusions, till the mood of the poem is completely lost in the mist of the disquisitions. The same method should be adopted in teaching allusions as in teaching the meanings of words. Only such explanation is necessary as will show the purpose of the author in introducing the allusions. In poems such as _The Armada_ there must be considerable explanation given, before the pupils will feel the emotion that the author hopes to kindle by the mention of the names that are used in it. With Canadian children, the effect in the case of this poem cannot be so great as with English children, who are more familiar with the special geographical and historical a.s.sociations.

The teacher of young people cannot hope, by explanation of the allusions, to arouse all the pleasure and the vitality of emotion that will be induced in the reader who has the culture that comes of wide reading; nor can the teacher communicate this emotion when the information is new. The pleasure comes, later on, from the recall of information that was a.s.similated in earlier years.

THE IMAGERY

The language of poetry is generally concrete. The artist may wish to give expression to a general truth, or philosophical principle, or ethereal fancy. These appear very abstract, but the artist embodies in material forms the idea he wishes to convey. The poet expresses his thought by the suggestion of material imagery, and emotion is most readily aroused by these images.

Antony, in his funeral oration after Caesar's death, knew how to arouse his audience to fury by showing them Caesar's wounds and holding before them Caesar's mantle with its rents. Not always can the real object be produced for these emotional effects, but the teacher can sometimes bring into the cla.s.s-room, for the benefit of young pupils, concrete material such as pictures and work in manual training. He can also call attention, at times, to the falling snow or the colour of the leaves or the sky, by asking the pupils to look out of the cla.s.s-room windows. But in most cases, he has to be content with trying to recall the memory of these natural things. This shows how valuable has been the excursion of the boy into the country, and his experience on holidays by the river and in the harvest field. The nature study lesson furnishes the material for future enjoyment of poetry.

The pupils in our schools are very capable in realizing visual imagery.

They can see the visual image very readily with its colour, form, and movement. They can arrange the objects in the picture with foreground, background, light, and shade.

But it is quite a different matter when they try to realize auditory imagery. In the poem _Waterloo_, Fourth Reader, p. 311, they can see the picture in "bright the lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men". They see the large ball-room with its gla.s.s chandeliers, the costumes of handsome ladies, the scarlet uniforms and the decorations of the officers and the n.o.bility. But can they realize the next imagery, that of sound, "and when music arose with its voluptuous swell"? Do they hear the squeaking of one or two fiddles or do they hear the voluminous sound of regimental bands? Do they notice the varying metre from the stately iambic to the sudden "voluptuous swell" of the foot of three syllables in waltz time?

These images of sight and sound picture the gaiety and magnificence of this festive scene, in order to make more marked the contrast with the fear and pathos of the farewells. This contrast is enforced by the two auditory images:

And all went merry as a marriage bell; But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!

Can your pupils image the wedding-bells chiming from the cathedral some afternoon in June, when suddenly the ear catches the sound of a death-bell tolling from another church? Any reader who cannot realize the sounds of those two bells with their discordant effects will miss the intention of Byron.

The pupils, through the stimulation of their senses, must have experienced the luxurious effects of orchards, flower gardens, and clover fields; the odours of apple blossoms and the smell and taste of the "full-juiced apple waxing over-mellow"; the perfumes and temperatures of spring, midsummer, and winter if they are to read nature literature intelligently and feel its charm. The words must have meaning if they are to awaken the feeling that was part of the original experience.

THE LITERATURE OF n.o.bLE THOUGHT

In literature, as in other arts, there is a great deal that is merely decorative. It is not the purpose here to disparage this form of art. "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. Its loveliness increases." Some of the most famous portraits and landscapes in the picture galleries afford infinite pleasure to the student of art by the technique in colour, drawing, and arrangement. They are greater than photography. "The light that never was on sea or land, the consecration and the poet's dream"

have given them a beauty that is greater than the realism of the actual person or natural scene. It is the same in literature. The author's feelings, his language, the rhythm of his words, and his delicate fancy afford the reader greater delight than he has ever known when he has met similar persons, scenes, or actions in real life. This is genuine aesthetic pleasure, similar to the pleasure that people derive from china, music, or landscape gardening.

There is, however, a higher form of art in both pictures and literature.

There are pictures that suggest some n.o.ble aspiration, some great universal truth, some great conflict between duty and interest. We feel instinctively that these are greater than pictures possessing mere masterly technique. It is the same in literature. There are poems in which we feel that the thoughts and feelings are sublime. Perhaps the technique of these is not equal to that of the poetry described in the preceding paragraph, but the experienced teacher has felt his pupils lifted above mundane affairs, when they begin to grasp the true significance of such poems. The youngest pupils show their appreciation by wide open eyes, when these are read. They instinctively feel that this work is better than the merely pretty and dainty things in poetry.

