Pedagogies of Poetry: A Cross-Cultural Study

Nicole Stellon O’Donnell

Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Program

United States to India

2015-2016

Resources for Teaching Indian Poetry Depending on how you arrived here, you might know or not know that I spent the spring of 2016 in India on a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching. My project was to design lessons for 6th­12th grade educators featuring Indian poets writing in English. On this page, you'll find all the lessons I created, links to resources for finding new poets to feature in your own lessons, and simple .pdfs of my lessons you can download and use in your classroom. Lessons & Links: Jeet Thayil, shapeshifter poems, imperative sentences (good for all ages, ELL focus): Jeet Thayil Lesson Arundhathi Sabramaniam, controlling metaphors: Arundhathi Subramaniam Lesson Nissim Ezekiel (and Li­Young Lee), narrative poetry and international curriculum connections: Nissim Ezekiel Lesson C.P. Surendran, irony and juxtaposition: CP Surendran Lesson Minal Hajratwala, structure and the long poem: Minal Hajratwala Lesson Aditi Rao, a poem offering directions: Aditi Rao Lesson Plan Shikha Malaviya, litany: Shikha Malaviya Lesson Plan Adil Jussawalla, thematic connections: Adil Jussawalla Lesson Plan Arun Kolatkar, structure and free verse: Arun Kolatkar Lesson Plan Eunice de Souza, ekphrastic poetry using Google Art Project: Eunice de Souza Lesson Plan Online Resources: The Great Indian Poetry Collective: A publishing collective founded by Minal Hajratwala, Ellen Kombiyil, and Shikha Malaviya that began in Bangalore in 2013. They feature contemporary poems on their website each week, an excellent resource for finding new poems for your classroom (an app is available as well). If you're a poet who has a connection to India or the Indian diaspora and you have a manuscript ready, consider submitting to the Emerging Poet's Prize. Poetry International India: Curated by poet and editor Arundhathi Subramaniam, this website provides an introduction to over 100 contemporary Indian poets and their work.

For poets featured who write in a language other than English translations are available beside the work in the original language. Biographies, criticism, and links to interviews are available as well. Online Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry: Edited by Menha Shivdasani. Shivdasani offers a good description of the challenges of anthologizing Indian poets in her introduction. Anthologies: 60 Indian Poets and The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets, both edited by Jeet Thayil: 60 Indian Poets is where I began my research before I arrived in India. Thayil's intention was to created a definitive collection for readers that could last for at least fifteen years.. The collection is thorough and Thayil's introduction is an illuminating portrait of the complexities of poetry in a country with so many languages. Thayil's impressive scholarship and his commitment to seeking important out­0f­print works has preserved recent literary history and introduce new (and international) readers to significant Indian poets. Unbound: 2,000 Years of Indian Women's Writing, edited by Annie Zaidi: A collection that includes both poetry and prose and writers working in many different languages (translated into English), this collection provides a broad view of the history of women writing in India. The collection is sorted thematically which makes it a good teaching resource if you're looking for a poem about a particular subject for your classroom. These My Words: The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry, edited by Eunice De Souza and Melanie Silgardo: A broad anthology that offers significant historical poems as well. The English Language poetry of South Asians, by Mitali Pati Wong with Syed Khwaja and Moinul Hassan: A scholarly transnational approach to the topic. The book does not collect poems, but provides context and criticism that's especially helpful in post­secondary classes. The Oxford Anthology of Modern Indian Poetry, edited by Vinay Dharwadker and A.K. Ramanujan: Selected on the strength of individual poems from over twenty languages, there are many classroom options in this anthology. The Oxford Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets edited be Arvind Krishna Mehrotra: First published in 1992, this anthology is organized around the formidable reputations of the poets and offers a larger selection of each poet's work than some of the other anthologies.

Lesson Plan featuring a poem by Adil Jussawalla

The goal is to introduce students to the poetry of Adil Jussawalla Jussawalla, the author of “Missing Person,” re­printed in its entirety in 60 Indian Poets. He lives in Mumbai. The secondary goal is to help students connect theme and technique in poems.

