Poetry & Love

It seems that title is so fitting....when I think of poetry, I always think of it being written about love.  Which, I've discovered, is not always true.  This was one genre I was dreading, because poetry is not my favorite topic in literature.  I appreciated the comment our textbook made about poetry, because I absolutely agree with it, "many people are nervous around poetry.  They believe that it can't be understood without special knowledge or written without an Ivy League degree" (Lukens, Smith, Coffel, 2013, p.259).  I am nervous around poetry!  But after reading the books I've chosen and reading our textbook, it doesn't seem as scary.
The first book I choose for my picture book, was Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling.


This photograph kind of sums up the poem: the relationship between a British solider and an Indian water carrier.  This is a book of poetry that details the time in India's history in the 1800s where the British were in charge and the Indian people were looked down upon.  It is based on the Indian Mutiny of 1857.  The British were fighting and the Indians were used as servants, such as Gunga Din, the water carrier.  The poem depicts how badly he is treated by the British, and how much fun he is made of for the color of his skin and being dumb.
Gunga Din follows these soldiers everywhere and quietly carries the shame.  The soldiers are relentless in the torture and treatment of Gunga Din.  One day, during a battle, one of the soldiers gets shot and is badly wounded.  Gunga Din is the only one who stops to care for him, and ends up actually carrying him miles to safety.
The books ends with the soldier's appreciation of Gunga Din and how he saved his life.  These are the last few lines of the poem:
"Din! Din! Din!
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Tho' I've belted you and flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"
(Kipling, 1987)

The last few lines of the poem are so moving, and show the love  and admiration the solider has for Gunga Din.  It is a different kind of love; almost a quiet and shameful love, but nonetheless love.

Because of the complexity of the poem, this poetry is meant for older students such as high school.  The concept of the poetry might be a hard one to grasp, but the story it tells is beautiful.  The illustrations are beautiful and done in watercolor.  The poem is written in narrative poetry.

The second book I choose for poetry was a chapter book full of poems selected by Michael Rosen.  It is a book of classic poetry, made up of of many different types of poems, authors, and pictures.

It is hard to just pick one poem from this book, since there are over 80 poems included in this book!  There are tons of authors: William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lord Byron, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Bronte, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Frost, and Judith Wright.
Not all of the poems relate to love, but a good majority of them do.  Many of them just relate to things in everyday life, or expressing someones thoughts.
Below is a few lines from Sweet and Love by Alfed, Lord Tennyson
"Father will come to his babe in the nest,
Silver sails all out of the west
Under the silver moon:
Sleep my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep."
(Rosen, 1998, p.54).

This is just one example of the love a mother has for her child.  She is reciting a poem to calm her child at night, waiting for their father to come home.

Another example of a poem that shows love for one's country and/or president is O Captain! My Captain!
It is a poem written by Walt Whitman in the 1800s about the love of Abraham Lincoln.  The president has died, and this is a elegy written in love and memory of him.

This was an interesting book to read since I am not a huge fan of poetry, but very inspirational.  It opened my eyes to different types of poetry, and made me appreciate it more.  I choose this book because I thought it would give me some great examples of classic poetry for me to appreciate.  It is a chapter book that would be better suited for high school age students who could really appreciate and determine the meaning of these classic poems. 
Poetry is a great way to use Stanley Fish's reader response theory, about letting kids think and interpret texts how they wish.

Kipling, R. (1987). Gunga Din. Orlando, Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers.

Lukens, R.J., Smith, J.J., & Coffel, C.M. (2013). A Critical Handbook of Children's Literature. Boston: Pearson.

Rosen, M. (1998). Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press.