Hello there good Steemians (and the not so good ones too. Lol), please join me take a look at what I and my kid brothers have been doing recently. Have we been plotting a coup? Or trafficking in pop corns? Or have we just saved a Cat fish from drowning and now Knighting it, saying the words "Arise Sir Cat Fish Barbecue: knight of Camelot"?
First of, I've been away from them and my family house for about 9 months. Because I had to be in school (I'm a 400 level Law Student in the University of Nigeria Nsukka). I left on the 5th of January this year and only got back on the 28th of September. A semester, a semester's break and a half semester away from home. The longest I've ever been away from them.
When I returned, we did our usual fun stuff, movies, stories, clips, drawing, and they had a lot of quaint questions about life as usual to bug me with, like "why do people fart?" "Why is doughnut sweet?" Arrrgh! Then soon we came across poetry written by notable people and when I saw they liked it I had to show them my own poems too and they liked them too. They were especially attached to this one and they broke their ribs laughing at my limerick and other limericks in @lymmerik's Limerick Contest. I mean, I've been teaching them how to write compositions and essays, articles and how to express themselves generally through writing, but I had never thought of teaching them poetry. It was even the first time we were encountering poetry in our course of fun, so when I saw their enjoyment of poetry I offered to teach them how to write poetry and they were just too happy to learn.
I think it would be a nice thing to teach our little ones to write interestingly from a very young age, it will work better if they are already interested themselves or if you can get them interested yourself. Good writing is of course an invaluable skill.
So this time I gave them a little poetry lesson, these are our little lesson notes, the papers I used like a teaching board:
That's me telling them about Shakespeare, poetic devices, spitting my rhymes, etc.
Here are my two little brothers again:
The older one by the left is 10 years old, named Victory Ukie Eluu.
By the right is Blessed Chinonyerem Eluu, he's 8 years old.
Victory is in primary 5 (grade 5) and Blessed is in Primary 3 (grade 3)
After our fist poetry lesson, I promised more and deeper lessons then asked them to go write their poems and here are they, their first poems ever! I'll say there are handful of reasons why I think their poems are worth mentioning like the fact that this could be the start of a big poetry career for them and this story of their first poems and how they started could really matter! We already have Nigerians with big names on the world poetry scene like the late Christopher Okigbo, Ben Okri, the nobel Laurette Sole Soyinka and a host of others!
Other reasons why this is worth mentioning includes: that you should start teaching your younger ones to write early, that this is some fun stuff and that I just want to show you guys what I and my kid brothers have been doing just in case you were suspecting that we've been robbing a store or something.
So this is Victory's poem (with no editing from me at all):
My Pet
My pet, my pet
One in a thousand
Shall I compare thee to any?
How would you compare it?
It is a waste, it is a waste
Like searching for the right thing
When with the right thing
It has a rare flower
My pet, my pet.
short criticism: since this is his first poem ever, we can see influences like "Shall I compare thee?" Gotten from Shakespeare and mentioned up there in our lesson notes. Also the similie "it is a waste like..." It was obviously influenced by my own similie describing waste (also written in our lesson notes ).
Then we can see he made good use of the poetic device: repetition, as was taught and can be seen in our lesson notes too.
What can I say? A satisfactory start, really.
Since this is about a pet, there can be only one; our little dog "cliva" who he's really in love with now after he had cried his heart out when our older dog "bidi" died.
The next poem, Blessed's (with no editing or touch from me):
I Stayed Up On A Hill
I stayed up on a hill
And lifted up my eyes
And the sun stood still
Like a steel
Made to stay still
And to steal
The beauty of a precious seal
And so lived the sun with the beautiful seal.
short criticism: This one was surely influenced by The Bible in Psalm chapter 121 which begins with "I will lift up my eyes unto the hills..." Apart from it being somewhat apparent I also know because we recite this at home every morning after prayers.
Further, we can see he took some of the homophones I taught them in the lesson above like"steel", "still", etc. A nice thing he added a rhyming word "seal" which I never used or taught.
You might agree with me when I say this one shows greater talent; I don't really know but there is something about the poem, maybe it is because of how not childish the topic he chose is.
Anyways, that's all. Thanks very much for reading. Please don't forget to give some feedback, you could say what you think about their poems or any general comment; it will mean a lot to them. Thanks again!
What an amazing thing you are doing ... teaching these young ones about using their imagination, the beauty of words and how to paint pictures with language. I respect you tremendously for this ... and I admire them too for doing so much to learn.
Thank you very much @enchantedspirit
Of course its easy for them to do much to learn, I make learning so so much fun. Sometimes when I'm tired or busy they even come to bug me, requesting that I teach them. Lol.
I take the whole teaching thing like a way to play, so we don't feel any different from playing football or watching cartoons.
Thanks for the feedback
Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.
- Albert Einstein
😂😂 I love the second one man, bloody adorable. Reminds me of when I used to try to freestyle as a kid.
Better show them how well their poems are doing on steemit, lol
Hahaha. Thanks so much for the response, man. I've shown them already, they're so happy, now they want to sell their their souls to poetry, Lol. Dudes have written about three more poems each, telling me to post again, I told them they were going to spam the blockchain
I agree that Blessed's poem grabs the attention. He might have a future as a poet, but don't discount Victory's ability. It's good they show interest in literary things. You might be fostering two future Nobel laureates. Who knows?
Lol. Yea, who knows?
Thanks so much for the feedback, I won't discount Victory's ability like I never have.
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Great, man. @ewuoso. How many dyou have?
One with 9 puppies
Wow, that's lovely! Puppies are just too sweet. #thumbsup
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