Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Lesson Plans: Poetic License Assignment

Which to do, then? Post something here, or practice mandolin?

"Whatever you practice, you will get good at," I warn or promise my students and kids, depending on the tone to make the difference. Hmmm...

A compromise: here's a little quatrain, short and stout, that I've always thought would make a fine assignment for students of just about any age, by the charming second-generation New York School poet Ron Padgett, from his out-of-print book Toujours l'amour:
Poetic License

This license certifies
That Ron Padgett may tell whatever lies
His heart desires
Until it expires
The assignment would be, more or less, to write your own "Poetic License." No more than four lines, rhyming AABB, lines expandable ad libertam until the rhyme arrives (in manner of Ogden Nash, if slightly less graceful under pressure). "This license VERB / That YOUR NAME HERE may..." etc.

As this blog will no doubt soon show, I love quatrains, epigrams, short poems of almost all kinds. Hence my much-loved mandolin, that epigram of instruments. (As oud is the ghazal!)

More soon--

2 comments:

E. M. Selinger said...

If I can figure out a way to give the comments titles, Chandella, I'll do it. I'm new to all this blogging, though! Thanks for leaving the comment--

EMS

lesson plans said...

That's a cute poetry exercise. I bet kids have a lot of fun with that one.