Poet's Corner

Struggle

As an art form, poetry is a direct descendent of drama, and at the center of drama is conflict: opposition in drama helps to define characters and engages the audience's interests and sympathy. Some poems have carried on the narrative functions of drama and present situations of struggle: others follow the celebratory tradition of poetry and concern themselves with victory. Modern poetry is just as likely as not to look upon victory, especially military victory, with suspicion or irony, or to recognize the dignity and humanity of the vanquished. It is not difficult to find examples throughout Exploring Poetry of poems that use a central struggle to release heat, as in "The Charge of the Light Brigade," by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, which de-emphasizes the struggle between the opposing armies and honors the courage of soldiers who know that they are about to die.

To help students examine poems about struggle, it is useful to have them define as specifically as possible the two opposing forces. In some poems, specifically war poems, the opposing forces are easy to name, but how, for example, should we frame the conflict in "Casey at the Bat"? Is it one team against the other, or Casey against his public image, or Casey's ego struggling with his ability? A variety of answers is possible for any poem, and students will necessarily understand the issues better for having pondered the question.

Activity

Summary: After a class discussion about how a person's internal struggle shows itself in their appearance, students will paint or draw a character from a poem and then explain what it is about their picture that depicts internal struggle.

Suggested Teaching Strategy: discussion, hands-on art

Learning Outcome Skills: analyzing, depicting, explaining

Related Curricula: art, art theory

Required Time: two 50-minute periods: one to paint or draw, one for discussion

Materials: a computer graphics program or art supplies

Discuss with students the idea of internal struggle: of how a person can be considered involved in a conflict although there is no actual opponent involved. Then, have the students try to portray internal struggle visually, by painting a picture, either with a graphics program or with paints, markers or pencils. Characters from Exploring Poetry that students can model their portraits on include: the outcast in Ortiz's "Hunger in New York City"; the achiever in Piercy's "To Be Of Use"; the poor workers in Walker's "Memory" and "Childhood"; the abandoned woman in Brooks' "The Sonnet-Ballad." Since this exercise is about internal struggle, the picture should include no more than one person, suggesting struggle with posture, facial expression, etc. Students who lack any talent whatsoever for figure drawing might be allowed to portray the concept of struggle abstractly, with colors, shapes, etc. When they are finished, students should be able to explain to the class the elements of struggle in their artworks.