|
| Gardens > Activity 12 Write a Narcissus Poem Grades K through 6 Materials: Blackboard and chalk or butcher paper and marker; pencils and paper; crayons. Easy Instructions: Work together as a group to create a class poem; then work individually to copy your poem from the board and draw a picture to illustrate it (younger students) or write your own poem (older students). Older students may wish to write their own, improved or personalized version of the class poem--especially if their favorite thoughts or images were edited out in the group process. Encourage students who don’t like the narcissus activity or the class poem to write something funny or sarcastic or downright mean. Allow personal expression free reign, but insist on potent images and clear articulation. Here are some sample haiku adapted from classics. Crocuses Sunrise colors the dew. Yellow crocuses are out-- I must pick a few. Daffodils Bare earth-- Spring cold and chills-- Yet we have the daffodils. Narcissus The moon shines brightly-- Around my narcissus beds Foxes play all night. Buson 1716-1783  Hilda Conkling, an imaginative little girl, wrote this poem celebrating a narcissus. NARCISSUS, I like to watch you grow When snow is shining Beyond the crystal glass. A coat of snow covers the hills far. The sun is setting; And you stretch out flowers of palest white In the pink of the sun. Work together as a class to create a poem as wonderful as these. Start with a question--"Narcissus, what do I see when I watch you grow?" Or start with a description--"Smelly, white narcissus. . ." Ask students for descriptions and comparisons--what is a narcissus like? List some adjectives and nouns. Does a narcissus make you think of something far away--like spring or like the park? Does it make you think of bugs, like butterflies and beetles? Does it make you think of animals, like little white rabbits or mice? Do your ideas fit together like a story? Or are do they describe your impressions or feelings, the way Hilda Conkling’s poem describes hers? Are they tending to be funny? Or are they impassioned or loving? If you discover more than one theme in your ideas, you may be writing more than one poem or a long poem with a lot of comparisons. Flowers lend themselves to short, descriptive poems, like haiku. Are you writing many different haiku--a whole haiku cycle? Slowly work your images and thoughts into lines that seem to go together, and begin to put your lines in order to make one or more poems. Ask for suggestions for rhyming words as they’re needed. Can you leave some words out? Do you need to add some more words? Remind students that modifying words should DISTINGUISH as well as praise, DIAGNOSE as well as condemn. What will you call your poem? Do some of your ideas about narcissus remind you of other things you’d like to write a poem about? To learn how to write haiku, visit http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/japan/language/q2.html or www.indiana.edu/~japan/japan/mdnjapan/LS3.html For more inspirtation, read other flower poems by Hilda Conkling, ftp://sailor.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenberg/etext99/pblag10.txt or William Wordsworth’s " Daffodils " (excellent for older students). |