Reflections on Teaching Watching the Swallows by Dorothy Wordsworth to Montenegrin Undergraduate Students of English
By Tanja Bakić, Mediterranean University, Podgorica, Montenegro
Number of students: 10
Duration: 90 minutes
Warm-up (5 minutes)
I began the lesson with a recording of swallows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-9CDATH598
My intention was to evoke the sounds of the birds and create the impression that the students were directly immersed in a natural landscape, listening to the birds in their natural environment. I first asked them to close their eyes and clear their minds. I observed them carefully as they remained silent, with their eyes closed, absorbing the sounds. After approximately two minutes, I stopped the recording and asked them to open their eyes.
Although I had initially prepared three questions—What does the sound remind you of? How does it make you feel? Do you associate it with any memories or images? — I felt at that moment that a different set of questions would be more appropriate. I therefore asked: How do you feel right now? What were you listening to? Have you heard these sounds before? What are these sounds?
A variety of responses emerged. The students described feeling meditative and relaxed. Some had never heard these sounds before, while others had little experience of the countryside. Most recognised the sounds as those of birds, although they were unable to identify which birds. Several students asked to hear the recording again in order to identify the sounds, but I decided to proceed with the lesson, as replaying the recording would have disrupted the planned structure and timing.
Introduction to the Poem (20 minutes)
Listening Activity (5 minutes). I played an audio recording of a British native speaker reading the poem twice (private recording). The students remained silent and attentive. The purpose was to allow them to experience the sound, rhythm, and musicality of the poem through the voice of a native British speaker before encountering the written text.
Silent Reading (5 minutes). I then displayed the poem on the screen and gave the students time to read it silently. The purpose was to allow them to encounter individually and process the original written language that they had just heard in performance. Most students took notes in their notebooks, while two students quietly discussed some of the lines with one another.
Discussion (10 minutes). I then invited the students to share their first impressions. One student remarked that hearing the poem first read aloud by a British native speaker and then seeing the written text significantly enhanced her engagement with the poem and helped her to concentrate more effectively. Another student said that she had enjoyed all three stages—the sounds of the swallows, the native-speaker reading, and the visual presentation of the poem—and that the sequence had enabled her to form a sufficiently clear interpretation to explain the poem to the class. I told her that this was a valuable observation, but that she would have an opportunity to develop it further during the next stage of the lesson.
Another student explained that he was still unable to concentrate fully on the poem and that his slower learning style required more time for careful reading. I reassured him that this was entirely understandable and that he would have further opportunities to engage with the poem. Another student continued to refer to the sound of the swallows from the warm-up, explaining that it had remained vivid in her imagination throughout the subsequent activities.
Close Reading (15 minutes)
I asked each student to read the poem aloud, line by line. As the poem was short, the activity was repeated twice. This shared oral reading provided another opportunity for the students to articulate and collectively experience what they had previously perceived and understood.
The students approached the reading in markedly different ways. Some read the poem expressively and almost performatively, while others adopted a very quiet and restrained manner. One student read with frequent pauses, creating a particularly contemplative rhythm. One student did not wish to read aloud, and I respected this decision, recognising that engagement with poetry should not be a coercive act. This variation in participation also revealed the different ways in which students respond to and interpret poetry, as well as the different ways in which they feel comfortable participating in collaborative classroom activities.
Group Work and Analysis (30 minutes)
I divided the students into three groups:
G1 – Language and Imagery Group: To examine descriptive language, imagery, and metaphor. (3 students)
G2 – Form and Structure Group: To focus on rhythm, repetition, and the structure of the poem. (4 students)
G3 – Themes and Ideas Group: To explore deeper meanings, including perception, imagination, reality, impressions, nature, transience, and memory. (3 students)
After 15 minutes of discussion, each group presented its findings orally.
