Acoustic access to poetry

The diction of poetry may evoke terms like « memorization », « recitation », however, they belong to quite distinguished levels of oral practices. The term « recitation », as a common and traditional didactic method, is strongly recommended according to govern-mental programs²³. Poem recitation was once considered as an effective way to learn poetry whereas this point of view was seriously criticized in the I.O. of 1972.

C'est surtout par la récitation que la poésie apparaissait dans nos classes, et l'on voyait dans cet exercice un moyen d'enseigner l'usage correct des mots et des tours de notre langue en mettant à profit le soutien que le rythme prête à la mémoire. Mais ces motivations, intéressantes pour le maître, sont nulles pour l'enfant ; et une récitation apprise à contrecoeur ou par simple docilité ne donne pas de contact avec la poésie, elle en dé-tourne²⁴ (Ministère de l'Éducation de France, 1972, p. 29).

Obviously, the recitation assures the correctness of poetry (words, syntax etc.) while the « intimate resonance » between poetry and children was thus neglected (Ministère de l'Éducation de France, 1972, p. 29). It treats the memorization of the poetic text as its final target for turning pupils to « corps servile » (slavish body) or worse, as a mechanic instru-ment. This bias may put aside the voice, the body movements (reaction), emotional echo, imagination etc. Recitation when against pupil’s will, shall not be advocated. That’s why it must be differentiated from diction. Our aim of diction is much more than what recitation brings us. Here we try to define the diction of poetry in our thesis from distinguished as-pects, especially its linkages with children’s psychology, with their body and with language.

23 Cf. I.O. in 1972, 1992.

24 It was above all by recitation that poetry appeared in our classes, and we saw in this exercise a means of teaching the correct use of words and tricks of our language by making use of the support that rhythm lends in memory. But these motivations, interesting to the master, are null for the child; And a recitation learned reluctantly or by simple docility does not attract children towards poetry, it makes them turn away from it (Translated by DL).

Diction & transitional area

Diction is also considered as a « game space » established on « fun activities ». « Elle permet à chacun de découvrir le plaisir de créer, sans préjugés ni esprit d’évaluation »²⁵ (Vorger, 2011, p. 448). He reveals that children are allowed to discover and create their own joy in diction (what he called the game zone). Moreover, he mentioned that the democracy in poetry remains unique among other literary texts in school. Pupils are allowed to play with, to interpret, and to create in poetry diction, therefore no prejudgment or evaluations should stand in the way. The two characteristics of poetry diction thus contribute to the charm of poetry for pupils. Martin echoes this point of view by claiming that « the resona-tion transforms body as language shelter where children who cry or suffer from the pain can be comforted » (Martin, 2010, pp. 12-13). Children who search for security could be comforted by oral « psychological treatment » in a poetic immersion.

Winnicott’s « transitional area » may help us to better understand the « game space » and the « language shelter » in poetry diction. He pointed out that children are in need of an intermediate area to practice interacting with the external environment. This area is al-most indispensable for infants to alleviate their pain from baby talk until they could acquire proper social language.

… an infant's babbling and the way in which an older child goes over a repertory of songs and tunes while preparing for sleep come within the intermediate area as transitional phenomena, along with the use made of objects that are not part of the infant's body yet are not fully recognized as belonging to external reality (Winnicott, 1971, p. 3).

He specified that the squiggle game helps to create a transitional space where the « period of hesitation » (special moments) has not only full scope but is also facilitated by him to emerge towards a creative gesture, namely the squiggle itself (Winnicott, 1975, p.

xviii). He also emphasized that this concept of « transitional phenomenon » of infancy should indicate « the potential space » of adult’s life in culture, which lasts for the whole life. We have every right to make a hypothesis that poetry diction may serve as this

25 It allows everyone to discover the pleasure of creating, without prejudice or evaluation (Translated by DL).

tional space (or transitional object) that allows children to play, to hesitate, to create with no judgments with poetry. The target of poetic diction is to contribute to facilitate children’s entrance into the world of reading, to communicate with others and to eventually embrace the external world.

Diction & Body

According to Vorger, the diction of poetry has an innate connection, heartbeat for instance, with our body and gestures through our voice and its rhythm. « Elle est plus géné-ralement sur la voix, mais aussi le corps et les gestes – qui passe par le « repérage des mots inducteurs de rythme » »²⁶(Vorger, 2011, p. 494). André Spire pointed out that « the joy of the poetic diction lies in the physical and articulatory joy: this joy derives equally from the movement of the breast, the glottis and all the cavities of muscle, cartilage, and bone, and that’s exactly where they mould and amplify themselves » (Spire, 1949; Vaillant, 2008, p. 87).

Body pleasure displays perfectly where this joy of poetry diction stems from. Poetry diction activates our body organs, turning them into musical instruments, and is ready for their mutual resonance. The diction of poetry keeps stimulating collisions and coordination of divergent bodily senses with its own rhythm and rimes by creating this « harmony in colli-sion » inside of reader’s body.

This musicality dates back to the natural link between rhythmic movement of our body and the language. Rhythm conserves its natural link with body; the repetitive retrospect of the first contact between rhythm and body evokes our body memory of this vital heartbeat (CNDP, 2008, p. 162).

Diction & rhythm

This physical interaction not only serves as the manner to practice voice through lite-rary texts but also nurtures a dialogue among body, language and ourselves. « Il est façon

26 It is more generally on the voice, but also on the body and the gestures - which passes through the "locating of the words inducing rhythm" (Translated by DL).

particulière de vivre sa langue dans son corps, de la faire bouger, de la parler, de la danser, de la réinventer »²⁷ (Balpe, 1980, p. 98). Poetry is, in essence, the rhythm in our body. Pupils actually could benefit from the rhythmic structure of poetry to facilitate their memoriza-tions. This facilitation would, in turn, remove the strangeness of poetry, more essentially its loyalty may build pupil’s confidence in diction. « Children feel more at ease towards a stan-dard poetry which strictly follows all rhythm and rime, and their memory of poetry is pro-ved to be more loyal and abiding. This standardization requires less effort from the learners, thus charmed gradually many pupils » (Blot & Porcher, 1980, p. 57). This is particularly true for rimes, the rime is considered to touch the most for children because it is the most reco-gnizable form²⁸(Siméon, 2001, p. 5).

Meanwhile, respiration fluctuates with the rhythm of poetry diction, leading readers distinctive vocal experiences every time with distinguished poems. Sometimes we even need to hold our respiration in order to intentionally break the rhythm and to better hear ourselves as intensely as possible. A moment of « pause » from the text reinforces the po-wer of silence which reserves the word energy. This pause would also stimulate the imagi-nary as Balpe pointed out: « detached from the syntactical course of the speech allows it to let out more energies in the rupture and the imaginary discontinuity » (Balpe, 1980, p. 64).

Each diction of poetry could bring about new rhythms, new respirations, new resonances in the body. Readers are therefore invited each time to participate in weaving, creating and reconstructing their new linkages with the language.

Based on the three main aspects of poetry diction above, we attempt to clarify our de-finition of diction in the thesis. In the light of the researchers demonstrated, there is no denying that diction of poetry has shown us an ideal and privileged access to poetry.

However, differed from the I.O., our definition of diction covers the transitional area, body intimacy and rhythm in language. This acoustic access could offer readers more possibilities to deal with self (both in the physical and mental body), with language and finally with all that non-self …

27 This is the particular way to live one’s language in his body, to move, speak and dance with it and to recreate it (Translated by DL).

28 because it is the most visible form (Translated by DL).