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Decima Poem Lesson
By Pamela Gray

Overview

In her travel log for The Gully Magazine, Kelley Cogswell wryly observes: "Until Puerto Rico, I'd never imagined that the archaic [decima] form had survived its 17th century flowering, and [that] there were living, breathing, singing, practitioners all across the world from Spain to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, even Louisiana, like fresh New World Jurassic Parks." Her high school Spanish literature teacher should be allowed an "I told you so" for "forcing" Kelley to write in the style of the "long dead poet Espinel." Decima writing is no longer isolated to these countries and regions of the United States, as web sites and the Internet allow surfers to view modern masters of the decima performing on computer monitors. For instance, Louisiana fishermen can share their Canary Island heritage and unique style of decima with the world. Or, you can visit the Nuyorican bulletin board and download your own decima for an international audience of board visitors to critique or admire. Travel to Puerto Rico and participate in an outdoor poetry slam in the park.  Visit the Nuyorican Poets' Café in New York City and observe a slam every weekend evening. Indeed, Espinel may have died, but the decima is alive and well.

This lesson presents the background of the decima form, identifies decima poets, and allows students to write a paired poem they can later perform or share on the Internet. While this form of poetry requires that it be written in Spanish, the lesson allows non-Spanish speakers to gain an appreciation of its form and rhythm. You can also adapt activities to your time constraints, from one to five days.

Objectives

Students will:

  • Identify the decima poetry form.
  • Recognize noted poets of the movement.
  • Write a poem that models the themes and form of traditional decimas.
  • Comprehend language, tone, theme, and form in a decima.
  • Write and use a poetry concept journal.
  • Understand the origins and historical background of the decima.

Skills Attained

Students will be able to:

  • Develop and expand their appreciation of decima poetry by reading and writing poems.
  • Use and enhance their interpersonal communication skills by working in pairs.
  • Write a decima that meets the rubric's requirements.
  • Develop their oral reading skills.
  • Appreciate the important poetic differences between decimas written in Spanish and those translated into English.
  • Develop and constructively use a rubric to evaluate a decima.

Lesson Outline

I. Anticipatory Set

Have students create a poetry concept journal. (10-15 minutes for each topic) They can write in their journals at the beginning of the period while the teacher is taking roll, putting away books, or for a brief assignment as homework. Since the traditional decima focuses on several themes--romance, love, and honor--and recognizes impressive events and experiences, you could suggest these topics for students to consider in their journals:

  • Define love, honor or romance. 
  • Describe your favorite place. 
  • Describe an event that changed your life.
  • Describe an event that changed the history of the United States in the last year? The last five years?
  • Think of a famous personality from the mass media or from literature.  Why do you admire them?  Identify the qualities you think they posses.

After you have assigned students one of these topics, have them brainstorm with words and phrases that they list, in rough draft form, in their journals. This journal will be a topic source book for paired and individual decima writing.

II. Introduction to the Decima

Although evidence shows that the ten-line stanza decima existed in medieval Spain and northern Africa, Vincente Martinez de Espinel, a Spanish poet, novelist, and musician, has received credit for the decima that is performed today. The form is nicknamed "the little sonnet" and "the espinel" to recognize the interpretative pause that the poet added.

The decima is the most complex form of popular poetry and is most effective when written in Spanish, where specific rules apply to vowels and accented words. The Puerto Rican Cuatro Project has an excellent web page where a decima is written, clearly highlighting and counting syllables, marking line rhyme in the margin of the text, and explaining accents. The focal point is an online video of Ramito (1915-1900) performing "Up There in the Heights," a decima about two trees that come together to make a cuarto (a stringed instrument used to accompany the singer). See resources at the end of this lesson plan for the web address. 

The decima must follow this rhyme pattern: A/B/B/A (pause) A/C/C/D/D/C and consists of ten lines of 8 syllables--it is here that the form becomes complex:

    • When a line or verse ends in with a word with an emphasized syllable, this counts as an extra syllable.
    • When a verse or line ends with a word with its emphasized syllable being the antepenultimate one, one syllable is subtracted from the count for the line.
    • When a word ends with a vowel and is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, in the Spanish language these flow together, so it counts as only one syllable.
    • When a strong vowel (a, o, e) is combined in a word with a weak vowel (i or u) and the emphasis is on the weak vowel, an accent is placed over the weak vowel and it is counted as a separate syllable.

III. Reading and Appreciation

Introduce the verse form by reading any of the decima artists in the resources section of this lesson. You can have them do this as classroom journal writing or homework. If work is written, have the students discuss their answers. (15-20 minutes) After students listen to the poem have them answer these questions:

  • What is the theme of the decima? 
  • Who is it written for? 
  • Is there historical context? If so, what is it?
  • Why did the poet write the decima?
  • What does the poet want the listener to feel?
  • What does the poet want the listener to do?
  • How does music influence the theme/tone/context?

