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"Tis well to be bereft of promis'd good, / That we may life the soul, and contemplate / With lively joy the joys we cannot share.
Romantics 7 - Awake to Love & Beauty - Coleridge's "This Lime Tree Bower My Prison" Group Work - Discussion: For all but the last two years of teaching, this incredible poem was done as a Group Work - and I think that is still the best way to teach it. However, during the Pandemic and Remote Learning - we did it as a discussion and that was such an incredible experience. Above all, Coleridge's poem is about what it means to live vicariously. The poet (or persona) has injured his foot and he can't his friends as they take an extended hike through some of the most beautiful countryside that he knows. And boy does he know that countryside. Rather than being sad or depressed that he is stuck (under a lime tree) while they venture forth - he imagines (and writes) every single thing that they see and every single joy and touch of awe that they experience. And while, the lesson works well as a Group Work - with students sharing similar experiences of having to be home while their friends did something - those two years during the Pandemic, when we collectively looked back at students experiencing things in person - together - while we tried to vicariously join them - gave us an unparralled insite into this poem.
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
Quiz
Quiz
NO QUIZ - We usually read this poem "cold" - the students not having read it the night before. Always a good way to give students a couple nights to get the epically long "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" read.
As a Class Reading & Discussion
As a Class Reading & Discussion
As I said in the intro above - I believe this lesson works well as either Group Work or a Class Reading and Discussion. They both have their merits and you can decide. I do know that for the Pandemic - when we were looking back at students being together - and sometimes even watching videos of students acting things out at school together in a way that seemed the distant past - the Discussion method really shined. I have included notes on The Power Point (found below) that give questions and methods for handling this poem as a discussion.
Pictures of Daffodils...
Pictures of Daffodils...
The lesson began (remotely) with a slide of a daffodil that a student sent me - after we had read Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" - we made it a class project and sent and shared pictures of the flowers of spring from our respective locations - a great warm up to this poem.
Background
Background
I ususally forgoe background material - we have so little time and as often as not, background or historical context can be misleading. However, in this Lesson (either Discussion or Group Work) I find it helps and we then covered a little of the background behind this poem: The circumstances that led Coleridge to be unable to accompany his firends on the walk - and the sad circumstances of one of those friends - Charles Lamb - and the tragedy that he had experienced (his sister killing their mother) - thereby making the necessity and effect of the walk all the more important.
Reading aloud and discussing the poem
Reading aloud and discussing the poem
We then read the poem aloud and discuss it. For each slide, a different student reads that excerpt and then we talk about what was read (it's always great to break poetry into smaller chunks). We rely heavily on my three rules for understanding Poetry. The Power Point (or in its PDF form) has extensive notes for the discussion. The questions are in Bold Face, The potential (and perhaps best) answers are in (Parenthesis). Other notes, ideas, and guidance are italicized.
The Group Work
It is close to the end of the year, and accordingly this Group Work is a lot less structured than ones they have encountered earlier in the year. Question 0 has them recounting stories similar to the poem (from their own experience) while question 1 gives them directions for reading the poem aloud.
Please see my page on Group Work for more on the how and why. As to the actual questions - well the handout (found below) is the best place for that information, but I will give a brief summary of the questions below. The instructions also inform that students that they should make sure that they leave 12 minutes for the final question (it's important).
Here is a brief summary of the questions - please see the actual handout for much more.
Background Material
Background Material
A box on the handout has the background material about the writing of this poem - why Coleridge could not go - and Charles Lamb's tragedy. You also get a chance to bring up Wordsworth's sister, Dorothy, who is on the walk - and was both a big part of the Wordsworth poems we looked at and figures prominently in the year-end "Tintern Abbey".
Questions
Questions
0. They recount their own stories of looking forward to something with their friends and being unable to go for some reason or another (like the poem).
This questions gives them directions for reading the poem aloud as a group and summarizing its contents.
Comparing this poem to Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"
The idea of lonliness in both of these poems.
How is the Garden/Bower his prison?
A comparison between this poem and the novel Persuasion (which the students have just finished)
What does it mean to be alone and NOT alone simultaneously. (Note how this keys in on Question 0 and their own experiences in this situation.
A reference back to our very first lesson and the idea that we read Literature to "know that we're not alone."
7b. Another reference to a much earlier poem: This time, "The Seafarer" and its concept of endurance and resilience.
Power Point for Reading & Discussion
Power Point for Reading & Discussion
This Power Point contains extensive notes for the poem as well as some background material. I created this Power Point for Remote Learning (during the Pandemic) but it can be just as useful for keeping the discussion focused during in-person instruction. It contains the introductory and material about the writing of "Lime Tree" as well as the poems that we cover in class that are closely related to this poem - and that can be found on the student handout.
Coleridge's "This Lime Tree Bower my Prison" Group Work
Coleridge's "This Lime Tree Bower my Prison" Group Work
This Group Work handout has both the Group Work questions and a little background on the writing of the poem. For a summary of the questions - see above in the Lesson Overview. However, that summary barely scratchs the period of what is here. Everyone works in a Group as there is no quiz today.
Coleridge's "This Lime Tree Bower my Prison" Text of the Poem (and notes)
Coleridge's "This Lime Tree Bower my Prison" Text of the Poem (and notes)
The text of the poem with plenty of room for note-taking (important whether you choose to do the Discussion or Group Work. There is also the background material on the writing of the poem and the related poems that are mentioned in the Group Work/Discussion. These include Wordsworth's "To a Skylark", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" and if you have time to get to them in your discussion the very closely related Shakespeare excerpt from Richard III and "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne.
This version contains my notes showing how I approached the poem - and it also reveals how my Group Works come to be.
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
Group Work works great remotely - or it can be done solo or as an offline assignment.
Perhaps one of the most fast moving and exciting lessons of the year - this activity gets all of the students involved in acting out the story of the poem - and as always - by acting it out, they will come to a deeper understanding of Coleridge's verse. The students should have read the poem before you begin - though I often hold off on the quiz (though they THINK that it's going to be given today) because of the time constraints of making sure you can finish the entire poem. You also have to break one of my fundamental rules in "reading aloud" and not having random readers. First, I choose the narrator for the day - or at least pick from students who volunteer. You need someone who is loud, quick on their feet, and that can focus. I let the rest of the students (with one exception) choose their roles but you have to do a lot of balancing and you may end up choosing for them if it is taking too long. As for that one role that they don't get to choose - I let the class choose who they want to play the Albatross (as long as it's ok with that person).
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
This poem is a great one to cite when talking about how Great Literature written hundreds of years ago - in a far away land - by people very different than us - can still speak to us, so strongly today. Many of my students would comment after reading this - that they didn't know poems could tell stories like this, and that there was so much that hasn't, over the years and the geography, changed.
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