Class 10 Pupils Demonstrate Erasure Poetry

December 19 2023

Class 10 consider the ways by which language becomes an art form of true expression in the Main Lesson on Poetry, taking the craft beyond literary learning to examine the nature of poetry as a means of protest, or as a vehicle of social change.

Here we have two examples of erasure poetry. This poetic technique is one of many which Class 10 played with during their Poetry Main Lesson. Erasure poetry takes an existing document, and alters or obliterates parts of it to leave a new, slimmer text, sometimes with a different or altered meaning to the original.

Magdalena crafted a page of Maya Angelou’s memoir ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ into a powerful statement of self.

This exercise comes towards the end of the Main Lesson. Starting with oral poetic traditions and the epic of Gilgamesh, and ending with emerging resurgence of spoken poetry in the form of the poetry slam, the pupils followed the development of poetry in English.

Eva took Tato Laviera’s poem ‘Lady Liberty’ and reimagined it as a warning.

Beyond literary learning, the Main Lesson also asked the pupils to question the very study of poetry itself: pupils were encouraged to discuss the value of the arts, through the study of poetry as a means of protest, or as a vehicle of social change.

Words by Kirsty Macdonald-Russell, Upper School English and Poetry Main Lesson Teacher

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Class 10 Pupils Demonstrate Erasure Poetry

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