When I teach adults the vaguely titled Creative Writing, I often use Fern
Hill as an introduction to poetry. Why! you may ask ... Well, It is a long
way from prose yet it is not a jingling old form: it is a syllabic poem. It
has amazing music in it - even in my flat Australian accent it comes to life
when read. Yet it is difficult for them to understand in one reading. It is
a rich human sound, celebratory before you even know what it is about. Then
after second and third readings, and maybe some hints from me, they start to
get more out of it. It is dense enough for them to still be harvesting
themes and images, Biblical paraphrases and extended metaphors for the next
week's class. Having a group discuss it lets bright students lead the dull
ones into perceptions they may never have enjoyed. Okay, you can say what it
is 'about' in one simple sentence, but you can diminish most great art the
same way - Michelangelo's David, The Waste Land, Finnegan's Wake ... But how
it is said is so much more than what is said. And it uses so many of the
tools of poetry. Even the syllabic form highlights the rhetoric of it - and
when the students attempt a syllabic poem of their own, they find out just
how difficult it is to get the form to rise above the maths. They respect
Dylan 'craft and sullen art' even more.

I do take them through forms over two nights - from sonnets to prose poems -
but ultimately I quote 'form is never more than an extension of content' and
show some projective verse, and even Language poetry (if they seem open to
it). (It is only a seven week course - and covers prose too >g<)

When it comes to Autobiography Writing, for adults, open to the public, I
use A Child's Christmas in Wales (or whatever title you can find for it -
there are different versions). It has humour, a great deal of 'instant
characterisation' and rolling language. It does also portray lots of joy in
childhood, which is a good antidote to all the tortured childhood stories
about.

I was in a play once called Dylan, about his times in USA and their effect
on him and Caitlin. The lead was a man called Neville Teed, and he recited
'In My Craft and Sullen Art' absolutely beautifully each night for some
weeks. It was the highlight of the play for me - even eclipsed the short
striptease moment we had in another scene >g< (I was young and randy, give
me some slack ...)

And I have performed in many roles of Under Milk Wood over the years, so I
know that one backwards as well.

Yes, I can see all that is 'dated' about Dylan, and I can see the rich
veneer of his language being exactly that, leading ultimately to nothing
much in many of his poems, but I still like his showmanship and his trying
out his chubby trotters at many forms of writing and verse styles.

Andrew


On 26/08/07, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> End of last year, Radio 3, late on a winter's evening, played one of
> his readings. Show-stopper. Nothing else in the universe but the
> darkness and that voice.
>
> Roger
>
> On 8/25/07, MJ Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > In my youth he was politely ignored at both school and university
> > (Leavis disliked him intensely, I believe), but the BBC 3rd programme
> > was always broadcasting him reading self & others, plus a schoolmate had
> > a 45 rpm of him reading his own stuff; as a reader, he was the British
> > equivalent of Klaus Kinski, whose recordings of ghastly would-be
> > lebenshungrige Villon imitations (ish bin zoh vealed nakh dyenem
> > aired-bare moond) were played at parties in the later 60s with much
> > oohing & aahing. But DT's "When I was young & easy" does sound rather
> > good played at 33 rpm...
> > mj
> >
> > Roger Day wrote:
> >
> > >I kindof missed the Movement. Larkin was taught in school, but that
> > >was about it. Come to think I came to DT (but not the DT's) myself,
> > >rather than through school, with the exception of Under Milkwood. Is
> > >DT's poetry taught in school at all?
> > >
> > >Roger
> > >
> > >On 8/25/07, Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >>Last time I "appreciated" Dylan Thomas was when I was 14-15.  And "The
> > >>Movement" assault on DT convinced me that rereading him would do me no
> > >>good.  David Jones was much more useful, and of course, Ezra Pound,
> whose
> > >>work even when I first encountered it at age 15-16, quickly eclipsed
> DT's.
> > >>
> > >>Barry Alpert
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>On Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:14:40 +0200, Anny Ballardini
> > >><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>>I love Dylan Thomas, and the anguish I perceive made it difficult for
> me to
> > >>>read him at times. And I think I am with everybody here in
> appreciating
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>him,
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>>Roger and Kasper included.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > We went down to the sea
> > all the poets together
> > and gave ourselves up to the waters
> >                              in various positions of loss:
> > Nathaniel Tarn
> >
>
>
> --
> My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
> "In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
> Roman Proverb
>



-- 
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
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