Have Words Will Travel

I’m sure no one will be surprised to hear that I love it when my kids do a poetry unit in school each year. I get all excited, wanting to know who they’re studying, what poems they like most, and I especially love it when they have to write poems of their own. At this point, they still take my advice on revisions (and I try very hard not to inflict myself on their poetic visions and stick entirely to matters of craft) and my younger son is a natural poet, which thrills me.

Both my boys are doing poetry right now, one in 7th grade, and the other in 9th. The 7th grader is extremely opinionated about poetry and is determined to be published by this time next year. He writes well and is passionate about certain poems, his favorites being Poe’s “The Raven” and “Loveliest of Trees” by A.E. Houseman. The latter, he has memorized and uses to torment his brother by reciting it at inappropriate moments.

My older son, who is fifteen, recently had to choose six poems to analyze from a long list, and I was curious to see what he would choose. His list included “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman, “I Heard A Fly Buzz” by Emily Dickinson, “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” by Dylan Thomas, Adrienne Rich’s “Prospective Immigrants Please Note,” Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” and Jarrell’s “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.” I was interested in these selections and excitedly asked him to tell me what made him choose those in particular.

He said, “Actually, I couldn’t really tell the difference between any of them, so I just randomly picked six.”

Oh.