What children are writing about

[Stephen Whiteside]

I take your point about the judging, David.

If I think back to my own childhood, I loved rhyming verse as a young child, but put it very much on the backburner in secondary school. I was far more occupied at that time with seeking peer approval - finding my place in the natural social hierarchy - than pretty much anything else. It always sat there in the back of my mind, though, as something I might return to one day - and so it proved to be.

Of course, the brain continues to grow and change throughout the secondary years and beyond. There may be some truth in what you say about attitudes being learned, David, but I suspect the neurological 'inhibitory circuits' also grow during these times. Children become much less spontaneous, and much more wary - and aware - of the attitudes of those around them. I am sure this is in very large part a function of normal brain growth - not sure if it is related to the frontal lobe or not, but I am sure it is very anatomical.

Once the brain has the 'identity' stuff sorted out - which is what secondary school is so largely occupied with - it can return to other concerns, such as the development and exploration of natural passions and skills. If an aptitude for rhyming verse was evident in the primary years, it may well disappear in the teenage years, only to return again in adulthood. My own feeling is not to be too perturbed about the apparent lack of interest in bush/rhyming verse during the secondary years. There is a lot of weird stuff happening at that time. (At least, there was for me!)

[Stephen Whiteside]

A further thought. The teenage years tend to be a time for introversion - as some of the poems quoted here would tend to confirm. Free verse lends itself to introverted expression much better than rhyming verse. I know this is a great generalisation, but I believe it to be (generally) true nonetheless. The very nature of the rhythm and rhyme of bush verse - with it reassuring patterns and repetition - tends to have a cheering effect on both the writer and the reader. With good cheer comes extraversion. Banjo Paterson is a classic case in point.

[Neville Briggs]

in secondary school. I was far more occupied at that time with seeking peer approval -

Thank you Stephen, I rest my case. We know what the peers approve

[David Campbell]

A couple of interesting statistics from the Ipswich Poetry Feast: there were 99 entries in the bush poetry section and 205 in the 'other poetry' section (plus 50 in the local poets category). So the bush poetry section only attracted half as many entries as 'other poetry'. The competition defines bush poetry as having good rhyme and metre, and written about Australia, its people, places, things, and way of life.

David

[Stephen Whiteside]

Don't forget, too, that good rhyming verse is pretty hard to write. Fair to middling free verse is actually pretty easy to write.

[Neville Briggs]

I would have thought that mediocre verse is easy to write in any form, and good poetry hard to write in any form.

[Stephen Whiteside]

I don't think so. Just my opinion.

[Gary Harding]

.. will try again to post this as I must have been logged out..

1. It is difficult to add anything more to what David, and everyone else, have said on this interesting subject. He has pretty much nailed it, and in depth too.
Looking at the children's entries and trying to make some useful and arguably valid conclusions from it is a challenging exercise.
You give a large population of children (of equally large variation in ability in English Expression) the opportunity to write "a poem" and tell them that a poem may have no particular rules other than it must consist of words.

So you get the sort of material you have in this Competition. No surprise.

Possibly however the real aim of the competition is to encourage kids to express themselves from the heart.. in writing...concisely... without writing a long story. To get them away from the computer and TV screens, switch on the creative side of their brain.

To the extent that the competition apparently produced 500 pieces of self-expression then it could be judged a large success.

If one wants a High Participation Rate, the more rules on writing you impose, the less will enter. You give them an easy hill to climb, not Mt. Everest.
Then the kids join in, and the organisers can boast of the huge number of entries. Fair enough I guess. Everyone wins. It is a writing exercise not so much for the purists but for the masses.

2. Any child who considers they have a worthwhile ballad would be free to enter the Open Bush section where they can join their peers and compete in a more appropriate and rigorous environment. They have to start somewhere and taking on adults should not be particularly daunting if the child has any ability, and the will. Maybe enter their poem in their own Age section as well. The Ipswich comp is a very accommodating environment.

3. Where free verse and ballads compete side by side in the same arena, how would you choose one over another?? My own prejudice would be that any child who makes a reasonable attempt, even with faults, at traditional form..(ignoring limericks)... the Tough Job... would achieve ascendance over a work that merely sets out random nice-sounding words or sentences that make some observation or expressed an emotion. So the bias of the judge.. their personal preference or training .. must influence an outcome where the two forms compete. Maybe in the Ipswich comp too.. I don't know. It is possible that the proportion of ballads on the result sheet was a direct reflection of a judge's bias against them, rather than the true number submitted. Who knows. I think David makes this point.

I do not think the aim of the competition necessarily was to "reward excellence in the Traditional Australian form amongst children". Hence the "no rules" approach.
Encouraging interest in the Australian Traditional form of poetry, seeking out and encouraging young talent in that area of English is primarily a job for the classroom, or parent, I believe.
Fostering talent... or indeed finding it in the first place in order to foster it.. is the challenge.

4. ..as for subjects....it would be nice to see a dominance of optimistic and happy subjects, rather than ones that are concerned with death, sadness, negativity or the ever-present "issues" pushed at people constantly by the media. Ad nauseum.

A world where stern reporters holding microphones shriek hysterically at people, including kids, "YOU should be concerned with this and that...." so you end up with a population of socially-concerned and worried kids instead of happy balanced ones.

Maybe actively encourage them to see poetry as a way of expressing beauty, optimism and humour... rather than use poetry as a tool to right the wrongs of the world, take up "causes" or "issues" of which there is never a shortage and which are commonly divisive and quasi-political in nature.

To use poetry as a noble and entertaining form of expression. Another way of self-amusement outside the realms of TV.
... oh well, back to C.I. .. Forensic Files...

[Neville Briggs]

Sorry Gary but if you think that free verse is meant to be " random nice sounding words and sentences " then your poetic education is sadly lacking.

[Zondrae]

Can I show my ignorance and ask what are the rules for free verse?

Are there rules. How do you know how to arrange lines etc.?
I am being quite serious.
Who says it is right or well written?