How to teach: English - Chris Curtis 2019
Sonnets and voltas
How to teach poetry
A common thing English teachers do is introduce a type of poem and then get their students to write their own. That’s great, and the approach does work. However, there is value in teaching one particular type of poem really well for a number of different reasons. Step forward the sonnet.
I’ve taught haikus, limericks and many other forms of poetry during my time. They are sweet little things, but cognitively they do very little to push the learning on, and I’ve yet to see a haiku or a limerick on a GCSE exam paper. A sonnet, however, is such a powerful poem and one that will be examined. Why is it so powerful? Put simply, because it replicates what we do in English again and again: explain a thought in detail.
The sonnet is an argumentative essay, a piece of descriptive writing and an advice column all at once. It models the typical structure for explanation in writing. You have an idea, introduce a conflicting thought and then sum it up. The structure is important but once you get the basics like octave, sestet and volta, you get to look at the interesting aspects. The volta is the turning point in the poem and there are numerous types:
✵ Ironic — makes a point and then knocks it down.
✵ Emblem — describes the object/meaning of the object.
✵ Concessional — admits the problems or issues.
✵ Retrospective-prospective — moves from the past to the future.
✵ Elegy — grief to consolation/refusal/even more grief.
✵ Dialectical argument — argument, opposing argument, combination of the two.
✵ Descriptive-meditatative — description, memory or thought, revised description.
✵ Mid-course — a sharp, radical and surprising turn.16
There are turning points in every text we study in English, so it is meaningful and effective if we take time in lessons to explore these within sonnets. The turning point of any text can be emotional, intellectual, spiritual, logical or illogical, and is incredibly important to developing the overall meaning. However, I feel that students need to see this modelled with sonnets before they explore the turning points in other forms of poetry, and then in drama and prose texts. Where is the change? What type of change is it? Why has the writer made the change? What is the ’turning point’ of An Inspector Calls? Define the turning point and you have a better understanding of the writer’s desired impact on the audience or reader.