Learning to Give, Curriculum Division of The LEAGUE
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Purpose:
Duration:
One Fifty-Five Minute Class Period
Objectives:
The learners will:
- identify and define the poetic conventions: rhyme, rhythm, refrain, alliteration and onomatopoeia.
- write an original poem about philanthropy using at least two poetic conventions.
Materials:
- “General Booth Enters Into Heaven” (Attachment One)
- Book of tongue twisters (optional)
Instructional Procedure(s):
Anticipatory Set:
State that the learners have all heard of tongue twisters such as, “Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Ask them to share some of the tongue twisters they know. (If you have a book of tongue twisters, students will enjoy trying to read them aloud.)
- Ask students to write a tongue twister about a vegetable or a fruit. Allow time for them to write these and share them with the class. Explain to students that tongue twisters use the poetic convention of alliteration, which is one way that sound is given to language. Alliteration occurs when the same sound starts succeeding accented syllables. In “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,” for example, alliteration is created by the occurrence of a p sound at the beginning of every accented syllable.
- Go over the remaining poetic conventions: rhyme, rhythm, refrain and onomatopoeia. Students should write definitions of the five poetic conventions listed.
- Rhyme refers to echoing or repeating sounds at the end of words. In poetry, rhyme usually occurs at the end of lines.
- Rhythm is the regular repetition of a beat, accent or rise and fall in language. It is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Most poems do not use the same rhythm all the way through. Variety in rhythm is desirable and a necessity. Very few poets favor rhythms that slide into a mechanical pattern or rhythm for very long.
- A refrain is a line, or part of a line, or group of lines, which is repeated in a poem, sometimes with slight changes, usually at the end of each stanza. The refrain occurs in many ballads and poems. Example: The word “Nevermore” in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” is a refrain.
- Onomatopeia is a situation where the sound of a word directly imitates its meaning (for example, “choo-choo,” “hiss”).
- Rhyme refers to echoing or repeating sounds at the end of words. In poetry, rhyme usually occurs at the end of lines.
- Divide students into groups of three. Using Lunchlady Land (Lesson One, Attachment One), ask the groups to find examples of one of the conventions in the song’s lyrics. Allow five to ten minutes for this activity and then share with the class.
- Next, give students copies of “General Booth Enters into Heaven” (Attachment One). Explain that the Salvation Army is an example of a non-profit philanthropic organization begun in the late 1800s to meet the needs of the poor. This organization was founded by a man named William Booth in London in 1865 to allow Christians to participate in social work. Why was the work of the Salvation Army important then and today? Why isn’t the work of the Salvation Army done by the government? Ask students if they have seen the Salvation Army at work today. What is their mission?
- Next, the students should read silently the background note from the attachment about William Booth and be able to explain why Vachel Lindsay wrote the poem “General Booth Enters Heaven.” How would students describe the characteristics of William Booth as one who contributed to the common good of the community?
- Using the first verse of the poem, identify the poetic conventions students have found in the first verse of the poem. The students should then find examples of these conventions found in the rest of the poem.
- As an assignment, students should write at least a one-verse poem about a philanthropic person using alliteration and one of the other poetic conventions covered.
Assessment:
- Students’ identification of poetic conventions found in “General Booth Enters into Heaven” may be used as an assessment.
- The one-verse poem may be used as an assessment of poetry conventions and knowledge of philanthropy.
Extension:
Have students log on to the Salvation Army’s Web site at http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/ for more information on the work of this nonprofit in the United States and abroad.
Bibliographical References:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/lindsay3.html for Vachel Lindsay, General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems (London: Chatto and Windus, 1919): 1-4. PS 3523 I58G4 1919 Robarts Library. Collected Poems (New York: Macmillan, 1923): 123-25.
Lesson Developed and Piloted by:
Pat GrimleySt. Charles Community Schools
Anna M. Thurston Middle School
St. Charles, MI 48655
Handouts:
Handout 1Print Handout 1
General William Booth Enters into Heaven
To be sung to the tune of The Blood of the Lamb with indicated instrument]I
[Bass drum beaten loudly.]
- Booth led boldly with his big bass drum --
- Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
- The Saints smiled gravely and they said: “He’s come.”
- Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
- Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,
- Lurching bravoes from the ditches dank,
- Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale --
- Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail: --
- Vermin-eaten saints with moldy breath,
- Unwashed legions with the ways of Death --
- (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
[Banjos.]
- Every slum had sent its half-a-score
- The round world over. (Booth had groaned for more.)
- Every banner that the wide world flies
- Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes.
