ERIC Number: ED063304
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1971
Pages: 16
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
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The Importance of Teaching Poetry.
Brooks, Cleanth
The value of poetry is discussed. The term "poetry" is used to refer not only to verse but to imaginative literature in general. It is conceded that poetry deals with a value-structured world and that judgment of it is subjective. It is also pointed out that students, even high school students, can be taught some objective standards for evaluating poetry. Such elements as metaphor and tone are two concrete items on which to base a judgment. It is concluded that we live in a world in which language is beginning to break down under the strain - especially advertising and political - imposed upon it by people who don't know how to use it, or who deliberately pervert it to their own ends. It is also concluded that to give a student some training in language and its possibilities and to train him in some kind of discipline in the responsible use of it are perhaps the two most important things that the school can do. (Author/CK)
Descriptors: Discipline, Educational Objectives, English Instruction, Evaluation, Figurative Language, High School Students, Language Usage, Literature, Metaphors, Poetry, Standards, Values
Open Court Publishing Company, 1039 Eighth Street, La Salle, Illinois 61301 (Book: $1.95)
Publication Type: N/A
Education Level: N/A
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Sponsor: N/A
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Note: A paper presented at annual meeting of the Open Court Advisory Board (3rd, Chicago, June 1971); Reprinted in "Papers on Educational Reform," Vol. II