The Poetry of Light: interactive image

Liz Brownlee on her poem

The author's words: "I wrote ‘Light as Birds’ after reading about birds’ eyes. We have three ‘receivers’ of coloured light in our eyes, called ‘cones’. Each one is specialized to see a different primary colour of light: red, green and blue. These three colours enable us to see all the colours in the spectrum visible to us. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, and all the colours they make when mixed together. Songbirds have an extra cone, which receives another primary colour, ultraviolet or UV light. This means they can see colours we will never see in the spectrum beyond violet. They can also see all these ultraviolet colours mixed with the colours we can see. And they can see shades we can’t see of the colours we CAN see! They live in a different world – this was so staggering to me I had to write poem about it."

Roger Stevens on Emily Dickinson's poem

Roger Stevens on Emily Dickinson's poem: Have you ever seen the sun come up early in the morning and gasped in wonder as the brightness spreads across houses and trees? Even though we know that light can be explained by science, the way we humans experience it is often spiritual. And have you noticed how light is different as the seasons come and go? Emily Dickinson captures the effect of spring light as it changes during the day and the effect this has on our feelings. Think about your hometown or village or city. Note down four places that you know well. Now imagine the effect of the sun lighting up those places in different seasons. Or imagine those places at night, in the moonlight. Or in different kinds of light. Then use those notes as the basis for a poem. For example, I once lived in the country. Behind our house was a large, sloping field. Standing in it was a huge electricity pylon. We would sometimes see deer too, especially early in the morning. There was only one shop in the village, and that was about half a mile away, next to the small primary school. And so I might begin my poem by imagining the sun coming up, lighting the field and the grazing deer. I might imagine the shadow of the pylon on the ground, as the sun moves round the sky like a giant sundial. Then maybe I would think about those early nights in October, when children have to walk home in the half-light. And maybe I would finish the poem with moonlight shining on our house. Perhaps I would put myself into the poem, noting how I felt about the different light.

Task

The Poetry of Light

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Task

Work in pairs or small groups and comment Liz Brownlee's poem by creating a podcast. Use Spreaker to create the podcast and share the link with your class on Google Classroom.

Tip

Light as birds read by people in Bristol

Spreaker

A poet's comment: Have you ever seen the sun come up early in the morning and gasped in wonder as the brightness spreads across houses and trees? Even though we know that light can be explained by science, the way we humans experience it is often spiritual. And have you noticed how light is different as the seasons come and go? Emily Dickinson captures the effect of spring light as it changes during the day and the effect this has on our feelings. Think about your hometown or village or city. Note down four places that you know well. Now imagine the effect of the sun lighting up those places in different seasons. Or imagine those places at night, in the moonlight. Or in different kinds of light. Then use those notes as the basis for a poem. For example, I once lived in the country. Behind our house was a large, sloping field. Standing in it was a huge electricity pylon. We would sometimes see deer too, especially early in the morning. There was only one shop in the village, and that was about half a mile away, next to the small primary school. And so I might begin my poem by imagining the sun coming up, lighting the field and the grazing deer. I might imagine the shadow of the pylon on the ground, as the sun moves round the sky like a giant sundial. Then maybe I would think about those early nights in October, when children have to walk home in the half-light. And maybe I would finish the poem with moonlight shining on our house. Perhaps I would put myself into the poem, noting how I felt about the different light.

Light as Birds Birds see shades to us unseen, the in-betweens of every green and red with blue; they see UV, a secret universe of hue. No wonder birdsong overflows, dizzy with blues of sky. Bird, is your song of colour trails? Is the air, in which you fly? Liz Brownlee Source: http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/LIGHT-A-National-Poetry-Day-Anthology.pdf

A light exists in springNot present on the yearAt any other period.When March is scarcely hereA color stands abroadOn solitary hillsThat science cannot overtake,But human nature feels.It waits upon the lawn;It shows the furthest treeUpon the furthest slope we know;It almost speaks to me.Then, as horizons step,Or noons report away,Without the formula of sound,It passes, and we stay:A quality of lossAffecting our content,As trade had suddenly encroachedUpon a sacrament. Emily Dickinson

Poetry Reading: A Light Exists in Spring

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but only for one year. Throughout her life, she seldom left her home and visitors were few. The people with whom she did come in contact, however, had an enormous impact on her poetry. She was particularly stirred by the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she first met on a trip to Philadelphia. He left for the West Coast shortly after a visit to her home in 1860, and some critics believe his departure gave rise to the heartsick flow of verse from Dickinson in the years that followed. While it is certain that he was an important figure in her life, it is not clear that their relationship was romantic—she called him “my closest earthly friend.” Other possibilities for the unrequited love that was the subject of many of Dickinson’s poems include Otis P. Lord, a Massachusetts Supreme Court judge, and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican. By the 1860s, Dickinson lived in almost complete isolation from the outside world, but actively maintained many correspondences and read widely. She spent a great deal of this time with her family. Dickinson’s poetry was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town, which encouraged a Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity. She admired the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as well as John Keats. While Dickinson was extremely prolific as a poet and regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends, she was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. The first volume of her work was published posthumously in 1890 and the last in 1955. She died in Amherst in 1886. Extract from: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/emily-dickinson

Liz Brownlee loves writing about endangered wildlife. She has poems in more than sixty anthologies, on plaques at the animal enclosures at Bristol Zoo and in her book Animal Magic (Iron Press). Two further books, one for Macmillan Publishing, written with Jan Dean and Michaela Morgan, and one for Bloomsbury, written with Roger Stevens and Sue HardyDawson, will be published in 2017. Liz shows images and reads poems about incredible animals while doing workshops at schools, libraries, literary and nature festivals. She also speaks at teaching conferences, organizes poetry retreats, exhibitions and events. Source: http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/LIGHT-A-National-Poetry-Day-Anthology.pdf

Roger Stevens is a children’s author and poet who visits schools, libraries and festivals performing and running workshops. His most recent poetry books for children include The Penguin in Lost Property (Macmillan), with Jan Dean; What Are We Fighting For? (Macmillan), with Brian Moses; Off By Heart: Poems for YOU to Remember (A&C Black); and for younger children, I Wish I Had a Pirate Hat (Frances Lincoln). Roger runs the awardwinning children’s poetry website, The Poetry Zone. He plays in a band and performs his own songs in folk clubs. He spends his time between France and Brighton, where he lives with his wife and a very, very shy dog called Jasper.Source: http://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/LIGHT-A-National-Poetry-Day-Anthology.pdf

Google Classroom

How to write a poem on a theme

Write a short poem following the example given by Roger Stevens and share it in your Google Classroom