Mountain climbing in the poetry classroom in Malta : teaching a Stevens metapoem

Abstract

The critical reading of poetry in a number of international secondary school contexts seems to be restricted to paraphrasing a poem, device-spotting, and discussing themes. This approach seems divorced from a consideration of the aesthetic qualities of poetry. My PhD research at the high school where I used to teach until recently has revealed that teachers’ and students’ approaches to poetry in class are driven by an intense concern with what a poem means. The emphasis placed on a poem’s meaning is partly due to their entrenched belief that a poem has a hidden meaning that can be unearthed by means of a teacher-led, line-by-line analysis. This approach places the teacher in the position of a gatekeeper to meaning, especially since the class discussion of the poem is mostly characterized by the teacher’s explanations of what the lines mean. The belief that poetry is a difficult genre that can be mediated to students only via teachers’ intervention leads the latter to adopt a pedagogical approach to poetry that consolidates their role as gatekeepers. This article illustrates the idea that one way of challenging such beliefs an