John Kay is a teacher and trainer working at ETC International College in Bournemouth, UK. When not teaching, I write and perform poems and am also a visual artist.

www.johnkaypoet.co.uk 

 

The poem

In thobes and fezzes, the trio troop the Madina,

plying their trade, playing their greatest hit

over and again, strumming, tapping, twanging

enticing their audience of diners.

 

The percussionist rattles his Riq, 

and all three break into song.

The tourists push aside their tagines, 

dance a random Rokba and try to sing along.

 

Then, not the lanky one with the Guembri, 

nor the skinny one with the Rabab, but the 

dumpy one, tambourine upturned, works the tables.

Coins clink as he’s paid to go away. 

 

As they rest, in the shade, 

trading their alms for ice-cream and potable water, 

they take stock, and long drafts, 

refreshing their troubadour smiles.

 

John Kay

 

The idea

I read somewhere that “A poem is not there to communicate a meaning, it’s there to communicate an experience.”  Consequently, I don’t want to, as Billy Collins (ex-US Poet Laureate) puts it, “tie the poem to a chair and beat it till it tells me what it’s about.”

This poem is simply about a trio of troubadours who I observed playing their music in Agadir, Morocco.

I want to share that experience with my students. If I can encourage them to notice things which helps them to view English as something more than just a global language with which to order a meal or conduct business, then I’ll be happy. 

I have the romantic notion that it might actually influence their own reading and writing, which in many cases, it has. 

 

Activities

First of all, I read the poem aloud to let them listen to the music. I know that the vocabulary is likely to be a challenge, but at the moment, I just want them to become immersed in the sounds, rhythm and beat. 

Next, the students read the poem, while I recite it again. I try to keep a consistent model using the same stress and intonation as the first reading. Although English is my first language, I still have to practise this. I try not to read it in the ‘dreadful poets’ way’ which people often adopt when reading poetry.

 

Suggestions for further exploitation

Look up the title to check its connotations. Research Morocco.

Although I generally avoid the use of jargon, and this poem is not an exercise in the ‘naming of parts’, it contains examples of the following: 

• Assonance – repetition of same or similar vowel sounds (thobes-trio, hit-Riq)

• Consonance – similar or same consonants with different vowels (trio-troop, plying-playing)                            

• Dissonance – repetition of harder sounds both consonants and vowels, harsh on the ear to help… /ɪ/e/æ/ɒ/ə/   /t/d/p/b/k/g/    (rattle-Riq, tambourine-upturned)

• Onomatopoeia – words echo the sound of what’s being described. (strumming, tapping, twanging)

• Alliteration – repeated initial sounds (rattle-Riq, coins clink) 

 

The students enjoy finding examples of the above and how sounds play off each other.

• Noticing the rhythm, rhyme, weaker and stronger syllables

• There are a number of non-English words in the poem, students identify these, research them and then speculate on why the poet has used them.

• Line length and use of punctuation. 

• Use of lexical items, (lanky, skinny, dumpy, to take stock of…to ply their trade…

• Critical thinking and reading between the lines. (e.g. playing their greatest ‘hit’, rather than ‘hits’, implying they play the same song over and over. Coins clink as he’s paid to go away. …troubadour smiles. Tourists trying to ‘sing along’ in a language they don’t know, dancing a traditional Moroccan dance which they don’t know either, what do they sound and look like? How do the troubadours view the tourists?)

• Drawn pictures of the three troubadours.

These are just a few ideas which I have used successfully. But feel free to develop your own activities around the poem.

 

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