TEACHING POETRY
Читаю Вашу газету со дня основания, без
перерывов, постоянно использую публикуемые
материалы в работе со  старшеклассниками
и студентами (преподаю в Новомосковском лицее и
на факультете лингвистики Новомосковского
филиала УРАО – университета Российской
Академии образования).
Семь лет преподаю в лицее английскую и
американскую литературу. За отсутствием каких бы
то ни было современных пособий разработала
учебное пособие “Чудесный мир английской
литературы” (The Wonderful World of English Literature), которое
издательство “Флинта” планирует выпустить к
новому учебному году. Книга является
систематизированным учебным пособием по
английской литературе для старшеклассников
лицеев, гимназий и школ с углубленным изучением
английского языка. В нее включены сведения о
жизни и творчестве выдающихся английских
писателей от Чосера до Толкиена, образцы их
творчества, а также сведения об английском
фольклоре – пословицах, поговорках, загадках,
скороговорках, сказках. Ко всем текстам
разработаны задания.
Предлагаю Вашему вниманию маленький отрывок из
книжки, посвященный работе над стихами Р.
Киплинга. Нужно отметить, что эта глава пособия
начинается с биографии писателя, продолжается
сказкой The Elephant’s Child и заканчивается
подборкой стихов.
I. Read the following poem and explain its message.
PRELUDE
I have eaten your bread and salt.
I have drunk your water and wine.
In deaths ye died I watched beside.
And the lives ye led were mine.
Was there aught that I did not share
In vigil or toil or ease, –
One joy or woe that I did not know,
Dear hearts across the seas?
For a sheltered people’s mirth,
In jesting guise – but ye are wise,
And ye know what the jest is worth.
VOCABULARY:
ye (уст. поэт) you
aught = anything
vigil бодрствование, вахта
toil тяжелый труд
woe горе
shelter укрытие
mirth веселье
jest шутка
guise маска, личина
DISCUSSION:
1. Keeping in mind Kipling’s biography, who do you think the poet is
addressing? Who are the “dear hearts across the seas”?
2. Who are the “sheltered people”?
3. What is behind the last four lines of the poem?
4. Mark the words which you consider to be the most important ones.
II. Do you remember why Kipling wrote war epitaphs?
Below are some of them. Think of their messages.
EPITAPHS OF THE WAR
EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE
A. “I was a Have.” B. “I was a ‘have-not’.”
(Together.) “What hast thou given which I gave not?”
AN ONLY SON
I have slain none except my Mother. She (Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.
COMMON FORM
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
VOCABULARY:
equality равенство
sacrifice жертвовать
hast (устар. форма 2 л. ед. ч.) have
thou (устар. форма 2 л. ед. ч.) you
slay (книжн.) kill
III.
THE RETURN
Peace is declared an’ I return
To Ackneystadt, but not the same;
Things ’ave transpired which made me learn
The size and meanin’ of the game.
I did no more than others did,
I don’t know where the change began.
I started as an average kid,
I finished as a thinkin’ man.
VOCABULARY:
transpire зд. проявляться
DISCUSSION:
1. What is the difference between “an average kid” and “a
thinking man”?
2. What happened to the “average kid” before his return?
3. Which words in the poem show that the young man has become a mature person? How do you
understand them?
4. Mark the words that you consider to be the most important ones.
IV. The following poem is one of the most famous and popular in the
world. It has been translated into many languages, and in Russia there are dozens of
translations.
Read it and say what sort of poem it is.
IF
“If” by Tracy Zuber,
an accompanying illustration to a blow up
of the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling
 If you can keep
your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance of their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build “em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
1910
VOCABULARY:
blame обвинять
make allowance принимать во внимание
impostor самозванец
knave мошенник, плут
trap ловушка
stoop наклоняться
worn-out изношенный
heap куча
pitch-and-toss рискованная игра (типа орлянки)
sinew жилы
virtue добродетель
foe (поэт.) враг
count with you имеют для тебя значение
unforgiving непрощающий, суровый
DISCUSSION:
1. Is it easy to keep your head when you are thought to be a cause of
other people’s troubles?
2. Why is it important to “make allowance of other people’s doubting”?
3. What does the poet mean by “yet not look too good, nor talk too wise”? Why is he
warning his son against it?
4. Why is it important to treat triumph and disaster the same? Why does the poet call them
“impostors”? Do you remember the lines from a poem by Boris Pasternak which are saying
exactly the same thing?
5. Do you agree that you should be able to bear “the truth you’ve spoken
twisted…”?
6. How do you understand the last two lines of the second stanza?
7. What is the third stanza about?
8. Why is it difficult to keep your virtue talking with crowds?
9. What is meant by “losing the common touch”? Is it easy “to lose the common
touch” if you “walk with Kings”?
10. Do you think it is possible not to be upset if your friends or foes really hurt your
feelings? Do you think it is important to follow this maxim?
11. What is the idea behind the fourth line of the last stanza?
12. Why does Kipling call the minute “unforgiving”? What should every minute of your
life be like, according to Kipling?
13. Why does the poet think his son will be a Man only if he follows all these maxims? Do
you agree with the poet?
14. Which “if’s” do you think you are a master of? Which of them would you like to
master? What might happen if you are unable to master these imperatives?
ЗАПОВЕДЬ
Владей собой среди толпы смятенной,
Тебя клянущей за смятенье всех,
Верь сам в себя наперекор вселенной,
И маловерным отпусти их грех;
Пусть час не пробил, жди, не уставая,
Пусть лгут лжецы, не снисходи до них;
Умей прощать и не кажись, прощая,
Великодушней и мудрей других.
Умей мечтать, не став рабом мечтанья,
И мыслить, мысли не обожествив;
Равно встречай успех и поруганье,
Не забывая, что их голос лжив;
Останься тих, когда твое же слово
Калечит плут, чтоб уловлять глупцов,
Когда вся жизнь разрушена, и снова
Ты должен все воссоздавать с основ.
Умей поставить, в радостной надежде,
На карту все, что накопил с трудом,
Все проиграть и нищим стать, как прежде,
И никогда не пожалеть о том;
Умей принудить сердце, нервы, тело
Тебе служить, когда в твоей груди
Уже давно все пусто, все сгорело,
И только Воля говорит: “Иди!”
Останься прост, беседуя с царями,
Останься честен, говоря с толпой;
Будь прям и тверд с врагами и с друзьями,
Пусть все, в свой час, считаются с тобой;
Наполни смыслом каждое мгновенье,
Часов и дней неуловимый бег, –
Тогда весь мир ты примешь как владенье,
Тогда, мой сын, ты будешь Человек!
Пер. М. Лозинского
DISCUSSION:
1. What do you think of this translation?
2. Which lines convey the original best of all?
3. In your opinion, which lines are furthest away from the original?
By Nadezhda Pagis, Novomoskovsk
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