The Charge of the Light Brigade

The Charge of the Light Brigade 

Lord Tennyson

I

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

“Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!” he said.

Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

II

“Forward, the Light Brigade!”

Was there a man dismayed?

Not though the soldier knew

   Someone had blundered.

   Theirs not to make reply,

   Theirs not to reason why,

   Theirs but to do and die.

   Into the valley of Death

   Rode the six hundred.

III

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

   Rode the six hundred.

IV

Flashed all their sabres bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

Sabring the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

   All the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery-smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reeled from the sabre stroke

   Shattered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not

   Not the six hundred.

V

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

   Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell.

They that had fought so well

Came through the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,

All that was left of them,

   Left of six hundred.

VI

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

   All the world wondered.

Honour the charge they made!

Honour the Light Brigade,

   Noble six hundred!

I'm probably making a stretch with this post, but when I started to think about what I was learning about Microsoft and Excel in my Educational Technology class, I thought about this poem. Just as there is repetition in this poem, there is repetition in technology. There is a process to making charts, diagrams, data lists, tables and handouts. There is a specific method to the way technology is used. There are formats, formulas and specific knowledge that needs to be utilized. As this poem is also about war and fighting, I would like to state that as a teacher we are always going to be fighting for our students to become engaged in learning. Education is a way to help that process. Also, this poem describes cannons coming from the left and right. As teachers, we will have students that are having so many different cannons going off in their lives, one way we can analyze what is going on is through looking at the data of students and then asking why that students is struggling. And although we will die, our glory will never fade!!

In the Station of the Metro

In the Station of the Metro

by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

To me this poem perfectly describes how people feel about technology today.  Pound is describing an instance where someone is in a metro station and the person is overwhelmed by the crowd of people, in the end they are just blurring by. For most people, technology is this same way. If you have learned something a specific way, then you are more likely to not want to have to learn a completely knew system. We are creatures of habit and familiarity. In the end though, my above poem also displays what technology is made for. This type of poem is in the genre a minimalism, and in the end technology is made to make life easier and to have short cuts. Just like Pound's movement of having poetry in as little words as possible and mean something profound, that is what technology for education is supposed to do as well.  In the end, websites, powerpoints, smart boards, twitter, email etc. are venues that allow teaching professionals to get their information to the students in the best possible way. Thank you technology and poetry, we will try to understand you more.

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

By Walt Whitman

When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;

When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself, n the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. This poem has always identified with me what education is supposed to be. We can learn as much as you can but we also have to experience what we are learning. To me, that is what our education department at my university is all about. There is a balance between reading, lecturing and memorizing, but there also comes a time when we have to use our knowledge through experiences. This education class is a way to display knowledge that will later help with our experience in the field of teaching.