William Carlos Williams writes poetry that doesn't rhyme, and neither does TS Eliot. However, TS Eliot uses techniques like repitition and different type faces while Williams doesn't. I enjoy Williams' works more because they're easy to understand while also having deeper meanings if the reader decides to look for them.
An activity for students to do could be to take one of the poems and turn it into a short story. I feel like this can be easily done with all the poems I was given. However, a really good story would also include the subtleties within each of the poems that involve a deeper reading.
Another activity students can do would be to interpret a poem into their own words so that they can share with the class what they think they mean, and a discussion can build off it.
I think the idea of paraphrase is interesting.... why do you find it suitable with WCW especially? What skills do you think students get out of it?
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about cultural approaches? Particularly interesting might be WCW and the visual arts... at least 2 of the poems seem to be connected:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_with_the_Fall_of_Icarus
http://www.wisdomportal.com/Christmas/Figure5InGold.html
it seems like there could be some interdisciplinary interests here... Also, what do you get out of the wiki-research links you posted? Imagism/modernism?...
In general, think about the 1920s poems as challenging the traditional idea of poetry as a clear narrative.... The Eliot selection seems to be a difficult monologue: don't feel like you have to talk about it at length, but it's worth thinking of similarities between the two....