OPEN LETTER TO NY STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER DAVID STEINER RE POETRY "TASK"

 

                                                                     333 Bedell Street

                                                                      Freeport, New York 11520
                                                                       Phone: 516-623-5530
                                                                       Maxwell623@aol.com
                                                                             May 24, 2010

Dr. David Milton Steiner
Commissioner of Education
New York State Department of Education
89 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12246

Dear Commissioner Steiner:

    Respectfully, I am writing with regard to the "Your Task" directive involving poetry in The University of the State of New York’s Comprehensive Examination in English in which the student is instructed to use a poem and a prose passage to "write a unified essay," establishing "a controlling idea" with "specific and relevant evidence from each writing."

    This analytical requirement severs love of poetry. What does the poem mean?" This question is involved in the "Your Task" directive in the Regents examination. I suggest such a question is a major reason that Americans are uncomfortable with and even hostile to poetry.

    Do not let concern for the meaning of the poem get in the way of your enjoying the language of the poem. People in this country are being deprived of making the poetic language a part of their lives because of an educational approach like that in the Regents’ "Your Task" directive.

    The clinically sounding language of the "Your Task" directive could be restated to interest and excite students. This can‘t be the result of the current directive: "Write a critical essay in which you discuss two works of literature you have read from the particular perspective of the statement that is provided you in the Critical Lens. In your essay, provide a valid interpretation of the statement as you have interpreted it, and support your opinion using specific references to appropriate literary elements from the two
works."

    Dr David B. Axelrod, Suffolk County Poet Laureate (2007-09), suggests that "a panel be convened of prominent poets,--not teachers or critics--to discuss what approach would better serve students to encourage them to read, enjoy and feel more connected to poetry."

    "What controlling feeling does this poem create? It is a question with no right or wrong answer. Yet, it is the approach those preparing the Regents examination could consider. Students then could be asked in
non-intimidating everyday language to "Find three examples of a word or a combination of words in the poem that create this feeling. Discuss why you think these examples create this emotion."

    Roger Fowler, Professor of English and Linguistics, writes in his book, "Essays on Style and Language," that "poetry is made with words…The poet makes a statement about something, not in order that the statement may be examined and reflected upon, but in order to evoke certain feelings." This is not an abandonment of meaning. Indeed, the language, particularly metaphors, which are so commonly used in poetry, stimulates thoughts about the poem’s meaning. The meaning is important.

    However, the Regents directive pushes meaning forward despite the poets declaring that stimulating emotion is their first concern.

    William Wordsworth, 19th Century English poet, declares "poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."

    Barbette Deutsch in her "Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms," asserts poetry "is chiefly distinguished by the feeling that dictates it and that which it communicates."

    T. S. Eliot, prescribes a way of writing that he calls the "Objective Correlative…a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that, when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked."

    Carl Sandburg in his essay "Short Talk on Poetry," maintains "What can be explained is not poetry.’"

    Certainly, the student can be interested in the meaning of a poem. But do not let the student suffer concern about the meaning of a poem. Concern and interest are different attitudes. Concern involves worry. Interest involves appreciation.

    “I think if the Regents was set up in a way that asked the kids how they felt about the poem, rather than the meaning, more children would be interested in the field of poetry," writes 12th grader Nicholas Trifu of W. Tresper Clarke High School in Westbury, New York. Mr. Trifu was one of eleven students who wrote me letters responding to this letter I am sending you, Commissioner Steiner. This followed the suggestion of the teacher of these students’ AP English class, Richard Heller, Chair of English and Social Studies. (Please note: Full texts of these letters appear on my website maxwellcorydonwheatjr.com).

    Student Rachel Karcher suggests that "By testing students on their individual reactions to certain poems, the Regents Examination will be less damaging to the psyche of its test-takers and hopefully encourage more people to continue reading poetry outside of the classroom, as they would a novel or
newspaper. Twelth grader Salonee Shah declares "I actually believe poetry should not be incorporated on any sort of examination--the Regents, AP examination, or even a school examination.. Students should be ‘taught’ and exposed to it solely as a means of finding feelings that connect them to it…Maybe then, reading poetry will become an enjoyable experience for students rather than a burden forced upon us."

 

    No student, K-12, should leave a poetry lesson without being aware that poetry is language that evokes emotion. The student should realize that meaning first is felt and then understood. This process should be a teacher’s inspiration and thus a goal for poetry writing lessons. A change in the question from essentially "What does the poem mean?" to "What feeling does this poem evoke?" can encourage teachers to provide their students a truly meaningful experience with a poem.

    Teach students that experiencing a poem is like enjoying a motorboat ride on an Adirondack lake. First you experience the motions of this poetic ride, the feelings that the language is expressing and evoking. Then you see the wake, the foam being a mass of sparkles reflecting the sun or moon. The wake is the meaning. You experience the poem’s meaning while reading or hearing its language. That is the poetic ride our poets take us on with the magnificence of their language. Don’t miss the ride by staring at the wake.

    Thank you for your consideration of this letter.

                                                                        Sincerely,

                                                                        Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr.

                                                                        First Poet Laureate

                                                                        Nassau County, New York

                                                                        2007-09