Was preparing a workshop for children tomorrow and came across this prose poem by John Clare written roughly 200 years ago.

I think it's exquisite. Reckon it would appeal to surburban 10 year olds?

House or Window Flies

These little window dwellers, in cottages and halls, were always entertaining to me; after dancing in the window all day from sunrise to sunset they would sip of the tea, drink of the beer, and eat of the sugar, and be welcome all summer long. They look like things of mind or fairies, and seem pleased or dull as the weather permits. In many clean cottages and genteel houses, they are allowed every liberty to creep, fly, or do as they like, and seldom or ever do wrong. In fact they are the small or dwarfish portion of our own family, and so many fairy familiars that we know and treat as one of ourselves.

I want something that shows them that a poem doesn't have to rhyme or scan provided it does something extraordinary in their place. Such as persuade the reader to look with fresh eyes at something utterly commonplace.

Not sure about this, Susannah. Where would you go from it? Might be an idea to get them to draw one of these creatures - maybe in pairs - as a starting point?

At first, hearing 'John Clare', my reaction would have been to say no way... but I agree, it's a lovely piece of writing and taken in combination with some kind of activity such as the one Jem suggests could work really nicely. Challenge the little blighters, I say!

(P.S. You might also want to look up the artist - name escapes me now, but she exhibited recently at the Saatchi Gallery - who designs fairies out of various dead insect bodies. Her work is slightly gruesome at first, then weirdly beautiful, then a little gruesome again...but I bet kids would love it!)

Hmmm, not sure.
What about Carol Ann Duffy? Her stuff is more in tune with younger readers.

You might need to gloss 'dull' and 'genteel', but I agree that the idea that something we overlook can be magical is a very good jumping-off point for talking/writing poetry.

You could use it get them thinking about what ordinary, trivial thing in their own lives might be seen in a different way. Works with silly stuff too - Roger McGough, *she says vaguely* - where you see one thing as another - hairbrush as spaceship, empty eggshell as ship for the witches and so on. Indeed, you could start them with something modern, and then move onto this.

Emma

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And it's not just because it's fun to see a hairbrush as a spaceship, it's because it's the roots of metaphor...

What about Carol Ann Duffy? Her stuff is more in tune with younger readers.

But she's already on every syllabus, no? Nice to diversify a bit...

I agree MF.

Oh, you know, I have nothing against CAD, but yes... please give them something different, Cherys. It's as if there is no other poet in the universe at the moment. And I personally find her work awfully dull (apologies to anyone who happens to be randomly related to her/ president of her fan club).
I think this is a great piece to use with children. I don't think we should always be pandering to their pre-conceptions of what writing is or should be. Some ten year old boys will snigger at the mention of fairies, but others will experience something genuinely new to them, a beneficial explosion in the head that allows them to see writing with new eyes and makes them braver and more sophisticated readers.
I guess I feel particularly strongly about this because I think there is a tendency not to push any boundaries, in pure writing terms, with children's literature - and in fact I think children are far more capable of reading a wide variety of sophisticated writing than adults think they are.

Oh I agree about CAD - they can't escape Mrs Blummin Midas and her ilk.

Well I gave them Clare's flies and they loved it and got it and were terribly impressed with themselves for understanding someone who wrote 200 years ago. Then they went off to write about ordinary things that were special to them, including paint marks on pavements, an indian bracelet and four boisterous boys did a chain poem about each others scars from the adventures they had together which was quite outstanding.

I also taught them metre and tested their ability with it on their names. They were all running back into class shouting, 'Miss, Miss I'm a spondee, I'm a dactyl.' Bliss.

I heart teaching primary.

Ahh!

Bless!

Glad it went well, Susannah. Sounds inspirational!

Yes, it really does sound inspirational! Brilliant stuff.

Meant to say, we started with RLS's From A Railway Carriage. I tried it out first on my home-schooled group and couldn't believe it when they loved it. The kids from the estate school today loved it too. They actually shouted out 'That's brilliant,' and wanted to hear it again.

I have an entire hive in my bonnet about kids misbehaving at school because they're not intellectually taxed. Give them ancient Greek, poetic scansion and authors from 100 and 200 years ago and they are on the edge of their seats with interest. Too often they're treated like they want to be stuffed full of contemporary mediocrity and they don't. (Not by their teachers, I hasten to add - some of the teachers at this difficult school are wonderful, but the syllabus is so untaxing.)

Now they're off to look up Rumi on Google. You'd think they wouldn't get to top year of primary in a school of 50% Muslim kids without hearing of Rumi - who is such an excellent poet for children to read - but he's not on the syllabus.

Rant over.

Wow, I'd love to be a fly on the wall (ha ha) in a class like this, to see how it can be done. (Am a bit scared of children en masse so it seems like magic to me.) Are you there as a visiting writer or a teacher?