1. Make copies of the poems “Approaching Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay, “Nine

Poems on Arrival, and “Evening on a Mountain”

2. Have the students break into groups of 3 and give each group one of the three poems. All groups should have the same directions:

a. Read the poem aloud. b. Work through the literal meaning of the poem (including vocabulary) c. As a group come up with a statement expressing the theme of the poem.

During this phase of the activity, you could have students complete any kind of notetaking that works for your class. One technique might be TPS­FASTT. As groups are working move around actively and help provide background and support for their analysis. Be ready to add Jussawalla’s biographical information, the Indian diaspora, background on Bombay to their discussions.

3. Rearrange groups so that the students are in new groups of three. Have each group member introduce the other two group members to the poem their group discussed. Again, have all groups read all the poems out loud to open their discussion.

4. Ask the groups to write a statement of themes that these poems share. And then

use those as the beginning of a whole class discussion or seminar on the poems. One connection to focus on would be the speaker’s complex relationship to place in each of these poems.

This lesson is designed primarily for a class that focuses on literary analysis. If you are teaching creative writing, you could focus closely on the personifications in “Evening on a Mountain” and then write a poem that personifies an aspect of landscape in each stanza. You could even provide a landscape (painting or photo) on screen and have them use the details of that image to write. For more biographical information about Adil Jussawalla look here.

Lesson Plan featuring a poem by Arun Kolatkar

The goal is to introduce students to the work of Arun Kolatkar and to discuss structure in a free verse poem.

1. Make copies of Kolatkar’s poem “Bon Appetit.”

2. Have students read the poem aloud with a partner. One person reading the first

stanza aloud and the second reading the second stanza. As one partner reads, the other should listen and mark lines and images that stand out.

3. Then they should switch and do the same for the other stanza. One reading, one

underlining or highlighting.

4. Ask the partners to discuss the parts of the poem they marked.

5. Have the partners switch and read the poem aloud again. This time the second reader going first.

6. Have them talk about the relationship between the two stanzas, focusing on the

way the speaker views each subject. Ask them in particular to analyze the structural elements of each free verse stanzas and to look for parallels.

7. If your course is focused on teaching literary analysis, bring the class together for

a discussion or seminar on the poem. If you’re teaching a creative writing class ask students to write a free verse poem with two long stanzas each focusing on one part of a connected image. Students can also begin each stanza with “I wish ______ to.”

For more biographical information about Arun Kolatkar look here.

Lesson Plan featuring a poem by Eunice de Souza

The goal is to introduce students to Eunice de Souza, an influential poet and editor who lives in Mumbai and to introduce (or reinforce) the concept of ekphrastic writing.

1. Begin by familiarizing yourself with Vermeer’s portrayal of women.

2. Choose a few paintings to share with your class. If you have access, use the Google Art Project, as it offers high resolution images and commentary offering context. Some recommendations: “Woman Reading a Letter,” “The Milkmaid,” and “The Love Letter.” If you’re teaching creative writing, have students use the paintings as prompts to write in the voice of one of the women. If you’re teaching composition or literary analysis, have students write a paragraph explaining how the details of the painting express the subjects’ inner lives.

3. Introduce students to the concept of ekphrastic poetry. Share de Souza’s poem

“Women in Dutch Painting” (note: use a version from her book or an anthology as the line breaks in this sample are not accurate).

4. Discuss the poem, the personal references to de Souza’s life and the comparison

to the women in Dutch painting.

5. Look back at the paintings again and have students write about how de Souza’s poem changed (or didn’t change) their vision of those women’s interior lives.

6. In a literary analysis focused class, follow up with another ekphrastic poem and

painting paring that’s in your curriculum and have students write an in­class essay. For example, “Why I Am Not a Painter” and Mike Goldberg’s “Sardines”

or

In a creative writing class, have students use the Google Art Project to choose a piece of art and write their own ekphrastic poem. You could also choose the same work of art and have the whole class write on it. If you have tablets, students can use Google Art Project to zoom in and focus deeply on detail. Have a reading which students project the art on the screen and share their writing with the class.

