When it comes to poetry, I am an image-driven reader. For the longest time ever, I was interested in the intersection of photography and poetry (also known as photo-poetry); the picture and the poem are always related, but are never the same entity -- they simultaneously exist on different planes of meaning while gravitating towards and altering each other...
But that is a story for another time. Coincidentally, photo-poetry is also an incredible way of teaching imagery by providing a visual anchor for students as they embark on the poem. Most of such materials exist in hard-copy, but here are several online photo-poems that are great starters!
The first one is photograph and poetry by Lenore Horowitz. This resource would be good for introducing the concept of imagery to Lower Secondary students: the planes of meaning between photograph and poem are very close (ie both the image and the poem convey pretty much the same idea/message/notion); the poetry is not anything groundbreaking, but the pairings of photograph and poetry does perform the role of explaining each other quite adequately.
This photo-poem by Helene Fischman goes one step further by introducing personification to the interplay between poem and photograph. The poem itself is more dense, allowing for deeper levels of reading; the planes of meaning between poem and poetry are detached enough to allow for a greater number of possibilities in interpretation. Recommended for a Secondary 2 / Secondary 3 class.
This collaboration between Jillian and David Pattinson has brought about a striking photograph and an equally striking poem. The planes of meaning that the two elements operate on is on the level of the abstract; there is the process of addition and subtraction of meaning that is unique to the form of photo-poetry. It invites interpretation while resisting definition by maintaining a strong sense of ambiguity. A great poem to be used for the high-caliber upper secondary student or as introductory material to a Junior College student.
Nice idea to look at photos and poetry. The websites are a good resource for looking at visual and textual meaning, and the interconnection between both.
ReplyDelete