Appreciation or Explication of a Poem

Year 2015, Volume: 1 Issue: 1, 15 - 19, 28.06.2015

Ayfer Onan

Abstract

Literature, does that word refer to any written material or any creative writing or oral compositions such as songs , poems and the other? Why should any given work be highly regarded as a “literary” work? What, then, is poetry? Why do we teach it? And why is it based upon how literature means rather than what it means? Can the answer to those questions be that poem can be appreciated by its effect in the minds of our students when it is read or heard.This paper aims to show how literature, and specifically, poetry can be used in language teaching. Indeed, as a literary work, poem raises the pleasure produced by the poet, at this point, the very concept of a right explication is irrelevant. What is being carried out in poetry courses should be the attempts to make a proper appreciation of the human qualities, that is, the feelings that evoke in the students’ minds through a given work of poetry. In poetry courses, for this reason, studying a poem through its effect should be considered essential. The effect, to be sure, must be justifiable ones. At this point, teachers of language would take the lead to enable their students to achieve to make proper judgements. Regarding that poems mean what they say, not what we would like them to say, we, the teachers of English, would make our students take the tips for going right.

Keywords

Literature, poetry, explication, appreciation

References

• References
• Barber , C . (1983) . Poetry in English . London :Macmillan
• Collie , J ., & Slater , S . (1987) . Literature in the language classroom : a resource book of ideas and activities . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .
• Di Yanni , R . (1998) . Literature : reading fiction , poetry , drama , and the essay. Boston: McGraw-Hill .
• Fenton , J . (2002) . An Introduction to English poetry . London : Viking .
• Hanauer , D . (2004) . Poetry and the meaning of life . Toronto : Pippin Press .
• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173746 accessed on June 30, 2015
• Kennedy , J . & Gioia , D . (1998) . An Introduction to poetry . London: Longman
• Maley , A . & Duff , A . (1989) . The Inward ear : poetry in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
• McKay . J . (2002) . Dialogues through poetry . New York : St. Martin’s Press .