John
Fiedler


House
of
Words


Reading
William
Stafford
With
Very
Young
Students


(Epigraph
in
lieu
of
finding
the
italics
key
again)




 (While
there’s
time



 I
call
to
you
by
all
these
dubious
guides:



 ‘Forsake
all
ways
except
the
way
we
came.”)



 
 ‐Love
the
Butcher
Bird
Lurks
Everywhere,
from
Traveling
through
the
Dark



 Students
in
the
first‐
and
second
grades
aren’t
usually
studying
poetry
in
the
usual
sense.

For

them
poetry
isn’t
much
different
from
jump‐rope
chants
or
other
songs.




 I
teach
poetry
first
of
all
by
introducing
students
to
as
many
of
the
best
Mother
Goose
rhymes

as
I
can
find.
I
find
that
students
love
the
rhymes
that
delight
me.
Rather
than
teaching
those
I
learned

as
a
child,
I
prefer
what
seem
like
less
common
ones.



 “Goosey,
goosey
gander,



 Whither
dost
thou
wander,



 Upstairs
and
downstairs



 And
in
my
lady’s
chamber.



 There
I
met
an
old
man



 Who
wouldn’t
say
his
prayers;



 I
took
him
by
the
left
leg



 And
threw
him
down
the
stairs.”



 This
nursery
rhyme
has
been
universally
popular
among
the
students
I’ve
taught.
It
combines

rhythm
(that
catchy
four‐beat
line)
with
archaic
words,
mysterious
locations
(“my
lady’s
chamber”),

charged
activities
(“wouldn’t
say
his
prayers”)
and
retributive
violence.
By
the
way,
it
reinforces
knowing

your
left
leg
from
your
right.



 


 After
months
of
tapping
Mother
Goose,
my
well
runs
dry.
I’ve
tried
the
familiar
anthologies
of

children’s
verse,
finding
a
few
by
Emily
Dickinson
(I
suggest

“Bee!
I’m
Expecting
You”),
Kipling
(“Seal

Lullaby”),
Yeats
(“The
Lake
Isle
of
Innisfree”)
but
my
standards
are
strict.
1)
The
poem
must
have
weight.

The
poems
of
many
acknowledged
poets
writing
for
children
fail
this
test.
2)
The
poem
must
be

emotionally
available
for
a
child.
Most
of
my
favorite
poems
fail
this
test,
so
it’s
important
for
me
to

weight
this
factor
carefully.
I
try
to
sleep
on
a
selection.
3)
The
poem’s
language
must
be
accessible.

Vocabulary
can
be
taught
and
archaisms
can
be
explained,
but
I
steer
away
from
complex
diction.


You
may
have
other,
equally
legitimate
considerations,
but
these
three
work
for
me.



 In
recent
years
I’ve
included
poems
by
William
Stafford
for
first‐
and
second‐graders,
always
late

in
the
school
year.
“At
the
Playground,”
about
the
feeling
of
being
on
a
swing,
is
a
good
one.
We’ve
had

success
with
“Coyote,”
which
tries
to
imagine
what
it’s
like
inside
the
skin
of
another
species.
Students

last
year
responded
strongly
to
“Roll
Call,”
Stafford’s
poem
that
invokes
threatened
and
endangered

species.



 With
“Roll
Call,”
we
learned
to
speak
it
from
memory
and
read
it
from
a
large
chart;
we
looked

for
rhyming
and
near‐rhyming
words;
we
mined
a
book
about
extinct
species
to
glimpse
some
of
the

animals
in
the
poem;
we
imagined
the
setting
and
experienced
the
poem’s
emotional
charge—perhaps

especially
strong
for
watchers
of
the
Nature
Channel,
as
many
of
my
students
are.



 I
did
not
talk
about
the
poem’s
formal
features.
I
have
great
faith
in
steeping
young
students
in

language.
I
think
it
lays
down
a
foundation
for
literacy.


Among
the
poems
available
on
this
website
are
a
few
that
I
will
be
trying
out
next
school
year.

“A
Survey”
can
be
read
as
a
sound
poem.
It
reminds
me
of
Coleridge’s
“Kubla
Khan.”
It
tells
a

sort
of
surreal
story,
too,
and
I
find
that
students
have
the
most
luck
memorizing
poems
that
tell

stories.
This
one
also
provides
fertile
ground
for
vocabulary
discussions.
I
would
use
a
poem
like

this
one
as
the
basis
for
activities
over
several
days—enough
time
to
gather
meanings
from
it

and
to
enjoy
its
sounds,
but
not
so
much
that
it
becomes
tiresome.
I
typically
send
the
poem

we’ve
been
working
on
home
in
the
weekly
homework
so
that
students
can
read
it
to
parents

and
so
that
parents
get
the
benefit
of
it
as
well.


I’m
considering
“Lore,”
a
poem
about
folk
wisdom.
Maybe
parents
could
help
with
that,
as
most

younger
students
are
not
founts
of
this
kind
of
information.
“Mouse
Night:
One
of
Our
Games”


introduces
subject
they
may
have
some
prior
knowledge
of:
parlor
games

like
the
ones
the

poet’s
family
played
when
he
was
a
boy.


“The
Woman
at
Banff”
seems
promising,
too.
It’s
another
poem
about
an
animal,
it
has

humorous

details
and
situations,
and
it
sounds
good.
It
could
be
a
sample
poem
for
young

poets
beginning
to
write
their
own
poetry.
The
short
video
of
Stafford
reading
“The
Woman
at

Banff,”
available
on
the
website,
could
give
teacher
and
students
a
place
to
start
thinking
about

the
composition
process.

 There
must
be
many
recent
and
contemporary
poets
whose
work
is
suitable
for
teaching
young

children.
I
hope
this
introduction
to
using
William
Stafford’s
verse
with
primary
students

encourages
others
to
search
through
their
favorite
poets’
work
to
bring
songs
of
both
innocence

and
experience
to
their
classrooms.



The
list
of
poets
who
form
the
advisory
board
for
the
Friends
of
William
Stafford

organization
might
be
another
place
to
begin.
Among
the
poems
represented
by
that
group
of

luminaries,
I
can
report
that
Gary
Snyder’s
“Bear”
was
joyfully
received
by
first‐
and
second

graders
in
my
classroom
last
spring.