Closed like confessionals, they thread
Loud noons of cities, giving back
None of the glances they absorb.
Light glossy grey, arms on a plaque,
They come to rest at any kerb:
All streets in time are visited.

Then children strewn on steps or road,
Or women coming from the shops
Past smells of different dinners, see
A wild white face that overtops
Red stretcher-blankets momently
As it is carried in and stowed,

And sense the solving emptiness
That lies just under all we do,
And for a second get it whole,
So permanent and blank and true.
The fastened doors recede. Poor soul,
They whisper at their own distress;

For borne away in deadened air
May go the sudden shut of loss
Round something nearly at an end,
And what cohered in it across
The years, the unique random blend
Of families and fashions, there

At last begin to loosen. Far
From the exchange of love to lie
Unreachable insided a room
The trafic parts to let go by
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are.

Philip Larkin

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The place of poetry in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and the role of linguistics are considered quite relevant. It is suggested that poetry teaching has a place in advanced EFL learners' programs as a means of extending the learners' knowledge of the language and increasing their sense of appropriateness and sensitivity to language use. The value of a linguistic approach to teaching poetry is discussed, and suggestions are offered to help the teacher present the poem in class and make a preparatory analysis of a poem prior to class presentation. In addition, a list is presented of appropriate poems for students, grouped according to their exploitation of linguistic and poetic resource. Specially, the objective is to teach the communicative function of poetry (i.e., to discover how language is deployed to convey the poet's perceptions and concepts that make up the poem's unique view of reality, and its total imaginative, aesthetic, and linguistic effects). Difficulties posed by a new lexis, syntax, and interference resulting from the students' familiarity with the poetic features and resources of their native language are noted. It is suggested that the selection of poems be made on linguistic rather than aesthetic grounds. The poem "Ambulances" (Philip Larkin) is used to illustrate a linguistic approach to teaching poetry. Teachers are advised to consider the poem as a whole and the patterns apparent at different levels of the poem (grammatical features, lexical features, phonological features, and graphological features.

Publisher:
Publisher name and contact information, as provided by the publisher; updated only if notified by the publisher. Institute of Education, London University, 20 Bedford Way, London W.C. 1, England.

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