lovin' Robert Frost

This week is Poetry week. I'm starting to understand how people say teachers learn more by teaching, than by studying on their own, or how a teacher can learn a lot more then their students. I thought that reciting and discussing several famous, American poems would be simple, and easy, but it's turned out to be a learning activity for me, too. Today I shared Robert Frost's poem,

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,

with my Mongolian class, and a Sophomore Chinese class.

This is a great poem to share with ESL students because the words and simple, and I can teach about line, stanza, syllables and rhyme, because they all exist beautifully and naturally in this poem.

First, I read the poem out loud, and then I reciting it line by line and the students wrote down what they heard. This was a good listening exercise for them. Then, I wrote the complete poem on the board so they could correct their writing (if needed) and we could discuss the poem.

The meaning and theme of this poem is deeper than the casual reader could imagine. I won't delve into it here. All I want to say is there are Chinese and Mongolian students discussing Robert Frost in the middle of dusty, rural, Inner Mongolia.

A beautiful poem, I hope they keep in their hearts.

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sounds the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.