RHYME OR REASON?
And so it has come to pass : the curfew tolls the knell of parting day as poetry begins to sink below the Ofqual horizon, deferring to the prevailing winds of the dumb-it-down culture rather than aspiring to elevate and expand the outlook of the nation’s youth. In my experience, the vast majority of pupils engage with poetry - old heritage selections and modern. Not only do we respond to the magic evoked by the choice of imagery, sounds and rhythms, but the universal truths of human experience, emotions and ideas reverberate down the centuries. A poem can be a snapshot of an age, a window into human suffering, whether personal or communal; Blake’s chimney sweeper’s cry may no longer be heard in the streets of London, but injustice and poverty persist. Poems often encapsulate something momentous, timeless or philosophical. Tennyson was famously driven to commemorate the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade after reading The Times newspaper report which is long forgotten, w...