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Praise poetry

Module by: Siyavula Uploaders. E-mail the author

ARTS AND CULTURE

Grade 7

EXPRESSION AND COMMUNICATION

Module 6

DRAMA: PRAISE POETRY

DRAMA

Activities for the learner

Activity 1:

To research and present an example of praise poetry: PRAISE

[LO 4.2]

PRAISE

Last term we encountered poetry in the form of choral verse. This term we are going to explore praise poetry.

What is praise?

  • Praise is the act of expressing commendation and admiration.
  • Praise is the rendering of homage and gratitude to a deity.
  • Praise is to commend someone highly.
  • Praise is to proclaim the glorious attributes of someone or a deity with homage or thanksgiving.

Who can we praise?

  • Our God or gods
  • Our mother or father
  • Our best friend
  • Our boyfriend or girlfriend
  • Our educator
  • Our principle
  • Our president
  • Our country
  • Nature
  • Our favourite sports team or star
  • Our pop idol

Can you think of anyone you would like to praise?

Is writing or reciting a love poem praise poetry?

Your educator will give you a brief background on praise poetry before you attempt the following exercises.

If you do not understand something please ask your educator.

Exercise 1: RESEARCH

Research and present the following to the class:

  • the history or background of praise and oral poetry;
  • at least one praise or oral poet, his or her works and background;
  • where and how praise poetry is presented;
  • in what way it has influenced South Africa today.

The presentation can consist of the following:

  • oral presentation;
  • written presentation;
  • audiovisual presentation.

Note: one of the above-mentioned, or all three can be used for the presentation

  • pictures
  • research
  • resources
  • video
  • recordings (CD, tape)

Exercise 2: warm-up

  • before you can proceed to the other exercise you have to participate in a proper warm-up routine in order for you to prepare your voice and body

The Warm-up

Relaxation and Posture

  • Stand with your feet slightly apart and slump forward as you stand.
  • Feel your stomach slacken, chest cave in and head fall on your chest.
  • Over a slow count of ten feel yourself growing.
  • The rib cage should lift away from the pelvis and the head rise to a poised position on the shoulders.
  • Repeat four times.
  • Raise your shoulders towards your ears.
  • Screw up your face.
  • Relax your face quickly, as if you have taken a mask off, until you feel all the wrinkles gone from the forehead and the muscles in your face feel free of tension.
  • Let your shoulders drop so that your arms hang easily by your sides.
  • Repeat four times.
Breathing
  • Place the back of your hands on your lower ribs and breathe in through your nose and gently out through your mouth.
  • Repeat eight times.

Note: do not take a lot of breath, just concentrate on feeling the movement of the ribs

  • Breathe in on the ribs and gently count to ten on a whisper
  • Feel that the whisper is just as strong at the count of nine and ten as it was at the count of one
  • Repeat eight times

Note: don’t let all the breath go at once.

  • Breathe in on the ribs and as you do so raise your arms sideways until they are above your head.
  • Note: there should be a slight sense of reaching for something above you, without tension in the shoulders and throat.
  • Pant gently, like a dog, feeling the movement of the diaphragm.
  • Pant in and out five times.
  • Then breathe out smoothly, using the air from the ribs, as you lower your arms to your sides.
  • Repeat eight times.
Voice
  • Yawn on an AH sound feeling the arching of the soft palate.
  • Repeat four times.
  • Yawn on each of the following vowels: OO AH EE.
  • Repeat four times on each vowel.
  • Intone gently, making the vowels very long: “Who are you?” and “Can’t you see?”.
  • Repeat each sentence four times and ensure that the tone is rich on each word.
  • Keep the lips together and make a number of quick “m” sounds as if you were laughing.
  • Repeat eight times.
  • Say the M sound, as if you had seen something pleasant.
  • Repeat eight times, getting louder each time.
  • Intone the following sentence gently, sustaining all M and N sounds:

“Make me many, many more.”