IV.  Identification

1.  Pair students together, hand out copies of another decima, and have the pairs list the following: rhyme pattern, syllable count, poetic devices, details of language usage, form of the decima, themes, tone, and interpretation. (Depending on the level and background of the class, this part of the assignment might take an entire class period.)

2. You can use these identifications to reinforce students' prior poetry study or to introduce new elements. As decimas can be written in Spanish or English, you can give fluent Spanish speakers or Limited English speakers the same decima in Spanish and ask them to do the same assignment.   

V.   Discussion

Have students discuss their observations. (Allow the discussion to continue until all students feel they have mastered the format, content and syllable count.)  

VI.  Paired Writing

In pairs, have students create their own decimas using Idea Journals.  (20 minutes)

VII.  Assessment

You can use any of the poetry evaluation guidelines developed in state frameworks to assess this project. Depending on time constraints, you could also ask students to develop their own rubric and guidelines after they have studied several examples of traditional decimas. The following rubric asks students to comment and answer a series of questions.  You should give one blank rubric to every pair of students for each step in the lesson.

Evaluation Categories

Questions to Consider

 

 

 

Theme

What are the decima's themes?

 

 

Are they traditional or modern?

 

 

Why are they effective?

 

 

 

 

 

Poetic Devices

 

 

 

What devices does the decima use?

 

 

How are these devices used?

 

 

Why are they effective?

 

 

 

 

Form

 

Does the poem follow the form for a decima?

 

 

How is it different?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tone

 

What is the tone of the decima?

 

 

Is it traditional or modern?

 

 

Is it appropriate to the themes and topic?

 

 

Is the tone maintained throughout the poem?

 

 

 

 

 

Language

Is the language traditional or modern?

 

 

Is it used in an appropriate manner?

 

 

Can you identify and list language that was particularly effective?

 

 

You could also have them add a checklist , with ratings using a plus, check or minus, or numerical ranking, to categories listed. Thus, for example, a writer might receive a plus score for the overall theme score but a minus score for poetic devices if he or she had some difficulty with that portion of the rubric.

Then, review the rubric with the students and ask them to use it to evaluate a poem from the text or a copy of a decima from one of the web sites listed. Ask for volunteers to explain what they wrote for each section and how they ranked the poem for that element. For student verse, the rubric works most effectively with a preliminary and post critique. Once the poet is confident that he or she has met or addressed the suggestions from the evaluator, you then provide the final rankings and a grade and eliminate the initial evaluation scores.

To encourage students to use the evaluation rubric constructively, you could give an overall grade for the paired rubric evaluation using the plus, check or minus ranking or an overall numeric score. While using the rubric process the first time is more involved, once the students have the process mastered, they can use format quite rapidly for any type of writing. For advanced classes, several sets of readers can critique a work. This provides the poet with even greater feedback.

Suggested Related Resources

1. The web site: http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Eng/Instrmus/Genres/Thedecima/decimaeng.htm has a page with video performance of noted decima artist Ramito (1915-1999), text of several decimas, and detailed rules for the decima structure. Spanish language text also available on this site.

2. These singers are recommended by Ramito as the finest examples of decima artistry: 

Jesús Robles, Cayey; Cándido Silva Parrilla, Barceloneta; Jesús Díaz, "El Conde";
Germán Rosario, New York ; Jesús "Chuito" Sánchez, Bayamón; Ernestina Reyes, "La Calandria"; Natalia Rivera; Toñín Romero; Angel Pacheco Alvarado, "El Jíbaro de Peñuelas";
Iluminado Félix, "El Jíbaro de Ceiba"; Baltasar Carrero, Rincón; Gaspar Ríos, Humacao;
Víctor Lluveras, Fajardo.

Interdisciplinary Links

Music:  The Cuatro Project at http://www.cuatro-pr.org shows traditional musical instruments

that accompany the decima, the process of constructing these instruments, and modern day musical festivals that feature the cuatro and decima.

History:  Oral history projects, including interviews with decima singers, are available in certain regions of the United States.  At http://alpha.nsula.edu/departments/folklife/database/perezi.html, you can find an online biography for modern day decima singer Irvan Perez of Louisiana, who performs traditional decimas of the Canary Islands. Recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship, he has performed his decimas at Carnegie Hall and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. 

Literature : You can integrate decima love themes with the study of Shakespeare's tragedies.  Romeo's undying love for Juliet or Othello's early love for Desdemona could inspire decimas. Or, you could link the study of King Arthur or poems of "courtly love" or the Romantic Period with decima themes.

Pamela L. Gray is Director of The Gray Areas of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and created both the lesson and rubric.