National Anniversary Rehearsals

Tantz_Aerine on March 27, 2007

In all cultures there is some anniversary honouring war heroes, and usually children recite poems and raise small plays, ne?

What is going on here is not only a reality for the poems children are given to memorise (they are not only complicated in verse, expression and archaic vocabulary, but also refer to abstract ideas and events the children rarely know), but also for many other demands made on students. Surely you have felt Think A's despair at least once in your life, haven't you?

And btw, we learn today that manga guy's name is Johnathan!

Also, let me tell you that the poem the children are supposed to learn verse by verse is Mother and Poet by Elizabeth Barret Browning; a great work or art honouring Laura Savio, an Italian poet whose two sons were killed in the battle over the unification of Italy in 1861. The verse Think A has to learn is this:

Yet I was a poetess only last year,
And good at my art, for a woman, men said;
But this woman, this, who is agonised here,
– The east sea and west sea rhyme on in her head
For ever instead.

This verse ties in beautifully with the cruelty of war and the burden on mothers who lost their young- if you read the rest of the poem! Otherwise, it could be referring to anything, from gender roles to the clash of emotions to a rant with no real point except angst. How can you know by only one single verse?

If you don't teach a child what a poem refers to, and if you only give that child to learn and know a singled out verse instead of having knowledge of all the poem beforehand, how is the beauty of this poetry going to be felt and experienced by a terrified young student?

Sorry for the rant- it's just something I recently experienced with a couple of students who are part of our research… and I really got mad about it. I hope you enjoyed the strip, anyway ;)

And yay for an update!