Let's read the poem "To a Daughter Leaving Home".

                                                license:  CC0 Public Domain

 

The ability to read correctly is the one of the emphasized abilities nowadays. Following this trend, “literature class” is spotlighted by many students and teachers. Especially, poetry is a good source that gets students ponder exact meaning of words and try to interpret implicated expressions. Every poem have their own values and special meanings. The poem, To a Daughter Leaving Home, is a good example. It has some factors that is can be called a good poem: topic, rhetorical expression.

First, the topic of To a Daughter Leaving Home deals with “family love”. This topic is an easy topic which the students can easily connect their own experiences to the poem. Also, reading about family love would be a break time to students who are sick and tired of hard studying. Especially, the expression “I kept waiting for the thud of your crash” may have the students feel break. This, also, let students feeling protected by someone who always love them.

Second, rhetorical expression is good. The title of the poem is To a Daughter Leaving Home implicates a present situation that a daughter is going to leave the parents. However, the contents of the poem cover a story that the first time, a daughter started to ride a bike and faded away from the parents. The writer overlaps past and present within a single poem. It is so interesting expression. Also, It is worthy to be read by students to refer this kind of expression and to make up their own writings.

Except for these two factors, the poem has many good points. It is written by easy but clear words, and the grammar use fits into high school students. The students will enjoy it without disrupting.If the students read it and learn how it is written, they would broaden their literacy spectrum and feel what they have not  experienced before. This must be a good soil for nurturing students’ literary ability.