Search

Rhetoric and poetics have a long historical relationship; however, there is a dearth of literature in contemporary rhetorical studies that analyzes poems as forms of democratic dissent. This article begins with an assessment of John F. Kennedy’s eulogy of Robert Frost, followed with an analysis of Amiri Baraka’s “Black Art,” a poem that both supports and challenges Kennedy’s defense of poetry. Ultimately, this paper makes an argument for why critics might pay closer attention to poetry as both a medium for expressing dissenting messages and as an example of how language play itself can function as valuable democratic dissent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The nature of participants' experience in practitioner research is often taken for granted, and its more tacit dimensions overlooked. Poetic expression is valuable in surfacing these tacit dimensions, enabling the researcher to engage with them more consciously and draw on them to strengthen the research. To illustrate, I draw on my own poetically expressive writing relating to the experience of leading an action research project - a text entitled A Gossamer Thread. I describe how I came to write in this way, and draw on the poet Robert Frost's account of 'the figure a poem makes' to show how the writing arises from within experience and is able to clarify its meaning. This process is linked to an understanding of Dewey's concept of integral experience. Ways in which poetic expression may contribute to practitioner research are discussed, exploring how the vitality of poetic expression can energise research and how writing poetically emphasises receptivity, stepping back from assumptions and opening up to possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on views of poets about school. Assessment of the manner in which poet views school as shuttered room; Evaluation of the poems of poet Robert Frost; Role of poetry in offering educators a medium for experience and reflection on classroom life.