“Blumov’s Bear” Method to Teaching Meter to Children

Giving a poetry lesson using bear memes and Robert Burns, Francis Scott Key and Whitney Houston, and Eric Carle and William Blake. Plus: the Versecraft podcast and upcoming poetry events

Photo by Rey Emsen on Unsplash

Way back in April, my daughter came home from school saying that her teacher wanted me to give a talk for National Poetry Month. Before I knew it, I had two days to come up with something to say to a class of third graders in the very last hour of the day on a Friday afternoon. Fortunately I remembered a comment on one of my old Facebook posts from Elijah Blumov, poet and host of the Versecraft podcast.

Here’s the photo from the post:

Here’s Elijah’s response:

I don’t think either one of us at the time were very serious about the comment, but I found myself thinking, “Oh heck, why not?” So I went into the classroom, cued up The Proclaimers song so the students could listen to the tune, and then I had the kids read the bear post out loud, stressing the capitalized words. The students were very engaged and enthusiastic. I asked them if they could hear the rhythm of the lyrics. And then the teacher projected the Robert Burns poem from which The Proclaimers got their inspiration.

A Red, Red Rose

O my Luve is like a red, red rose
   That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
   That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
   So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
  Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
   And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
   While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!
  And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
  Though it were ten thousand mile.

We talked about how many song lyrics are poetry (despite my earlier argument a several weeks ago). We put up the lyrics to The Star-Spangled Banner and listened to Whitney Houston sing it. I showed the children that the lyrics were actually the first stanza of a poem by Francis Scott Key. On the white board the kids pointed out the incidences of rhyme and alliteration. One of the boys then launched into a surprisingly thorough mini-history lesson about the battle that inspired Key’s poem, which was fantastic.

I also spoke more about meter, and how sometimes we have iambs (da-DUM) and trochees (DA-dum). I used William Blake’s “The Tyger” and the book Brown Bear, Brown, What Do You See? by Eric Carle to talk about trochees. I passed around a copy of Brown Bear and asked the kids to take turns reading it aloud, telling them to stress the words they naturally wanted to. Everyone heard DA-dum.

So this post is a bit of thanks to Elijah Blumov for his comment that helped me give a simple and fun lesson on prosody to a bunch of 8 and 9-year-olds, but I also wanted to let you know of his great podcast, Versecraft. If you have not listened to it, you really must give it a try. I think it is one of the best podcasts on the study of verse that is currently being produced.

Here is a link to his analysis of “Disobedience” by my professor, Ryan Wilson:

And here is the Versecraft episode on George David Clark’s “Shiversong” which my MFA class read for a lesson this spring:

If you wanted to meet Elijah, Ryan Wilson, or George David Clark in person, there is an event coming up in a few days on Thursday, June 13, 2024 from 6:00 to 8:30PM at Loganberry Books.

From the Loganberry website:

Broadsides & Ephemera: TRIPLE FEATURE!

George David Clark, Matthew Buckley Smith, and Ryan Wilson! 

George David Clark is the author of Reveille (winner of the Miller Williams Poetry Prize) and Newly Not Eternal (from LSU Press). David’s recent poems can be found or are forthcoming in AGNI, The Believer, Crazyhorse, Five Points, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Image, The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. After earning an MFA at the University of Virginia and a PhD at Texas Tech University, David held the Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Poetry at Colgate University and, later, the Lilly Postdoctoral Fellowship at Valparaiso University.  He’s received additional honors from Southern Poetry Review (the Guy Owen Prize), Narrative Magazine (the 30 Below Prize), and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference (a Walter E. Dakin fellowship), among others. The editor-in-chief of 32 Poems, he previously served in various capacities on the staffs of Meridian, Iron Horse Literary Magazine, and the Best New Poets anthology. Since 2015 David has taught creative writing and literature at Washington & Jefferson College, where he is now an associate professor.

Matthew Buckley Smith has had poems and stories appear in AGNI, American Life in Poetry, Beloit Poetry Journal, Best American Poetry, Cincinnati Review, Amazon’s Day One, Fairy Tale Review, Harvard Review, Subtropics, and Threepenny Review. His second book of poems, Midlife, was selected by David Yezzi for the 2021 Richard Wilbur Award. His first book of poems, Dirge for an Imaginary World, was selected by Andrew Hudgins for the 2011 Able Muse Book Award. 

Ryan Wilson is the author of The Stranger World(Measure Press, 2017), winner of The Donald Justice Poetry Prize, of How to Think Like a Poet (Wiseblood, 2019), which was awarded the Jacques Maritain Prize by the Catholic journal Dappled Things, Proteus Bound: Selected Translations, 2008-2020 (Franciscan University Press, 2021), and In Ghostlight: Poems (Southern Messenger Poets, LSU, 2024). Wilson’s poems have appeared in several anthologies, including Best American Poetry and Christian Poetry in America Since 1940, and his work has been published widely in periodicals such as 32 Poems, Birmingham Poetry Review, First Things, Five Points, The Hopkins Review, Image, Literary Imagination, The New Criterion, The Sewanee Review, and The Yale Review. He teaches at The Catholic University of America and in the M.F.A. program at The University of St. Thomas-Houston. Since 2016, Wilson has been Editor-in-Chief of Literary Matters. Wilson also serves as the C.F.O. and administrator of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW), an international non-profit that promotes the study of literature in both creative and scholarly contexts.

If you miss the Ohio event there will be another chance to see Ryan Wilson and another set of really excellent poets and writers. The University of St. Thomas in Houston (where I am a remote graduate student) is hosting their Summer Literary Series at the from June 13-25, 2024.

From the University of St. Thomas website:

The annual Summer Literary Series at the University of St. Thomas brings distinguished authors andscholars to Houston to share the joy and beauty of the written world. Join us on campus for a series of readings, lectures, and performances that feature the best in contemporary literature and reflections on enduring classics. All events are free and open to the public.

All events will begin at 7:15pm and take place in Cullen Hall Auditorium (excluding June 20, which will take place in Jones Hall.)   

• June 13: A.M. Juster, Keynote Reading

• June 14: Brigid Pasulka, Keynote Reading

• June 17: Adam Kirsh, Keynote Reading

• June 18: Ryan Wilson, Keynote Reading

• June 19: Katy Carl, Keynote Reading

• June 20: Ralph Hammann, Richard Wilbur Film Screening/Public Interview (Location: Jones Hall)

• June 21: David Yezzi, Anthony Hecht, his Life and Work

• June 22: David Yezzi, Keynote Reading

• June 24: Angela O’Donnell, 'The World Is Almost Rotten': Flannery O'Connor & the Hot Pursuit of The Real

• June 25: Angela O’Donnell, Keynote Reading

If you can’t make Cleveland or Houston to see Ryan Wilson, he is doing yet another reading—this time at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop in Cambridge, MA July 10, 2024 at 7:00 PM with two other great poets, Tom Laughlin and Matthew Porto.

If you know of any other events (whether or not they have Ryan Wilson) featuring poets you love please feel free to mention them in the comments. I’d love to hear about what is going on in your neck of the woods or whatever you are interested in.