Poetry: What's the Point?

As my Year 8 pupils will tell you, there are three types of writing: prose (fiction, non-fiction… anything written in sentences), playscripts (for dramatic performances) and poems (groan). What could possibly be the point of taking time to write a poem about the seasons, your feelings or a significant event? 

It’s a good question. It’s not often that we consider poetry within the context of a modern,busy, tech-focused lifestyle. However, that is precisely why we need poetry more than ever. Poetry, its rhymes and rhythms, soothes our ears and attracts our attention with a subtle magnetism. In a class discussion about rhyme, I quoted: 

‘Bottomley Potts (covered in spots)’

A classful of teenage faces lit up! The engaging quality of a story told in rhyming verse was powerfully embedded in their psyches. They connected with a time and place of joy, quite possibly spent sharing a book with a parent, interacting together in celebrating the power of words. 

Reading poetry also encourages us to slow down. It’s wonderful to watch pupils’ realisation that there may in fact be deeper meanings to the original poem. A simple verse from the perspective of a flower in a vase (My Life's Stem Was Cut (2017) by Helen Dunmore) finishes with these lines: 

I know I am dying

But why not keep flowering

As long as I can

From my cut stem?

This led to some serious discussion about what their personal ‘flowering’ might look like? Riding a Harley Davidson on Route 66? Running a marathon on your 80th birthday? Just how long a beard can you actually grow? These simple lines asked some deep and searching questions about life… and their prep task was to imagine their own retirements, and how they plan to squeeze life to the full. 

So poetry asks for our interaction; it connects us when we share it with others and it inspires us to ask questions of ourselves. But back to our old friend, Bottomley Potts, it can also be fun! 

In Year 5, pupils have selected a poem of their choice to learn off-by-heart for a class competition and a grand final. Children ransacked the library bookshelves to explore a range of poetry and find one that they connected with. The range of topics was enormous, from school life to animals, war to holidays, shoes to sneezes. Poetry has something to say about so much of our existence. Watching them sharing their discoveries with each other sparked so much joy (plenty of Bottomley Potts moments). They are excited about learning, sharing and performing their findings. 

And finally, whilst encouraging some of our Year 8 pupils to hurry up and head out to the carpark, I discovered one of them tucking a sausage, wrapped in tinfoil, into what looked like a pencil case. 

“Don’t worry, Mrs Clark. It’s from Forest Schools, and this is an insulated lunchbox.” 

I was reassured, but couldn’t let it lie. 

There’s a Sausage in my Pencil Case

dedicated to LH, January 2025

There’s a sausage in my pencil case.

I don’t know why it’s there.

I showed it to my teacher but

She didn’t seem to care.

Perhaps there was a mishap

With the stationery for today. 

Pencils, pens and rulers, plus

A sausage gone astray. 

In maths, it wasn’t useful

To measure any lines. 

In history, a sausage

Cannot tell you dates or times. 

In science, it was hard to keep 

My diagrams neat and straight. 

(A sausage can be bendy 

Even when it’s on a plate.) 

A final thought so worrying

It makes your stomach drop. 

Pencils and mash don’t taste so good

With gravy on the top. 

Is there any point to this? I’m not sure, but it was fun to write - and it made him smile. 

Fiona Clark

Head of English