I’ve started a thread for my babycentre.com December 2007 birth group to gather their responses to reading, with some lovely replies… see their responses on the comments thread
I’ve started a thread for my babycentre.com December 2007 birth group to gather their responses to reading, with some lovely replies… see their responses on the comments thread
From Liz:
“Wow Rach, What a wonderful thing to study.
I was just writing to say that I haven’t read any poetry for ages and ages and then remembered that I read a poem today, weird.
I help out in our local library, each week we have a childrens story time where we read stories and then do craft or music afterwards. We have different themes every week and the children love it, even though Saise is the shouty loud one throwing cushions at everyone!!
Thanks for posting these, I’ll just say how they make me feel…bearing in mind it’s late and I’ve had an awful lot of sugar tonight!!!
Prayer makes me feel that even in the darker moments, the smallest things can give us hope or that little chink of light. Maybe the most mundane, everyday sounds can bring us back or take us away from pain for a second. ‘ Sieve of her hands’ is so beautiful, I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. So, for me, it makes me think of lonliness but also hope.
Happiness gives me the sense of purity, innocence, freshness, uncomplicated, a real contrast between the innocence of the boys and the realness of the newspaper. Also a kind of sadness as the writer looks on, knowing that that innocence has gone. But it’s a lovely picture of the boys.
I don’t know if I made any sense but I really enjoyed that.”
Rebekah:
“I’m afraid I have been condition not to be a fan of Carol Ann Duffy – Due to studying alot of her work for GCSE.
Although saying that. I had not read prayer before and was pleasently suprised. It makes me think of the world as a whole, rather than the small things going on around me. It makes me grateful for the small things in life.
Happiness is so simple but quite profound. The writer expresses a desire to be a care free as the boys. And it takes alot things out the equation that alot of people think they need to be happy. Just true companionship.
I think if they could, they would take
each other’s arm. – This line is great, I think the writer is thinking of past time in his own life where it wasn’t stigmatized for young boys to take each others arms.”
Shona:
“Afternoon Miss,
I like the idea of the first one. I don’t have a ‘faith’, but still there are moments when you look out the window and feel part of something bigger – when everything seems to have a purpose I suppose. We’re all doing our own little thing, but it’s all part of something bigger.
The second one makes me feel sad – for 2 reasons. Firstly, the obvious wistfulness of it – yearning for that lost time. Secondly (and probably showing what a twisted person I am) I can’t help wondering whether these boys are really happy. It’s so easy to look at others and see the grass greener – to see that they are so happy and content when perhaps they are just getting on with it…I don’t know, like I say, I am probably twisted…we don’t know what goes on in others’ lives, what they are dealing with, how it makes them feel. And here the author is so sure of how they feel – for no real reason.
It does also remind me though, of those times – you know those days that were just a normal day but it was all just so perfect – everyone was happy and everything worked. I don’t know if I’m expressing this well – I’m not talking about a time gone by, but about individual days that I remember. And that’s a happy thought.”
Keri:
“They are both such beautiful poems. You know, it’s got me thinking how little poetry we read once we leave school. I hardly know any now, but used to have to recite and learn them when I was growing up. The fact that DH was sidelined as a child for being dyslexic means he’s barely even heard any poetry…hmm…maybe time for a change!
It’s taken me a few attempts to enjoy Carole Anne Duffy’s poem, which seemed rather sad at the first attempt. The line “Grade 1 piano scales console the lodger looking out across a Midlands town” is what caught me first though: it reminds me of the loneliness that freedom and independence can bring, and how sometimes the sounds of ‘home’ bring consolation. On rereading the poem it got me thinking about prayer and how beautiful it is to think that sometimes, when you don’t have time, you receive a sudden gift of prayer.
As for the second one, I LOVED it! It just made me think of myself a bit: I am an early riser and often go sup my coffee by the window in the morning, watching the world go by, before I get SpongeBob up. The poem, to me, is about innocence and the beauty of it . And I guess that’s what is often glimpsed in the early light.
Bring on the next ones!”
Anna:
“Prayer is one of my favourite poems in the world. I especially love that it speaks to people both with and without faith. For people without faith it speaks of the sense of sacred we can get from observing the every day. It reminds me of the bit in ‘Kes’ where the kid gets in trouble with his teacher because he can’t help saying ‘German Bite’ after the teacher calls out ‘Dogger, Fisher’ when doing the register. Sieve of her hands is a beautiful image.
But it also I have noticed speaks to the faithful, about prayer being a gift, not something we have to work for/at, but something that is available to us all at any time.”
hey rachel- bookdoc here …
they are really interesting responses to the poems – just shows there are as many readings as readers and Andrew needn’t worry about pinning down the author’s intention!
I continue to carry a sad impression of the poem Prayer, something in it rings with me from the first poem we did in the group – Watching for Dolphins by David Constantine, a big favourite of mine
It’s a real treat to find people discussing poems – I love it!
xxx