2022 Post #24 -- First They Came

by Kristy Trammel

For years I, like every other English teacher ever, shared Martin Niemoller’s, “First They Came” with students as they studied The Diary of Anne Frank or Elie Wiesel’s Night. I shared it with them, and we all marveled at its striking message. Students instantly understand its theme, its connection to our study of Holocaust literature, and its striking plea to our future selves that we never become bystanders in the face of tyranny and oppression regardless of our positions or power. But that was it. We passively marveled at it. What else was there to do with this poem? How could something so powerful not demand more time and attention? What discussion or activity wouldn’t ruin it, but rather, if possible, enhance its power? Currently my answer is the use of close reading and mimicry.

 First they read it once, and I ask them to look at the thematic connection to our unit--

Because I notice that it bolsters their confidence.

 

Then they read it again, and I ask them to look at its form—

Because I notice that they see consistent verbs creating repetition.

 

Then they read it a third time, and I ask them to look at the implied argument—

Because I notice that they then internalize its gravity.

 

Then they mimic the poem to create something borne of their experience—

and there is the action that fulfills the poem’s plea because they cease to be bystanders.

 

Struggling and strong students alike produce profound poetry when mimicking this form.  Provide the following framework to students, and some will produce their best work of the year.

 

First they ___________________________________, and I _____________________________--
Because I ______________________________.

 Then they ___________________________________, and I _____________________________-- 

Because I ________________________________________. 

Then they ___________________________________, and I _____________________________-- 
Because I ________________________________________.

Then they ___________________________________--and there was ___________________________________.

By writing this poem, students break the cycle of sitting silently in the classroom passively nodding at a poem’s simplistic yet powerful message and make use of that which the speaker implores them to use: their voice.

Further Reading: 

Kristy Trammel is a ninth-grade English teacher in Bucks County, PA.  

2022 Post #19 -- What Do You Love?

 by Brett Vogelsinger

Alex Dimitrov's poem "Love" is pages long in The Best American Poetry 2021 anthology, but every stanza starts with the same two words:  "I love."  Some of these sentences are just three words long, while others spill into multiple lines of poetry.  

The poem was composed on Twitter, one little bit at a time, but read as a single piece, it has the momentum of a perfect piece of anaphora and a flow of ideas that feels a bit like an accordion to me, sometimes expanding on an idea, then contracting to a completely different one with the next "I love." 

To begin our poem of the day routine, I walk around the room showing my students the length of this poem, reminding them poems don't have to be short.  They can keep them rolling along for pages in their notebooks if they would like.  

Then I tell them, "I'm going to read the first twelve lines aloud, without you seeing this poem, and when I stop, just keep the ball rolling.  Start listing the things you love.  Ride the wave of this parallel structure Alex Dimitrov creates by starting line after line, stanza after stanza, with the same two words." 

The next moments in class are beautiful, silent but for the scratching of pencils in notebooks, and students never seem to finish before I stop them.  Within minutes, some students have even filled an entire page with a poem. 

Here is an example of what my student, Brooke, created:

This exercise is a golden opportunity to succinctly teach the power of parallel structure or anaphora because students have already built their own example of it, riding the wave of Dimitrov's original.  

Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth grade English teacher and NBCT at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA. He is the founding editor of Go Poems, facilitates his school's literary magazine, Sevenatenine, and contributes monthly posts at Moving Writers. Follow him on Twitter @theVogelman.