Literature III, (deadline:Tuesday, June 16)

Hi, Everybody!
It´s been a pleasure confirming your commitment. I really enjoyed your powerpoints, as a general rule.

That´s why I´ve decided to ask you to work on another poem. I guess it´ll prove easier than the one on Morocco carpet weavers. Before you read it, I´d like you to do some research on a fairy tale that you may have read when kids: Jack and the Beanstalk. You can read a quick version in the next link. There are several versions but this´ll do.
http://pbjclibrary.state.ar.us/mural.htm

If you want to have fun, you can read Roald Dahl´s version:
http://www.funny-poems.biz/roald_dahl/Jack-and-the-Beanstalk-by-Roald-Dahl-revolting-rymes.html

OK. Now A, as usual, I´d like you to predict from the title of poem nº 77, (Songs of Ourselves page 119): Little Boy Crying
Jot down about 5 ideas in a spidergraph.

Then B, read the poem through once, and more slowly for a second time. Allow it to create pictures in your mind. Here is some help with vocabulary:

Line 1: contorting: twisting violently
Line 2: metamorphosed: changed or transformed
Line 3: frame: body. ( Consider – or act out – how a small boy might
hold himself when his body is made rigid in a severe tantrum.)
Line 4: bright either because of the effect of the tears or because he is young and
lively.
Line 6: angling: the use of the word is metaphorical, based on fishing. The boy is
trying to use his cunning to achieve some sign of regret from the adult for his action.
Lines 8-13: The second stanza is based on the familiar fairy-tale of ‘Jack and the
Beanstalk’. (This is why I asked you to re read it. If you give it second thoughts you´ll become aware that such fairy-tales are often a projection of childhood fears and dreams.)
Line 9: a colossal cruel: the word ‘cruel’ appears here unexpectedly as a noun.
Line 15: can scald him with: tears are often described as ‘scalding’ but only in the
sense that they are hot and the product of ‘hot’ feelings – but here the poet gives an
extra twist by changing the familiar grammatical function to suggest that they injure
the man rather than the boy himself.
Line 16: The mask belongs to the man.
Line 20: If you are baffled by this line, rest assured that it might take a
few readings, private thoughts and class discussion to gain confidence in interpreting
it.

C. After reading again lines 1-7 describing the small boy, try to
assess how far his grief is genuine. Look very closely at
the words to support your case. (Remember that emotions do not
have to be straightforward, even in a three-year-old.)

• Secondly, look at how the boy and the incident are described.
(This might give a clue as to the feelings of the poet as we are seeing the
whole thing from his perspective.) Think of:
(a) the use of the second person (‘Your… you..’)
(b) the sounds of line 2
(c) the hyperbole in line 3
(d) the effect of the monosyllables at the end of line 7
(e) anything else which is interesting about the way the boy is described.

From all of this, can you make any preliminary, tentative conclusions about
how the adult feels about the boy and the punishment?

D.The first glimpse of the adult is as a third person, through the child’s eyes.
Consider how the poet thinks the child will be looking at the
adult. Consider
(a) the way the fairy-tale has been used
(b) the sounds of the words
(c) the way he presents the child’s plans for revenge.

E. Remember throughout that this is how the poet perceives the
child’s viewpoint and that this will be affected by his feelings for the child and
the child’s grief and anger after the punishment. Is there any suggestion of
humour in the way he has presented the child’s response? Is there any
unhappiness about the loss of rapport between them, however short-lived it
might be? Why doesn't he call himself I or me at any time in the poem?

There are no simple right and wrong answers to such questions – but
be prepared to back up your answers with close reference to
the words of the poem reinforced by your own knowledge of adults and
children.

• Think over the way some key words are used in the final
stanza in order to understand more deeply what the poet’s feelings are.
Consider the force of the feelings behind ‘hurt’, ‘easy’, ‘fierce’,
‘longs’, ‘anything’, ‘dare’.

• Morris has said that his poems were often asking questions about some
aspect of his life.
Mervyn Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1937, and gained fame as Professor
of Creative Writing and Literature at the University of the West Indies. As a
schoolboy, he wrote poetry for fun and for satirical reasons. Later, he said, he used
poetry more seriously to ask questions about aspects of his life. He is known for theeconomy with which he uses words.

Do you think this is true of this poem…..or do you think you have the answers? Do you think it is sometimes necessary to be cruel to be kind?

F. This brings us to the very last line, standing by itself. (Consider what the effect of that standing alone is.) What does it mean in its very simplest, literal sense? Given its position at the end and the way it is expressed, we have a clue that it might mean more than this, however. (‘You’ has so far referred to the child; it can also be used impersonally and generally
to refer to anyone). We have (in line 5) had a comparison of tears to rain.
What metaphorical meanings can you see in the words and how does
this help you to gain a perspective on the whole poem?

G. After all the search for meanings and significance in the poem, you should still appreciate that this is a very human poem. If you like to read literature as an expression of human emotion, not just as an intellectual exercise, you can be encouraged to go back and enjoy the adult’s love
overflowing in the poem. If you have detected this, you have appreciated something important – but you need to bring to any discussion how you have seen that is there.


Thematic links with set poems
Relationships between adults and children: Plenty;
Portrayal of children: Rising Five; Plenty; Carpet-weavers; Morocco; Before the Sun
Fairy tales: Storyteller

Homework: Write the boy´s thoughts. Email the homework to gabymasson@gmail.com

Make sure you can read the poem meaningfully out loud next Tuesday.

See you soon, God permitting!!

Optional work: Maybe you can watch this video featuring Morris reading his poem
http://merrick.library.miami.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cwsi&CISOPTR=1319&CISOBOX=1&REC=20