The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
‘Twas half past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t’other had slept a wink!
– From “The Duel” by Eugene Field
Metaphor for the cold war?
Children’s poetry can be simple yet contain intricate, layered meaning. Project Guttenberg has a number of nice poetry collections available. Since they’re free it’s mostly older stuff, but human nature hasn’t changed that much in the last few hundred years.
Mary E. Burt’s 1904 collection, “Poems Every Child Should Know“, contains quite the number of classics like the one excerpted above. I like it a lot because when we talk about themes and issues in texts it is usually better to start with things that are very obvious, with simple language and simple sentence structure, to reduce the cognitive load.
However, just because the language style is simple doesn’t mean we can’t very quickly get to the complex.
The meaning of art is partially, at least, subjective, depending on the values and experiences brought to by the individual. Thus we have Edna St. Vincent Millay writing about the extinction of the dinosaurs.
So. If we read “The Duel” one morning while during the cycle when we discuss the Cold War and Mutually Assured Destruction, will students make the connection?
I hope they do, because then we can broaden the context and talk about human nature and the power of the classics.