Using Poetry to Teach Sociology

Author(s): Frederick Samuels

Source: Teaching Sociology, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 1987), pp. 55-60
Published by: American Sociological Association
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 USING POETRYTO TEACHSOCIOLOGY
FREDERICK SAMUELS
University
of NewHampshire

Poetry may be used effectively with other methods of teaching sociology. Poetry offers
new insights, stimulates thinking; and contributes to a holistic education when used
both in lectures and with paper assignments. Examples are presented of poems used in
lectures and of poems integrated into students' papers. The paper examples include
both poems written by the students and those selected by the students from the
literature.

Science and poetry are two ways of commu- Am I "Whitey," a soulless face?
nicating experience. Sociology in the past Do we share or contest
several decades has made greater use of science this dingy, dirty place?
and the technology of the computer age, while Black man, black man,
the humanistic and artistic perspectives toward footsteps echo
understanding human behavior have not been against the walls
sufficiently used in our profession. Poetry offers where scrawls of hatred
special insights and provides a unique, effective lurch out, proclaiming
means of expression. pain and fear and anger
before we ever meet,
as if we have met
USING POETRY IN THE LECTURE and sized up one another
In a musical show the actors burst into song in as brutal, foul,
situations where the spoken word may seem beyond repair,
creator of despair
inadequate to express the depth or intensity of
the emotion. In a lecture in sociology, where and pain and fear
statistics and tables and the best scientific, and injustice.
rational language have contributed what they Injustice, brother,
could toward the understandingof a concept, an on black and white,
on all people
appropriate poem might contribute something
more and may have a greater impact than lost upon
proliferation of the above methods could have. long, dark paths.
One is reminded of McKeachie's (1969, p. 189) An instructorlecturing on slum conditions, on
observation on the importance of "varying the hopelessness, the self-perpetuation of the
contexts" in facilitating learning. The emotional environment and its human products, would
and metaphoric aspects of a poem provide usefully employ statistics and sharp, realistic
"varying contexts." descriptions, along with theoretical explana-
For example, if I were lecturing the class on tions. A poem such as the following (which I
the injustice and illogic of racial prejudice, I wrote) might contribute an additional impact on
would have presented case studies, psychologi- the emotional and spiritual levels as well as on
cal analyses, statistics of discrimination in the cognitive level.
health, employment, housing, and the like. I
might decide that an additional perspective
would be useful, one perhaps more holistic, one REFLECTIONS ON THE WEARY ONES
where synthesis ratherthan analysis was predom-
Rivington-you pushcart-laden,racketystreet-
inant, one that might have a deeper, more do you still exist as I remember
enduring impact which would not vanish after when thirty years ago I peered
the notes had been studied for the exam. I could into the eyes of the weary ones
then present the following poem of my own: behind the carts, selling their wares
of fruit, linens, sabbath candles . . .
LONG, DARK PATHS or was it all a dream then,
a misbegotten memory now?
Black man, black man, Were their eyes as sad as I recall;
walking straight, walking tall were the faces of other weary ones
down the long, dark street (coming home from factory and warehouse)
where white and black paths meet so grey and wooden;
-do you see me as your foe? did they ever see the sun,

