Here is a silly poem my 10-year-old daughter wrote when experimenting with rhyming couplets as part of an English exercise... I think the fact that she is a foreign English language student has helped rather than hindered her in this poem that uses simple language to express profound concepts. Indeed, I think there's more to it than meets the eye.
Have you ever seen a fly
That you wanted to make die?
You would make its mother sigh
And you wouldn't even cry...
Did you ever wonder why?
Perhaps your goodness is a lie
That to kill it you must try.
Oh, that poor annoying fly!
Nobody likes pestulent flies. They do, after all feed on dead flesh and are viewed as disease transmitters. I guess they may be seen as bearers of death, drawn to its decay. And isn't the god/lord of the flies, Beezlebub, believed to be Satan? Yet, in this poem flies are the victims...swatted and squashed merely for listening to their very nature.
OTHER FLY POEMS THAT POP TO MIND:
* Emily Dickinson's "I heard a fly buzz when I died"
* John Donne's "The flea"
If you know of any others, please share.
5 comments:
Amazingly perceptive. She is already an astute observer of human nature.
you might like this one by EE Cummings:
Me up at does
out of the floor
quietly Stare
a poisoned mouse
still who alive
is asking What
have I done that
You wouldn't have
**your daughter is writing about concepts Ee Cummings is concerned with--she is genius :)
That is really good. I don't think I could have come up with anything nearly that thought-provoking at ten! So you DEFINITELY should be PROUD:-)
Sadly, I can barely think of my name at the moment, so I have nothing to offer by way of poems...
I don't believe that this is from a ten years old girl. Admit that you have written it yourself and want to put the blame on an innocent child because you're ashamed to admit that your English grammar skills are not perfect.
But by the way, I even like the unenglish way of combining words, being a stranger myself, I think that orthodox grammar isn't the best of all solutions always, and one can ever strive for new ways.
She's a perceptive child...but I think this came out as a coincidence. She wrote rhyme words and then tried to clatter in a poem and THIS happened. Like WOW!
I just wish I could put some of her other stuff down...cause she really has a way with words...but its all in Greek. The other day they asked her to do a composition about space travel and she totally blew my mind with her imagination.
As for you, Molecule Colony, you doubting Thomas... all I have to say is this - it took Picasso 80 years to learn how to draw like a child so why can't the same thing apply with words and thoughts?
By the way guys, have you ever read Marcello D'Orta's compilation of essays written by children? It's really good stuff.
Anyway, I promised myself that I would avoid discussions about my children on this blog...that it would be something just about ME...but I guess guys that nomatter how hard I try the mother thing just keeps popping through.
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