Articulation
  • Speak the following four times each.
  • Start slowly and gradually increase your speed.
  • Speak quietly but form each of the consonant sounds distinctly:

The tip of the tongue, the teeth and the lips

Look at the windmills whirling in the wind

I’m pulling a long length of string

Exercise 3: praise poetry

  • divide up into groups of 4 - 6 learners per group
  • prepare a piece of praise poetry for performance
  • you do not have to learn the poem of by heart, but if you feel enterprising you can learn the poem
  • for the purpose of this exercise you are allowed to use the poems included, select poetry of your choice (as long as it is praise poetry) or write your own praise poetry
  • you are allowed to incorporate movement, costumes, props, choral verse etc.

City Johannesburg

By Mongane Serote

This way I salute you:

My hand pulses to my back trousers pocket

Or into my inner jacket pocket

For my pass, my life,

Jo’burg City.

My hand like a starved snake rears my pockets

For my thin ever lean wallet,

While my stomach groans a friendly smile to hunger,

Jo’burg City.

My stomach also devours coppers and papers

Don’t you know?

Jo’burg City, I salute you;

When I run out, or roar in a bus to you,

I leave behind me, my love,

My comic houses and people, my dongas and my

ever whirling dust,

My death

That’s so related to me as a wink to the eye.

Jo’burg City

I travel on your black and white and robotted roads

Through your thich iron breath that you inhale

At six in the morning and exhale from five noon.

Jo’burg City

That is the time when I come to you,

When your neon flowers flaunt their way through the

falling darkness

On your cement trees.

And as I go back, to my love,

My dongas, my dust, my people, my death,

Where death lurks in the dark like a blade in the flesh,

I can feel your roots, anchoring your might, my feebleness

In my flesh, in my mind, in my blood

And everything about you says it,

That, that is all you need of me.

Jo’burg City, Johannesburg,

Listen when I tell you,

There is no fun, nothing, in it,

When you leave the women and men with such

frozen expressions,

Expressions that have tears like furrows of soil erosion,

Jo’burg City, you are dry like death,

Jo’burg City, Johannesburg, Jo’burg City.

A Warrior Sings His Praises

By Erinesti Rwandekyezi (Bahima Uganda)

I Who Am Praised thus held out in battle among foreigners

along with The Overthrower;

I Who Ravish Spear In Each Hand stood resplesendent in

my cotton cloth;

I Who Am Quick was drawn from afar by lust for the fight

and with me was The Repulser Of Warriors;

I Who Encircle The Foe, with Bitembe, brought back the

beats from Bihanga;

With Bwakwakwa, I fought at Kaanyabareega,

Where Bantura started a song that we might overcome

them.

Thus with my spear, I and Rwamujonjo conquered

Oruhinda;

The Banyoro were afraid on the battlefield of Kahenda;

The cocks of Karembe had already crowed;

I Who Am Nimble with The One Whom None Can

Dislodge felled them at Nyamizi.

At Nkanga, I seized my spear by its shaft-end;

At Kanyegyero, I The Binder Of Enemies too them by

surprise;

Thereafter was I never excluded from the counsels of

princes, nor was Rwangomani;

I Who Rescue With The Spear had seized him so that we

might fight together.

Hints on speaking poetry

  • Understand the poem or prose.
  • Paint a picture with your words.
  • Audibility is essential.
  • “It is not what you say, but the way you say it”.
  • Incorporate a variety in pitch and tone.
  • Incorporate changes in speed and rhythm.
  • Relax.
  • Articulate – achieved by the lips, tongue and teeth.
  • Incorporate accent – the variation of strength of volume within any word of more than one syllable, e.g. easy, difficult, impossible, theatre.
  • Incorporate emphasis – to make phrases move easily and with a swing and to give additional meaning and emotive dynamic.
  • Incorporate pauses – the length and amount of pauses used, govern the rate of the delivery – pauses ensure that the words are audible and intelligible and increase their emotional impact.
  • Incorporate inflections – rising and falling inflections.
  • Be careful of rising inflections at the end of each line.

Assessment

Table 1
Learning Outcomes(LOs)
LO 4
EXPRESSION AND COMMUNICATIONThe learner will be able to analyse and use multiple forms of communication and expression in Arts and Culture.
Assessment Standards(ASs)
We know this when the learner:
MUSIC (4.3)
  • explores and explains the purpose, function and role of different instruments used in indigenous, traditional or Western forms of music in South Africa.
 
DRAMA (4.2)
  • researches and presents an example of indigenous performance of praise poetry or folk tales.

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