Teaching Sociology, 1987, Vol. 15 (January:55-60) 55

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56
or were their lives spent
on tenement-shaded streets
and in dim, railed caves?
The children of the weary ones
-do they now walk grim and vacant?
Certainly what is being suggested here is not a
substitution of poetry for the traditional socio-
logical material, but simply the addition of some
poetry, where appropriate, for pedogogical
purposes. This method is similar to Maslow's
(1966) emphasis on the integrating of classical
science and humanistic insights. Students seem
to appreciate this approach.
USING POETRY
IN PAPER ASSIGNMENTS
Although the use of poetry in lectures is useful,
the incorporating of poetry into term papers
appears to have a greater impact. A statement of
such a term paper assignment follows:
Select any concept which is presented in the
lectures of this class. Then, 1) explain it in
your own words, 2) locate and write down a
poem (writing your own is most welcome if
you'd like to do so) which illustrates the
concept, 3) explain the connection, and 4)
relate the concept to experiences in your own
life.
The poems themselves were not graded. It
seems to me that the poetic merit of either a
student's own work or of another's work
selected by the student is not the proper subject
for evaluation in a sociology course. There were
plenty of more appropriate criteria for grading
their papers. The poems were considered
satisfactory as long as their relationship with the
concept being discussed was explained. Of
course, I did compliment students who wrote or
selected especially effective poems. Following
are some examples of the students' response.1
Jim, a cabinet-maker by trade, returning to
formal education after a long absence, is an
inquisitive, devout student. He chose to focus
upon Erik Erikson's (1963) "The Eight Ages of
Man," or eight stages of psychosocial develop-
ment. Jim integrated an explanation of each
stage with personal experience and a short verse
of his own. Two examples:
. . in this first stage [oral-sensory; trust
versus distrust is the psychosocial crisis], it is
not necessary to eliminate mistrust, but to
A numberof students were asked for permission to
use parts of their papers. From among those who
subsequently returned them to me, I then selected
excerpts from the papers of James Halla, Roberta
Romeroy, JonathanKing, JohnM. Murray,SharonDole,
Craig Dikeman, and SarahMorrill.
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TEACHING SOCIOLOGY
have trust predominate. Indeed, some mis-
trust of one's world is desirable, for it affords
protection from dangerous situations.
In a healthy resolution of stage one, the
infant develops trust in its mother and the
world, emerging with the essential strength of
"drive" and the basic virtue of "hope." The
individual who does not develop a basic sense
of trust is destined for emotional disturbance.
That the quality of the relationship between
mother and child is decisive in determining
the outcome of this stage is obvious.
Dear person
Who tastes so warm and sweet
Who fills my inside
With milk and love
Do not leave me.
My fear so overwhelming
When you leave
My relief so joyful
When you return,
Mother.
The feelings expressed in this poem are
what I imagine I felt as an infant trying to
develop trust. I cannot actually remember
what I felt as an infant, but I can see the
emotion in the eyes of my infant son.
. . . Stage six is Young Adulthood and
takes place within the context of friends and
lovers. What is at issue here is the ability to
establish a relationship with another where the
full disclosure of one's self is safe. Erikson
calls the conflict of this age, "Intimacy versus
Isolation," for the hazard is that an individual
will find intimacy so ego-threatening that
withdrawal and isolation will be preferred.
When intimacy is chosen, however, the
essential strength of "affiliation" and the
basic virtue of "love" can be attained.
A relationship
Is there anything
More dear
More sustaining
More wonderful
More difficult
More scary
More necessary?
No.
Intimate relationships are where I find
meaning in life. I cannot think of a place safer
from the thoughts of our certain mortality
than in the heart of another.
USING POETRY TO TEACH SOCIOLOGY
Roberta, another "non-traditional" student, a
successful restaurateur, is-like Jim-an avid,
questioning class participant. She chose balance
theory as the focus of her paper. Excerpts from
her paper:
The following poem deals with the worst
solution we can use to avoid the problem of
imbalance and disharmony in our attitudes.
Something
not quite right
nags at me
Scratches
at my door
of my mind
A weight
without counter
leaves me listing
Until
grasping at
random justifications
I pull myself right
and close the door.
Avoidance of new ideas and experiences
may be seen as a solution to the problems that
dissonance can create. New knowledge can be
perceived as a safety threat because it may
shake the foundation upon which our "self"
is built. Rather than risk this potential havoc,
we might shut the door to new knowledge.
So-called traditional students responded quite
well, too. Jonathan presented a clever examina-
tion of defense mechanisms in conjunction with
the issues of incest, parricide, and cognitive
dissonance. A most complex undertaking car-
ried off successfully. Excerpts from his paper:
Withdrawal is the most severe of the
defense mechanisms. It occurs when things
get so rough that the person pulls out either
partially or fully, temporarily or permanently.
It is also a common defense mechanism of
incest victims.
Finding a poem on incest and the use of
defense mechanisms was quite a challenge.
On Sunday, April 14, [1985] I found a poem
in The Boston Globe, Parade Magazine,
written by an incest victim named Jeanne
Allyn. It goes like this:
I had no memory
I had no childhood
I became an old woman
At the age of four.
In the first line Jeanne says: I had no memory.
