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 * TEP 424. ASSIGNMENT THREE: TASK ONE AND TWO AND THREE.**
 * ROSEMARY DAVIS-NEL**
 * 40243662**

INTRODUCTION:

The following selection of “horse” poems have been chosen for a lower ability Year 11 standard class in a remote school. Many of the poems have a rural setting and are easily accessible, yet may also provide varying levels of challenge in their interpretation. The use of the horse as a central motif and unifying theme, is evident in all the poems. The horse is an animal that symbolises many things to man and each poem explores a different aspect of their inter-relationship.

My aim in using these poems is to give the students an experience of different poetic forms and an understanding of how the poet's particular writing style influences the message of the poem in the way it is read and heard. Poetry is above all an aural and visual medium and it is important that the poems are read aloud so that the students can experience the joy of recognition.

The anthology provides students with examples of D. H. Lawrence's succinct blank verse, the lyrical intensity of Edwin Muir, Donald Hall and Louise Gluck's free verse and the rollicking rhythm of the ballads of Banjo Patterson, Rudyard Kipling and Eugene Field. Students will appreciate Anne Finch's meticulous rhymes and Rg Gregory's repetitive use of the last line of each stanza, which emphasises the denouement of their last verses. Finally, the highly formulaic and minimalist use of syllables in Shiki Masaoka's Haiku, allows them to enjoy his expression of the freedom of a horse's choice to wade through the cooling river water on a hot summer's day.

The poets represented in the anthology are all highly regarded and the canon has been deliberately avoided to overcome resistance to the study of poetry, while introducing the students to Preliminary Stage 6 Poetry syllabus. Although students will have the opportunity to analyse the poems at the micro level, this anthology has been particularly selected for the ease with which students can enjoy and appreciate the rhythmic language and imagery created by the poets. Significance in the classroom would be enhanced because these poems would facilitate high levels of engagement, as most students would be very familiar with many of the characteristics of the horses exemplified by the poets, which will enable them to use their background knowledge when analysing and evaluating the poems.

The anthology provides a wide range of poetic expression and language techniques for students to explore. D.H. Lawrence's //White Horse// epitomises the spiritual union of man and beast in a moment of silent communion. Carl Sandburg acknowledges the hardship of workhorses from the mythical knights of Camelot to the mundanity of coal hauling in freezing weather, whilst cozily warmed in slippers by his fire. Anne Finch's witty personification of the horse's choice to be caught and impounded for stolen grazing, would be understood by students who have ridden horses that are reluctant to leave verdant pastures. Edwin Muir's haunting poem, where the arrival of herd of horses '//like a wild wave charging'// after the devastation of a nuclear war, signal the return to simpler natural ways and the hope of a new beginning for mankind.

Donald Hall's hardworking horse toils through the seasons, helping the farmer to prepare, sew and reap harvests from the land, even in death continuing to fertilise new growth: '//old toilers, soil makers.'// Banjo Paterson's delightfully colloquial and irreverent humour and driving rhythm expose students to the Australian tradition of the larrikin made good, when the doomed horse thief redeems himself through charitably providing a good Christmas feast for the poor. In a similar vein, Rudyard Kipling's ominous use of the horse's hooves cadence, underlines his metaphor of the //Undertaker's Horse// as Death, remorselessly pursuing him: //'Who's the next?'.// This theme is continued in Louise Gluck's stark poem //Horse// which uses the horse to symbolise her sense of estrangement and grief. Both //girl (three) and the black horse// and Eugene Field's //The Fly-Away Horse// remind us of how we were first introduced to poetry and the fantasy of imaginative escape as children, when we could gallop away on a Pegasus pony and choose to wade across cool rivers rather than conform to crossing bridges into life.