G1 – Language and Imagery. The students observed that descriptive words such as restless, swift, and silent help to create a vivid picture of the swallows and emphasise their constant movement. The visual imagery enables the reader to imagine the birds flying across the sky and moving through the landscape, while the movement imagery presents them as energetic and free, in contrast with the stillness of their surroundings. The students also argued that Wordsworth's use of metaphor gives the swallows a deeper significance, suggesting ideas of freedom, change, and the passage of time. The natural imagery, they noted, reflects the speaker's thoughts and emotions, connecting the external landscape with her inner experience. Overall, they concluded that the poem uses descriptive language, vivid imagery, and metaphor to transform a simple observation of swallows into a reflection on nature, movement, and human feeling.
G2 – Form and Structure. This group argued that the poem's rhythm, repetition, and structure create a sense of movement and reflect the flight of the swallows. The rhythm shifts between moments of calm observation and descriptions of the birds' restless movement, giving the poem a dynamic quality. Repetition draws attention to significant images and ideas, reinforcing the speaker's fascination with the swallows. The structure develops from direct observation of nature towards a more reflective and emotional response, demonstrating how a seemingly simple encounter with birds can generate deeper thoughts. The students concluded that rhythm, repetition, and structure work together to mirror the movement of the swallows while giving the poem a sense of continuity and reflection.
G3 – Themes and Ideas. This group explored the poem through the relationship between perception, imagination, and reality. The students observed that the swallows are initially presented as part of the natural world, but that the speaker's impressions transform their movements into something more meaningful and emotionally significant. Nature becomes a stimulus for the imagination, allowing the ordinary sight of the birds to evoke thoughts about transience, change, and the passage of time. The fleeting presence of the swallows also suggests the temporary nature of human experience, while memory preserves an impression after the moment itself has disappeared. In this way, the students argued, the poem demonstrates how perception and imagination can transform a simple encounter with nature into a lasting reflection on memory, impermanence, and the relationship between the external world and the inner self.
Poetry Writing Workshop (20 minutes)
We were also able to devote time to the planned poetry-writing workshop. I wrote five key words from the poem on the board: swallows, restlessly, old building, disappear, and shadows. I then asked the students to write an original poem inspired by the poem and incorporating all five words within ten minutes.
Given the limited amount of time, only two students completed draft versions of their poems. Some students remarked that, although they could write a poem, it would have little to do with the swallows. Others expressed concern that they were not sufficiently gifted at poetry writing. Nevertheless, two students completed their draft versions, demonstrating that the activity had encouraged them to engage creatively with the imagery and vocabulary of Wordsworth's poem.
Poem 1
Swallows gather restlessly
above the old building,
where evening shadows
climb the broken walls.
One by one, they disappear
into the darkening sky,
leaving only silence
where their wings had been.
I watch the empty air
and wait for their return.
Poem 2
Swallows circle restlessly
around the old building,
touching windows full of shadows.
At dusk, they disappear
beyond the chimneys,
as if the sky had swallowed them.
Only their restless wings
remain in memory,
fluttering against the walls
of the old building.
Teacher's Reflection and Learning
At the conclusion of the lesson, I felt that the key learning objectives I had established beforehand had been successfully achieved. More importantly, the students' responses confirmed that a multimodal approach was appropriate for this particular group. The combination of sound, oral recital by a British native speker, silent reading, close reading, collaborative analysis, and creative writing allowed students with different learning styles and levels of confidence to engage with the poem in different ways.
I have never regarded the teaching of literature as a process in which the teacher simply speaks while students passively receive information. Instead, I seek to involve students actively in the process of understanding and interpreting a literary work through individual, collaborative, and creative activities. In this sense, every lesson has the potential to become reciprocal: the teacher teaches the poem, but the students also teach the teacher something about the poem.
This was particularly evident in this lesson. Through their different responses, the students taught me that Watching the Swallows cannot be understood simply as a poem about nature. They demonstrated that it can also be read as a poem about human perception and the ways in which we assign meaning to what we see. Their responses reminded me that the meaning of a poem is not exhausted by the interpretation prepared by the teacher; it can continue to develop through the experiences, associations, and perspectives that individual readers bring to the text.
In this respect, the most valuable outcome of the lesson was not simply that the students learned how to analyse Dorothy Wordsworth's poem. It was that, through their interpretations, they made me see the poem differently as well.