What she means here is exactly that. She
literally has no memory. She has put the most
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57
severe defense mechanism, withdrawal, into
use in order to save her sanity or to prevent
ego-deflation as mentioned before. In doing
so she has pulled the memory completely out
of her consciousness. Like so many who
withdraw, Jeanne turned to alcohol, drugs,
and has even tried to take her life by slicing
her wrist. Jeanne alleges the incest continued
until she was twelve and began to menstruate.
She has no memories of whole sections of that
time. She says that there are huge blocks of
nothingness until she entered therapy. Jeann-
e's therapist, Cole, says denial and with-
drawal are very typical of nearly all of her
incest patients. Cole says many are in their
thirties and forties and have never been able
to break the silence.
Here is a poem I wrote about the defense
mechanism, withdrawal:
I close my eyes in hopes to [sic] escape this
horrid scene
Only to envision a much more vivid scene
I consume more alcohol
And pop more pills
In hopes to [sic] kill this memory deep
inside of me.
Jonathanwent on to relate this to a personal
situation, one involving a friend of his. He
analyzed the interactive pattern of use of
various defense mechanisms both by himself
and the young lady in seeking to deal with her
alleged experience with incest. Again, a most
ambitious undertaking well done.
Another "traditional" student, John, made
an insightful observation about this assign-
ment:
At first I thought the task of linking a
poem to a social psychological concept
would be quite difficult. After reflecting
upon the two entities separately, I began to
see certain similarities between them. A
poem is nothing more than a creative form
of expressing some deep feelings or ideas.
In a sense the psychological concepts we all
study do nothing more than try to explain
why humans feel the way they do and how
it makes them act in society. Therefore,
realistically, the poem is not just an abstract
piece of literature, but in fact just an
expression of a human being. Although the
author of the poem may be quite different
than us, he still is subject to the same
psychological patterns that govern the rest
of humanity.
After the success in my Social Psychology
course I incorporated poetry into my Introduc-
tory Sociology course. Following are excerpts
58
from a few of the papers. The earlier examples
emphasized the students' own poems. Here I
have chosen examples employing poems from
the literature.
Sharon is a superior student who would excel
no matter what the format of the course might
be. Her paper, "Socialization: How Exagger-
ated Expectations Lead to Feelings of Being
'On Stage'," included the following:
The moment a family doctor announces
the sex of a newborn, friends and family
will shower the girl with gifts of delicate
pink dresses and Barbie dolls, the boy with
Oshkosh overalls and Tonka trucks, and
expect different actions and responsibilities
from each. Expectations are expressed
through every institution, and are especially
influential through the media. A child is
even taught songs and poems that will
pressure a role throughout life. These
selections appeared in a poetry book
especially for children (Sheets 1973, pp. 10,
14):
Slingshots and bottle-tops
a melted candy bar . . .
baseballs and tennis shoes,
a super racing car . . .
bubble gum and marbles,
a real living joy . . .
an angel, a black eye,
a happy, healthy boy!
A girl likes parties
And kittens to squeeze
Kisses and flowers
And someone to please.
A girl likes sunshine
And stars up above,
A girl likes sweet dreams
And most of all ... love!
These sex role stereotypes create conflict
from childhood through adulthood, but are
augmented by additional restrictions of per-
sonal expression. For more than nine months,
expecting parents discuss their personal be-
liefs for successful child raising, often a
combination of those guidelines imposed by
their parents and ones recently publicized as
being effective. Anxiety accompanies the
celebration because the idealistic pattern for
child raising may have little effect over what
is instilled by society. There is pressure on
both sides, for the parents to teach what is
socially acceptable behavior in order for the
child to be productive in society, and for the
child to incorporate this effectively. Parents
may have very little influence once the child
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TEACHING SOCIOLOGY
is exposed to outside people; the more time
spent with baby-sitters and grandparents, the
greater the possibility that she will include
their attitudes into her system of beliefs. The
poet, Smiles (Sheets 1973, p. 30) expressed
this exactly when writing:
"Childhood is like a mirror which
reflects in later life the images first
presented to it."
Craig made a poor showing in the exams of
the course. However, he got enthusiastic about
the paper, relating his own experience as a
football player to his topic, "Status-Role-Can
We Make a Change?" Excerpts from his paper:
I remembered reading a piece of poetry by
A.E. Houseman entitled "To An Athlete
Dying Young" (Williams 1952, p. 486). The
poet reflects on the town's burial of an athlete
who had been admired and whose status had
raised him to the height of "hero." He
describes the townspeople "chairing him
through the market-place" after a race and
men and boys "cheering by." He tells the
athlete that he was smart to "slip away"
before his glory and status change. He refers
to other athletes who "wore their honors out"
and whose "name died before the man."
Houseman urges a quick burial before the
echoes of his fleet feet can fade. He does not
want the town to alter the status of its
"laurel-headed" hero. Although he mourns
his hero, he is happy that time has not
stripped him of his status as it did "runners
who renown outran." Houseman makes an
interesting comparison between the "fleet
foot" of the athlete and the fleeting changes
