This is
Just to Say
THIS
IS JUST TO SAY, by William Carlos Williams
I have
eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and
which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive
me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Background
Not
like a poem
This deceptively simple poem is one of my
favourites to read with a class; it is usually unlike any
poem that the pupils have seen before. It doesn't 'sound
like a poem', which means you can use it to demonstrate
the important principle that poems do not have to sound
'poetic'; they can be written using any kind of language
and about any kind of subject.
In
their own life
I recently heard a recording of William Carlos
Williams reading 'This is Just to Say', after which he
was challenged by an interviewer who asked what makes
this a poem, as it is the kind of thing that anyone might
say. William Carlos Williams responded by saying that
people do not believe that poetry can exist 'in their own
life'. It is enormously important for young people to
learn that they can write poems using their own language,
(just as William Carlos Williams deliberately used the
language spoken by Americans) and poetry can be written
from their own lives, their own everyday experiences.
Reading the
poem
Doctor
Williams
I
introduce 'This is Just to Say' by talking about William
Carlos Williams, who spent his working life as a doctor,
writing in his spare time. I tell them how he came home
late one night, hungry, after treating a patient. He
found the plums in the fridge, ate them and left the poem
as a note for this wife.
Line
breaks
Sometimes
I give pupils the poem written out in prose and get them
to put it into lines and stanzas, working in small
groups. We discuss the different possibilities and the
implications of using line breaks, and stanza breaks in
different places. This is very useful for their own
writing; after working like this, pupils become very
conscious of how they can use these tools in their own
poems for the most impact.
Channel
that excitement
Often,
when I give a poem to the class, I will put them in
groups to talk about it, and maybe to prepare a reading
for the rest of the class. With 'This is Just to Say' I
tend to move more quickly; I read the poem to them and
immediately move onto the next stage. 'This is Just to
Say' has an immediate impact, it gets the class excited,
and I like to channel this into their own writing.
Oral work
Sorry?
Is
Williams really and truly sorry for eating the plums? How
can you tell? Have the children ever apologised for
something they have done that they enjoyed doing? I have
had some excellent oral work out of this, as well as some
cracking poems. Everyone has been in this situation and
can identify with it, even before they remember specific
incidents. Pupils talk, for example, about the satisfying
sound that a window makes when they smash it, the
pleasure they get from watching mould grow in a half-cup
of coffee neglected in their bedroom. If time is short,
or if it is a particularly large group (I recently did
this with a group of 190 remarkably enthusiastic Year 8
pupils in Malbank, Cheshire) I will put them in smaller
groups to talk about their experiences, then invite one
or two from each group to talk to the whole class. It's
important not to let this go on too long; as I said
earlier, get them writing while they're still excited.
Writing
poems
Painting
the sofa
I ask
pupils to write a similar poem, apologising for something
for which they aren't really sorry. This gives young
people confidence, whatever their level of ability,
because the poem is in the voice of someone speaking, and
all of them can use this voice. It's also fun, and when
pupils enjoy writing, they write as well as they can. If
they cannot think of a particular incident, I tell them
to make one up, or borrow an incident from a book. I
remember one memorable poem, written by a boy in Year 9,
based on 'Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy'; an apology
made by aliens from the safety of their spaceship after
destroying Earth. The true ones can also be memorable;
one girl recently wrote about painting a brand new white
sofa with red gloss paint when she was very small. There
is a great attraction in this exercise; it enables pupils
to write, using a controlled form, not only about the
outrageous, but also about the dangerous and the
forbidden.
Shape
The shape
of the poem, incidentally, is also worth exploring; what
would a doctor write on, most of the time? The back of a
prescription pad. What difference does it make writing on
different size paper? Give them massive sheets of paper
and small pieces, for their poems. See what difference it
makes.
Write
fast
Tell the
pupils to write their first drafts quickly, to get all
their ideas down, not to mind about handwriting.
Read back
Pupils
will probably want to read their work aloud. Encourage
them to put in detail by asking them questions, eg what
colour was the paint? Also encourage them to use brand
names and technical or specialist vocabulary where they
can, eg throwing the lump hammer at their brother's Apple
Mac G3 may be, and is, reckless, but it does sound more
engaging and dramatic than merely throwing a hammer at
the computer.
Final draft
I tend to
get pupils to write a final draft during a follow-up
lesson, or perhaps for homework. Before they do so,
remind the them about the way Williams uses line breaks
and stanzas, and encourage them to try out different ways
of using them in their own poems; (on the computer if
possible - it's so much quicker). Ask them to do a 'final
final draft' for display or a class anthology - a cunning
and useful way of getting pupils to take that extra care
over spelling and presentation.
Which
age group?
I usually
use 'This is Just to Say' with Year 8 but at different
times I have used it throughout the secondary school and
also with pupils as young as nine. I also like reading it
with sixth formers, where it's particularly useful to
provoke one of those wonderfully productive discussions.
You give out the poems and wait for a few minutes;
someone looks up and says, 'What exactly is poetry?'
References
This page
is adapted from Jumpstart Poetry In The Secondary School by Cliff Yates (Poetry Society, 1999)
William
Carlos Williams, 'This is Just To Say', from Collected
Early Poems (Carcanet 1968).
© Cliff
Yates
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