In the _Ontario Readers_ we have numerous poems of this nature. In the First Reader, the pupils instinctively feel that _Piping Down the Valleys Wild_ is of different calibre from _Three Little Kittens_. _The Lord is my Shepherd_, _Lead, Kindly Light_, and _To a Waterfowl_, are examples of this cla.s.s.

In teaching these lessons, the spiritual meaning should be constantly emphasized.

The mere statement of the thought is not impressive. It is the presentation of it in poetical form that makes its effect impressive and lasting. The pupils may be led to discover how the author has accomplished this by means of the concrete embodiment of imagery, language, metaphor, and music.

RECAPITULATION

The lesson is often dropped just at this time, leaving an impression somewhat like that of a science room, with the petals and leaves on the desks and the floor, after the cla.s.s in botany has been dismissed. No act of a.n.a.lysis is complete without a final synthesis. The examination of the various phases of the whole must be followed by a reconstruction in which are perceived the relations of the various phases to each other and to the unity of the whole. These various parts must be closely related to one another if the final conception of the poem is to be definite. When the a.n.a.lysis is in progress, the teacher should not, of course, take each part by itself and examine it as if it were an isolated thing, but its relation to what has gone before should be more or less clearly perceived. When the a.n.a.lysis is complete, there should be a final synthesis in which the relations of the various parts stand out definitely. This can be done by means of a statement of the main thought in concise but comprehensive terms. If the teacher has accepted an imperfect statement at the beginning, the pupils will now be in a position to discover its inadequacy and supply the part that is lacking.

Then the subjects of the various subdivisions or stanzas can be restated in suitable terms that will show the proper relationships. This reconstruction may also take the form of oral or written reproduction of the selection. This is especially valuable after the prose lessons.

There should follow an oral reading of the pa.s.sage by the pupils, which will serve to show the teacher how much of the feeling of the poem has been absorbed, how clearly the pupils have understood the meaning, and what misconceptions have arisen in their minds.

MISTAKES IN TEACHING LITERATURE

There are some mistakes in teaching literature that are noted here, in order that they may be avoided:

1. Teaching pupils about literature, instead of teaching literature itself; for example, teaching biography, etymology, history, geography, or science in the literature lesson, because some feature of one or more of these may be suggested by the language of the lesson. A knowledge of such subjects is merely preparatory to the study of literature itself.

2. Teaching merely the meanings of words and phrases, and omitting the greater things of imagery, thought, beauty of language, and the spirit of the writer.

3. Trying to force appreciation by telling the pupils they must learn to like such and such works because educated people like them. It is useless, at this time, to try to develop the critical spirit, as the pupil has not a sufficiently wide acquaintance with literary works on which to form a judgment.

4. Doing for the pupil what he should be led to do for himself. A literature lesson, in which the teacher has been doing all the talking, or both asking and answering questions, will be barren of good results.

5. Paraphrasing. Short pa.s.sages may be paraphrased, in order to show whether the pupil has understood the force and vitality of the metaphor or the condensed expression. But paraphrasing must be used with great discretion. The teacher will not make the pupils appreciate the beauty of a fine literary selection by converting refined gold into low grade ore.

6. Attempting to draw some moral from every lesson. Not all lessons are didactic. If the pupils have sympathized with what is n.o.ble and just in the story, the statement of a moral at the conclusion is unnecessary.

Yet in poems that are plainly didactic, for example, _To a Waterfowl_, Fourth Reader, p. 377, the moral lesson must occupy the first place.

There the teacher should show how the author has enforced the lesson of _confidence in G.o.d's guidance_ by the incident of the migrating waterfowl, the imagery, the music, the arrangement of parts, and the similarity of his own position to that of the bird.

7. Dwelling unnecessarily on the intellectual side of a poem that is mainly emotional and musical; for example, _The Bugle Song_, Third Reader, p. 337, and _The Solitary Reaper_, Fourth Reader, p. 261. In the former case, the pupils should be led to realize the visual imagery, should hear, in imagination, the bugle calls and fading echoes, and enjoy the rare and appropriate music. In the second case, the teacher should call attention to the artistic suggestions of loneliness, distance, antiquity, sadness, and vagueness that are suggested by "old, unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago", and by such possible situations of English travellers in remote parts of the world, and should show that these elements are suitable for the circ.u.mstances under which the poet sees the girl. He who questions merely to find out the meaning of the poem, the relation to that of its subordinate parts, and the meaning of the words and phrases, is using a very heavy tool on a very delicate mechanism. Such works must be treated deftly and lightly.