that occur in status. Another observation
brought to mind by the poem is that in death
we are all of the same status. Even though at
the time of our death and burial we may
maintain our status, death brings an end to
everyone and everything, placing us all on an
equal level. "Silence sounds no worse than
cheers."
TO AN ATHLETE DYING YOUNG
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy 'tood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
USING POETRY TO TEACH SOCIOLOGY
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And slience sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners who renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.
Sarah seemed to be an average student. Her
paper was a thoughtful one, displaying a good
sense of humor. Excerpts follow:
FOR A LADY I KNOW
She even thinks that up in heaven
Her class lies late and snores,
While poor black cherubs rise at seven
To do celestial chores.
-Countee Cullen
What Countee Cullen is expressing in this
poem (Bontemps 1963, p. 89), is what I have
seen in my own hometown-the extent of
socialization into people's lives. He shows
specifically the discrimination and subordina-
tion of blacks. I have shown that as well.
Moreover, he expresses the fact that this
"lady's" socialization has gone so far and so
deep, that she honestly believes that this
separation and subordination of the blacks
even goes on in heaven. She is also convinced
that there is nothing wrong with that view
and, in fact, that it is the "right" and "best"
view.
CONCLUSION
The use of poetry in teaching sociology has-in
my brief experience thus far2-contributed a
2
For manyyearsI was under the impressionthatin
order to be accepted as a "scientific sociologist" my
identity as a poet should be kept out of the academic
arena. I have since come to realize that the teaching
process is aided by a multi-facetedapproachto learning
which includes poetry. Obviously I do not recommend
turningSociology 400 or 500 into English 400. However,
the undertakingswhich I have describedabove do appear
useful, and I am encouraged to move forward in this
endeavor. I encourage others to do the same, bringing
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59
number of positive results. Grades have im-
proved, attendance has been better than average,
and the students seem to be more enthusiastic.
These results are similar to those of an earlier
experiment of mine (1977) in which skits were
used to illustrate social psychological concepts
and also to Conover's (1974) study in which
students participated in games. Certainly pas-
sions have been stimulated. McKeachie (1969,
p. 183) observed that students "have great
difficulty in learning material in which they're
not interested." We teachers must never forget
that in humans the cognitive, emotional, and
spiritual levels are intertwined. There have been
no negative effects evident in my incorporation
of poetry into the social psychology and
introductory sociology courses. Aesthetic as
well as cognitive needs are fulfilled. The student
comes to realize something to which educators
too often give only lip service: that disciplines
are arbitrarily designated and segregated, that
education must be holistic and must synthesize
the several approaches if it is to most effectively
enlighten and enrich the human being.
The instructor who wishes to incorporate a
poem now and then into his or her lecture need
not be a poet. Just as the students are given the
choice to use either their own poems or poems
from the literature in their papers, so, too, does
the teacher have a choice. There are many fine
books of poetry available which cover the whole
spectrum of human interaction. A good example
of an anthology of quality contemporary poetry
is New Voices (Selected University and College
Prize-winning Poems, 1979-1983), edited by
May Swenson for The Academy of American
Poets. A couple of excellent individual books of
poetry are Daniel Mark Epstein's The Book of
Fortune and Philip Schultz's Deep Within the
Ravine, the Lamont Poetry Selection for 1984.
As my student, John, observed: poets are, after
all, only human. Most poets would relish being
incorporated into a sociology course, for that is
where "it is happening."
REFERENCES
Bontemps, Ama, ed. 1963. American Negro Poetry.
New York:Hill andWang.
Conover,PaulW. 1974. "TheExperiential
Teachingof
Basic Social Concepts:An ImprovisationalAp-
proach."TeachingSociology2:27-41.
Epstein, Daniel M. 1982. The Book of Fortune.
Woodstock,NY:TheOverlookPress.
Erikson, Erik H. 1963. Childhood and Society. New
York:W.W. Norton.
their own unique contributionstowardthe common goal:
better communicationof ideas and information,and the
stimulationof minds.
60 TEACHING SOCIOLOGY

Maslow, AbrahamH. 1966. The Psychology of Science:
A Reconnaissance. Chicago: Henry Regnery.
McKeachie, Wilbert J. 1969. Teaching Tips: A Guide-
book for the Beginning College Teacher. Lexington,
MA: D.C. Heath.
Samuels, Frederick.1977. "Actors, Skits, and Concepts:
An Experiment in College Teaching." Teaching
Sociology 4:155-166.
Schultz, Philip. 1984. Deep Within the Ravine. New
York: Viking.
Sheets, Rita L. 1973. The Wondersof a Child's World.
Cincinnati:Gibson GreetingCards.
Swenson, May, ed. 1984. New Voices: Selected
University and College Prize-winning Poems,
1979-1983. New York: The Academy of American
Poets.
Williams, Oscar, ed. 1952. Immortal Poems of the
English Language. New York: Pocket Books.
Frederick Samuels is Professor of Sociology at the
University of New Hampshire and a member of the
Poetry Society of New Hampshire. His most recent
sociological publication, Human Needs and Behavior,
containsthreeof his poems. He is currentlyworkingon a
book of his poetry which may be used in the teaching of
sociology. Addresscorrespondenceto FrederickSamuels,
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Horton
Social Science Center, Durham,NH 03824.

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