For more biographical information about Eunice de Souza look here.

Lesson Plan Featuring Shikha Malaviya Shikha Malaviya is one of the founding members of the (Great) Indian Poetry Collective. Her collection, Geography of Tongues was published in 2013. This poem is a useful for introducing the litany as a form and anaphora as a literary term. This lesson can be adapted to work with any litany you’re teaching and can be used with a wide variety of grade levels.

1. You can print “Where I Come From” or put it on the projector. Since it’s a short

poem each student doesn’t need a copy. They just have to see the text of the poem to recognize the structure.

2. Have the class read the poem. You can have different students take each line.

3. Explain the litany form and introduce (or reinforce) the literary term “anaphora,”

repetition of a phrase at the beginning of a line.

4. Discuss the structure of the poem and how the repetition brings out the meaning of the poem.

5. As a class brainstorm some beginnings of lines that could be used in a litany.

Have them consider prepositional phrases. For example, “under the bed,” “after the rain,” or “because the phone rang.” Together as a class make a list of phrases.

6. Choose one (you can choose and have each student write independently for 10

minutes, working on lines branching of the repeated phrase the class chose.

7. While students work, circulate and give each student 5 post­it notes.

8. When they’re done, have them write their three favorite lines each on a separate post­it note.

9. Gather the post­it notes and arrange them into a group poem. You can do this by

breaking the class into groups of six (big groups work better). Once each group has sorted out their poem, have the groups read to the class.

For more biographical information Shikha Malaviya look here.

For a video Shikha Malaviya giving a talk about poetry and Indian poetry in English at a TEDx event look here.

Lesson plan featuring a poem by Aditi Rao

Aditi Rao, won the Satish Verma Young Writer Award for poetry from Muse India in 2015 for her book The Fingers Remember. She lives in New Delhi, where she founded Tasawuur.

1. Make copies of the poem. For this exercise you’ll want each student to have their own copy.

2. Read the poem aloud. Think about how you want to structure the reading. To

hear the poem in different voices you can have a reading with individual students reading each stanza.

If you have more time, break the class into groups and have each group prepare a choral reading of the piece. Then each group perform in front of the class.

3. Discuss the structure of the poem. Bring up that it’s a direction poem. Spend

some time discussing what each of these steps means both literally and metaphorically.

4. Have students write a journal entry in imitation of the poem. You could choose

one subject as a class and all address it in your own step­by­step guides or students could choose their own topics and write individually.

Students who are feeling stuck could imitate the beginnings of Rao’s lines and use her phrases to jump start their writing.

5. If you want to make connections with other poems that offer directions, think

about Juan Felipe Herrera’s “Five Directions to My House.”

For more biographical information about Aditi Rao look here.

For a video of Juan Felipe Herrera reading his poem look here.

A Step­by­Step Guide to Walking through Clouds

by Aditi Rao

It is harder than you’d think; they are always wet and never fluffy. Umbrellas

will not help, carry a jacket at all times. When you feel you body melt, let it. When icicles start hanging off your skin,

allow them to fall to the ground; they will nourish the earth. Follow the five­year­old who leads you. You may not trust her yet, but what

else do you have to go on? When she brings you the only mango in your her house, accept it. Peel it

with your teeth, but into it whole, allow its juice to trickle down your shirt.

When the flesh is gone, suck on the pit, toss it into the field (don’t, please don’t, ask for a trash can).

Remember that the clouds are not wet enough to wash your hands in. Ask the locals for a puddle; there will be one nearby.

As you leave, be sure to carry gifts for people who don’t expect them. Take a piece of the cloud home in your backpack. Feed it to your friends.

Reprinted from The Fingers Remember with permission from Aditi Rao.

Lesson Plan featuring MInal Hajratwala

Minal Hajratwala is one of the founding members of the Great Indian Poetry Collective and the author of Leaving India: My Family’s Journey From Five Villages to Five Continents. Because this lesson features a longer poem, it will work best for 16­18 year olds and might take more class time than some of the shorter poems featured in these lessons.

