Page 17 - 1916 February - To Dragma

'JO TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

different pleasures enjoyed by each. But here is the place to chec
the analytical tendency. Analysis kills imagination; and imaginatio
is the necessary companion of an understanding of poetry. Let them
talk about the different pleasures; but never let them write dow
an unyielding list in black and white. I f the poems have left an
impressions, the pupils will delight in recalling the kind of pleasure
each loved. Diagraming them on the board makes the pupils re
member the outline, the appeal to the understanding, and not th
feeling of the poems—the appeal to their emotions. The two poem
are so rich in comparisons, a particularly interesting process to chi
dren, that the second almost teaches itself.

Each picture selected makes them think of a contrasting one i
L'Allegro and musical lines contrast again. They not only catc
the distinction, but enjoy the different music in the lines describin
the sweet almost sensuous music of L'Allegro, and those describin
the sleepy lullaby music of II Penseroso, "Sweet music breathe"
and those singing the music of the organ: "There let the pealin
organ blow." Again the picture of the gray, showery morning love
by / / Penseroso, sends them hurrying back to the picture of th
sun: "Robed in flames and amber light," of VAllegro.

When it comes to suggesting the central thought in the poem
the joy which comes from study, thought, and contemplation of th
grand things of life, they not only find lines to bring it out, but als
feel a bit of sympathy for that attitude toward life. I n teaching lyr
poetry can we aim at anything more worthy, more f r u i t f u l for them
than that, at the end, they sympathize with the feeling? Sympath
will not come i f they have failed to understand the poem, or i f th
study has been tedious. I f they have temporarily understood an
sympathized, the poem has left its mark upon their emotional lif
and has enriched it. What more can we do? Have we not accom
plished our aim i f we have succeeded in broadening their sympathie
and stirred their feeling to an appreciation of fine things.

May I ask you to glance back for just a moment over this plan
The time necessarily given to these poems will probably be abou
nine recitation periods, making the work cover three weeks i f thre
periods are alloted to literature a week. Perhaps this may seem
bit long, but not too long when you remember that such stud
furnishes an equipment which makes the study of the two followin
poems Comus and Lycidas much easier and much more rapid
Again such material is a splendid source from which the pupils ma
draw help in understanding many other poems which they will read
Perhaps some part of the scheme seems elaborate enough to be un
wieldly; perhaps it seems that the way is too carefully prepared