Learning with poetry

Lullaby is a magic spell whispered by the God of Sleep, embellished with a mother’s humming that cocoons the baby soul. Listening to this beautiful music can create a nostalgic effect that makes us reminiscent of the lullabies our mother use to sing for us. The inexplicable power of this miraculous experience takes away the baby minds to a comforting shell of love and serenity. This experience is something which is impossible to put into words because it enforces and encourages every parent to be fantastic singers and even music composers, making up their own lyrics and tunes, exclusively for their little bundle of joy. They don’t know how they do it, it is magical.

There is nothing best than a lullaby that can calm a baby and make him/her fall into the land of dreams. Every mother does sing a lullaby which can soothe their babies because their voice and mind are so much connected to the babies more than anyone else. This beautiful piece of poetry does have a place in our life and our hearts for it reminds of the emotional and mental bond with our mother. Therefore, right from the moment of our birth in a mother’s heart, till we leave our life from the earth, poetry has an imperative effect in us that no other literary genre has.

Though every culture in the world has positioned a mother-baby relationship to be the strongest and beautiful above all relations, the land of amazing tradition and spirituality, Africa, has taken motherhood to another greater level. They live with the purity and love of a mother in all aspects of their life. In every literary piece that tells the history and agony of Mama Africa, we can see the struggle of maternity, about their love, sacrifices and inexplicable difficulties, whereas paternal absence is clearly visible.

Among the tribes of Africa, the women of the Himba tribe holds a peculiar tradition in conceiving a baby. Every child in this tribe would have a birth song from the moment a woman desires to become a mother. The mother listens to the birth song sitting alone under a tree, later teaches it to the villagers and they sing it in every phase of his/her life, right from birth until death. They believe it is important because the birth song reminds the person about his roots and identity which moulds him/ her to be a good human.

The lyrical element in lullabies and birth songs brings out the true value and benefits of poetry in human life. Even though they serve the basic purpose of soothing and comforting babies, these poetries contain greater meanings than they literally hold. While some classical lullabies talk about identity as in birth songs and life values, some narrate the untold stories and some the known stories of a land and its people. Poetry has the power to vocalize to the heart without utterance.

When it comes to education, any preschooler would be most enthusiastic when he/she learns nursery rhymes. As said before, like lullabies, these tiny poems it has its own benefits hidden in its learning process. Kids enjoy the wordplay in rhymes in which they are made to have fun with the repeating words and sounds, complete with actions. Rhymes teaches them how language works with sounds within the words. They learn to speak with the fun of rhyming words. It improves their reading and writing skills. Most importantly, it nourishes their imagination and makes their learning a fun session.

Later when they begin to learn all literary genres in their curriculum, poetry classes would still be the most enjoyable among all other classes. Poetry continues to have this privilege because it is the most personal of all the genres. In accordance with Wordsworth, “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected in tranquillity”. Poetry is all about emotions. The core intention of a poem is to induce emotions in the readers which enable them to relate it to their own life and makes them undergo catharsis. When a poet recollects those emotions and gives it a beautiful structure, it helps the readers or the students to better understand emotions.

Apart from generating emotions, poems can bring in ideas, thoughts and better perspectives in students. Poetry has the power of transition. It can change our mindset when well interpreted. Poetry can empower the soul in a deeper sense and has the license to think beyond the world. In schools, learning poetry has more scientific intentions and benefit which has been proved over years of research.

The basic intention of learning poetry is to get students more connected to the language that is used in poetry. Mostly poetry is read aloud in a class and this exercise can enhance many qualities in children like reading, listening and speaking skills. When poetry is read aloud students learn to read anything with proper intonation and pronunciation and becomes confident to speak. The poetic language and diction enable students to listen keenly and think about it. The essence of a poem can only be attained with the proper diction chosen by the poet. Poets even coin new words to put their ideas in the most appropriate way. Learning these words improves their vocabulary, language and pronunciation and also the usage of words in the proper context. It also helps them learn grammar in an easy way.

Learning the construction of poems can inspire children to write. Poetry aids children to learn the aesthetics of language encouraging them to jot down their ideas and fantasies in a figurative language in their own imagination and creativity. Discussions on poems are the best mode to make children imaginative, critical and creative. Interpreting and analyzing poems are the best way to attain these skills. Listening poetry triggers imagination and children begin to visualize what they hear. When they are asked to interpret a poem, their imagination expands further leading to a critical analysis of the poem. Poetry encourages creativity and gives freedom of expression. Nothing is directly said in poetry. Creativity helps the students to connect the poem with their own experiences and makes them realize that there is no boundary for thoughts. This will engender courage in them to accept themselves and create their own perspectives. The blending of imagination and creativity creates a critical analysis of the poem. Critical thinking develops the aptitude to think sensibly in whatever we choose to do.

Learning with poetry is as beautiful as listening to music. Since poetry has got never-ending walls of imagination it cheers the children to sail through the river of crystal to reach up the white palace. Even the lullabies that rocked us to the tender arms of sleep have its own innocence and tenderness in connecting us to the world of emotions and imaginations. Thus, poetry has the power to hold us to its heart, nourishing and structuring our nomadic thoughts.