1. Make copies of the poems “Angerfish” that separate it into its four sections. Explain that students will be working on one section of the poem at a time with their group. Each time a group receives another section of the poem they should begin their work by reading it aloud together.

2. Divide the class into groups and hand out the first section. Ask the students to

work with their groups to come up with a literal summary of the lines. Come together for a whole class discussion of the Angerfish image.

3. Using the same groups, hand out the second section of the poem. Have groups

focus on what is different about the Angerfish in this section. Come together for a whole class discussion of the differences.

4. Using the same groups, hand out the third section of the poem. Ask the groups to

focus their discussion on the shift from second person to first person and to comment on the effect that shift has on the Angerfish image.

5. Hand out the final section of the poem. Now that they have the full poem, ask

them to look at variations in form. Ask them to consider the way Hajratwala structures each section and how it impacts the theme of the poem.

6. After the whole class discussion of the poem, ask students to imitate the style of

one of the sections of the poem in a piece that focuses on one of the navarasa, the nine moods that are considered universal to human emotions in the classical Indian arts: passion, wonder, fear, anger, peace, sorrow, humor, courage, aversion.

For more biographical information about Minal Hajratwala look here.

Read more essays and poems from Granta by Minal hajratwala here.

Lesson Plan featuring C.P. Surendran’s poem

“At the Family Court”

The accessible subject and irony in this poem make it one that is useful for secondary students. It’s helpful for teaching the literary terms juxtaposition as well.

1. Read the poem together as a class.

2. Ask students to work in small groups to mark all the images in the poem of things that do not go as expected: broken lift, wrong bathroom, coming together to separate, being declared not man and wife.

3. Introduce (or reinforce) the concept of juxtaposition with your students. Ask them

to discuss (or write about) what meanings are made by the juxtapositions in the poem.

4. In the same small groups (or partners) ask students to mark how many times

specific numbers appear in the poem. Have each group discuss how the numbers and the placement of the numbers relate to the other images and to the overall theme of the poem.

5. Bring the class back together to share their observations. If irony doesn’t come

up in the discussion, help them out and introduce it.

6. As a writing exercise, have students begin their own piece of writing with something broken. Surendran uses the lift, but they can choose any household or mechanical object.

For biographical information and more poetry C.P. Surendran look here.

Lesson Plan featuring Nissim Ezekiel (& Li­Young Lee)

Teachers in the U.K. and India might find “Night of the Scorpion” by Nissim Ezekiel included in their required curriculum while teachers in the U.S. might find “The Gift” by Li­Young Lee in their textbook. Because curricular requirements dictate many of the choices teachers make, this lesson is designed to complement the teaching of either one of these poems. That way any teacher required to teach one has the chance to offer the other to the class as well.

1. Introduce the concept of narrative poetry to your students, explaining that narrative poems tell stories. Both of these poems tell stories from the speaker’s childhood.

2. Give half the class one of the poems and the other half the other. Ask students to

work with a partner to create a short summary of the literal meaning of each poem. In discussion, have students share the narrative of each poem.

3. Discuss the differences and similarities of the approach that the poets each take

toward an injury (and the response of adults) they remember from childhood.

4. Ask students to make a list of emergencies (small or big) that they recall from childhood. You may have to help them by defining emergency broadly for them.

5. Ask students to begin a journal entry with either “I remember the night…” after

Ezekiel’s poem and to write their own piece featuring one of their own memories.

6. After writing, ask students to share with a partner. Then ask for volunteers to share with the class.

For biographical information about Nissim Ezekiel look here.

For biographical information about Li­Young Lee look here.

For video of Lee reading “The Gift” (& talking about his father) look here.

Lesson Plan featuring poems by Arundhathi Subramaniam

The goal is to introduce students to Arundhathi Subramainam, a poet and editor who grew up in Mumbai and now lives in Combaitore and Chennai, to recognize controlling metaphor and to write their own draft using a controlling metaphor.