- Big-voiced lasses made their banjos bang,
- Tranced, fanatical they shrieked and sang: --
- “Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”
- Hallelujah! It was queer to see
- Bull-necked convicts with that land make free.
- Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare
- On, on upward thro’ the golden air!
- (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
II
[Bass drum slower and softer.]
- Booth died blind and still by Faith he trod,
- Eyes still dazzled by the ways of God.
- Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief
- Eagle countenance in sharp relief,
- Beard a-flying, air of high command
- Unabated in that holy land.
[Sweet flute music.]
- Jesus came from out the court-house door,
- Stretched his hands above the passing poor.
- Booth saw not, but led his queer ones there
- Round and round the mighty court-house square.
- Then in an instant all that blear review
- Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new.
- The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled
- And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world.
[Bass drum louder.]
- Drabs and vixens in a flash made whole!
- Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl!
- Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean,
- Rulers of empires, and of forests green!
[Grand chorus of all instruments. Tambourines to the foreground.]
- The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire!
- (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
- But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir.
- (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
- O shout Salvation! It was good to see
- Kings and Princes by the Lamb set free.
- The banjos rattled and the tambourines
- Jing-jing-jingled in the hands of Queens.
[Reverently sung, no instruments.]
- And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer
- He saw his Master thro’ the flag-filled air.
- Christ came gently with a robe and crown
- For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down.
- He saw King Jesus. They were face to face,
- And he knelt a-weeping in that holy place.
- Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Composition Date: 1913.
Background Note:
William Booth (1829-1912) founded the Salvation Army in London in 1865 to yoke Christians to social work. His missionary organization spread to the United States 15 years later. Lindsay writes about the making of this poem in Collected Poems (New York: Macmillan, 1923): 21-22:
The poem called “General Booth Enters Heaven” was built in part upon certain adventures while singing these songs. When I was dead broke and begging in Atlanta, Georgia, and much confused as to my next move in this world, I slept for three nights in the Salvation Army quarters there. And when I passed through Newark, New Jersey, on another trip I slept in the Salvation Army quarters there. I could tell some fearful stories of similar experiences. I will say briefly, that I know the Salvation Army from the inside. Certainly, at that time, the Army was struggling with what General Booth called the submerged tenth of the population. And I was with the submerged.
In the spring of 1912 the news went around the world that the great founder of the Army had gone blind. Every Sunday newspaper had a full-page picture of the blind General. Later came the announcement of his death, with elaborate biographies. Later in these same newspapers, all over the world, came the story of his life as told by himself. So much has happened since, such rivers of blood have run under the bridges of the world, that this succession of newspaper features has been forgotten. Meanwhile the fanatical Salvation Army, that was like the Franciscans of the Strict Observance in the very earliest days of St. Francis, has emerged as a prosperous rival of the Y. M. C. A.By General Booth’s own story, quoted incessantly by the papers the year of his death, he went into the lowest depths of London, by malice aforethought and deliberate intention to rescue the most notoriously degraded, those given up by policeman, physician, preacher and charity worker. He reiterated in his autobiography that he wanted to find those so low there was none lower. He put them into uniform. He put them under military discipline. He put them in authority over one another. He chose their musical instruments, and their astonishing tunes. The world has forgotten what a scandal to respectable religion the resulting army was when it began. It was like the day St. Francis handed all his clothes to the priest, or the day he cut off the hair of St. Clara. In my poem I merely turned into rhyme as well as I could, word for word, General Booth’s own account of his life, and the telegraph dispatches of his death after going blind. I set it to the tune that is not a tune, but a speech, a refrain used more frequently in the meetings of the Army on any public square to this day. Yet I encounter a great number of people who are sure they have never heard of the General, the army or the tune, or who ask me if I wrote the poem to “make sport.”
Unit Contents:
Overview:Poetry of Giving (The) Summary
Lessons:
- 1.
- What Is Poetry and Where Can You Find It?
- 2.
- Sounds of Language (The)
- 3.
- Painting Pictures with Poetry
- 4.
- Connecting Poetry with Philanthropy
- 5.
- If I Were Bill Gates
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Comments
(The positive aspect of using the lesson was) Vachel Lindsey and the Salvation Army and Booth enlightened students on this organization and philanthropy.
(The positive aspect of using the lesson was) students applied knowledge of poetic conventions and were able to idenify poetic conventions in song lyrics and poetry. Students gained an understanding of philanthropic organizations in the attachment which included background information about Vachel Lindsay and the Salvation Army and Booth.
(The positive aspect of using the lesson was) the blending of poetic terminology/conventions that students are already familiar with and philanthropy works smoothly.