True… And whilst I recognise that one cannot miss what one did not know – never to have read “Aubade” or “The Whitsun Weddings” would be a depressing thought.
Growing up in Hull, my friend and I worked on our embarrassing juvenilia at his home home in the Avenues, whilst (unknown to us) Larkin eked out his final years in the next street over. Not long after, we found out for ourselves what he’d created and life really was never quite the same for either of us.
To deny the next generation such discoveries is criminal.
Listening to Larkin reading his own poems is quite instructive (particularly ones with ‘ambiguous’ last lines, like ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ or ‘An Arundel Tomb’). His stresses often were notable, and were not ones I highlighted when reading. Also his pronunciation of the word ‘cushions’ made me sit up straight for some reason.
Thanks for the recommendation: I’ll have to follow up on that. It’s often instructive to hear a poet read their own work, isn’t it? I look forward to listening.
I am therefore very glad that he was on my O Level syllabus. Stayed with me all my life, unlike many other things I learned. Still dip into High Windows and Whitsun Weddings before retiring of an evening.
Billy Bob
1 year ago
The unintended consequences of publishing league tables for schools. Whilst they were originally intended to show which schools were performing well or failing (despite being a blunt instrument not taking into consideration the affluence and resources of the area they sit), they instead led to schools teaching a very narrow curriculum of what is likely to appear in the exams rather than offering a broad education. Kids are now taught to pass the test rather than to gain skills and knowledge
Last edited 1 year ago by Billy Bob
Arnold Grutt
1 year ago
Far more important than school teaching is the ready availiability of public libraries which do not restrict content on political grounds. I was born during the heyday of good public libraries (which were then not refuges for the child-carers for working mothers and their noisy charges) and made regular use of them, and this in an era when book selection was wide-ranging over all disciplines. They provided a springboard for my further researches into writers of all types and cultural backgrounds, in a variety of chosen subjects (languages, music, poetry, philosophy, ornithology and so on).
Unfortunately the Politburo got control at some stage and they started to disappear.
Last edited 1 year ago by Arnold Grutt
Arkadian X
1 year ago
Clancy decries the either/or situation about poetry selection, but for her grammar should be out because there is an “obsession” at SAT level? Must we have an either/or approach here too?
Last edited 1 year ago by Arkadian X
Jonathan Andrews
1 year ago
While I believe that Literature is a vital subject for young people to study, I don’t believe that it should involve a national examination.
Most people will, hopefully, be given a joy in reading by schools. There’s nothing to examine.
It may be so, that some want to study further, fair enough, test them, not everyone.
The tests drive the syllabus. It’s easier to systematically examine a small number of poems.
Stephen Magee
1 year ago
We need less – not more – poetry in schools. That way, we might eventually get fewer “poets” in society as a whole. Only then might we be liberated from the drivel that passes for poetry these days.
Oh you don’t like the dirt king Charles Bukowski ?
Stephen Magee
1 year ago
“both of them particularly filmic poets, leaving images in the mind of the past, of blinds being drawn down and ambulances running through a town which will endure for decades”
This garbled piece of writing is Exhibit A in the case against Ms Clanchy.
Philip Larkin wrote a great deal of his verse in iambic pentameter, which examiners won’t understand because they’re not educated.
Then they are going to struggle with Shakespeare as much.
True… And whilst I recognise that one cannot miss what one did not know – never to have read “Aubade” or “The Whitsun Weddings” would be a depressing thought.
Growing up in Hull, my friend and I worked on our embarrassing juvenilia at his home home in the Avenues, whilst (unknown to us) Larkin eked out his final years in the next street over. Not long after, we found out for ourselves what he’d created and life really was never quite the same for either of us.
To deny the next generation such discoveries is criminal.
Listening to Larkin reading his own poems is quite instructive (particularly ones with ‘ambiguous’ last lines, like ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ or ‘An Arundel Tomb’). His stresses often were notable, and were not ones I highlighted when reading. Also his pronunciation of the word ‘cushions’ made me sit up straight for some reason.
Thanks for the recommendation: I’ll have to follow up on that. It’s often instructive to hear a poet read their own work, isn’t it? I look forward to listening.
Of course Larkin belongs on the syllabus. That’s why he isn’t on it.
I am therefore very glad that he was on my O Level syllabus. Stayed with me all my life, unlike many other things I learned. Still dip into High Windows and Whitsun Weddings before retiring of an evening.
The unintended consequences of publishing league tables for schools. Whilst they were originally intended to show which schools were performing well or failing (despite being a blunt instrument not taking into consideration the affluence and resources of the area they sit), they instead led to schools teaching a very narrow curriculum of what is likely to appear in the exams rather than offering a broad education. Kids are now taught to pass the test rather than to gain skills and knowledge
Far more important than school teaching is the ready availiability of public libraries which do not restrict content on political grounds. I was born during the heyday of good public libraries (which were then not refuges for the child-carers for working mothers and their noisy charges) and made regular use of them, and this in an era when book selection was wide-ranging over all disciplines. They provided a springboard for my further researches into writers of all types and cultural backgrounds, in a variety of chosen subjects (languages, music, poetry, philosophy, ornithology and so on).
Unfortunately the Politburo got control at some stage and they started to disappear.
Clancy decries the either/or situation about poetry selection, but for her grammar should be out because there is an “obsession” at SAT level? Must we have an either/or approach here too?
While I believe that Literature is a vital subject for young people to study, I don’t believe that it should involve a national examination.
Most people will, hopefully, be given a joy in reading by schools. There’s nothing to examine.
It may be so, that some want to study further, fair enough, test them, not everyone.
The tests drive the syllabus. It’s easier to systematically examine a small number of poems.
We need less – not more – poetry in schools. That way, we might eventually get fewer “poets” in society as a whole. Only then might we be liberated from the drivel that passes for poetry these days.
Oh you don’t like the dirt king Charles Bukowski ?
“both of them particularly filmic poets, leaving images in the mind of the past, of blinds being drawn down and ambulances running through a town which will endure for decades”
This garbled piece of writing is Exhibit A in the case against Ms Clanchy.
Use your other side of the brain. There is more than logical understanding.