1. Make copies of the poem “Wearing High Heels” (from When God Was a Traveller or here) and “Home” (from 60 Indian Poets or here). Introduce the class to the idea of controlling metaphor. According to the Norton Introduction to Literature:

An extended metaphor is a detailed and complex metaphor that stretches across a long section of a work. If such a metaphor is so extensive that it dominates or organizes an entire literary work, especially a poem, it is called a controlling metaphor.

2. Choose the poem you want to start with. Read the poem aloud to the class

demonstrating pronunciation. Ask students to identify words they don’t understand of vocabulary that’s new to them. Have students who volunteer read the poem to the class.

3. Ask students to work in groups of three to identify the controlling metaphor in the

poem two poems. Then ask each group to choose one line from the poem that represents the work the metaphor is doing in the poem. Begin a whole class discussion by having groups share their lines.

4. As a class brainstorm images to use in controlling metaphors. Branching off

Subramaniam’s work, start with articles of clothing. Make a list on the board with the help of the class and discuss how some of the articles might serve as a metaphor for a larger issue.

5. Ask students to choose three articles of clothing to use as metaphors in a

notebook entry. After writing, ask students to share with a partner. Then ask for volunteers to share with the class

For a biography of Arundhathi Subramaniam look here.

For a video of Subramaniam reading from her work look here.

Six Poems by Jeet Thayil (from Collected Poems)

How to be a Krait This one is easy, let your grief take over. Enjoy salt. Forget the rest. When your skin falls off, sere as bone, laugh out loud. That is the first thing. The second: Avoid the mongoose. How to Be a Leaf Hold your breath until you are God’s green thoughts. Stop eating, Air will suffice for food. Water is another matter: The skin absorbs moisture, eyes adjust, limbs grow inward. Conjugate patience. Worship women and trees. How to Be a Horse Know the nostril, all power gathers there. Inflate yours until the blood sings. You will need all your training to be a horse, not ass. It is a thin crossing perilous to the absent­minded and the estranged of heart. Avoid all latitudes.

How to Be a Crow Learn to name the animals ­­Stinking, Babbling, Breedy, Querulous, Maddened, and Jet. Usurp the duties of God. Why not? This is what poets do. As for crow, kill colour. Turn black. How to Be a Bandicoot Assume dominance over the underworld. Your enemies are legion ­­eat them. Eat everything. You must build your strength, change will surely come. Your eyes are red legends. Your name is Adam. How to Be a Toad Take three fresh spores with a dram of rum, hold it on your tongue For longish moments. Pack all thoughts of gold In a small leather case the size of a sapphire. Say to yourself repeatedly, ‘I’ll never again be beautiful.”

Reprinted with permission from Jeet Thayil

Thayil, Jeet. Collected Poems. New Delhi: Aleph Book Company, 2015.

Lesson Plan featuring poems by Jeet Thayil

The goal is to introduce students to Jeet Thayil, a Man Booker Prize nominated novelist and poet who lives in Delhi, to practice writing imperative sentences, to understand the definition of “tercet,” and to practice poetry recitation and pronunciation in English.

1. Make copies of the poems. They can also be written on the board or projected on

the screen, but please be sure students can read from them aloud when asked.

2. Choose the poem you want to start with. Read the poem aloud to the class demonstrating pronunciation. Ask students to identify words they don’t understand of vocabulary that’s new to them. Have students who volunteer read the poem to the class.

3. Discuss the structure of the poem. Point out the three line stanzas are called

tercets and that the poems are the use of imperative sentences sets the tone for the poems. Each poem offers directions.

4. Practice writing some imperative sentences together. Ask students to think about

the kinds of directions teachers give to classes. These can be the model sentences for student work.

5. Choose an animal as a class and ask each student to write at least three stanzas

that are imperative sentences. Each sentence should be a direction for being that animal.

6. In groups of three, have students share their stanzas, then have them choose

one stanza for each person to read aloud. They can chose the order they want.

7. Have a poetry reading where each group reads the poem they have written together to the class. Ask each student to read his or her own line so all students get practice with public speaking.

For more biographical information about Jeet Thayil look here.

For a video of Thayil reading from his work look here.