Authors’ Garden Clippings Grow Students’ Love of Literature

Steve Inskeep （Host）： And I’m Steve Inskeep with the story of an English teacher hoping to find a way to make sure that a love for literature takes root. Here’s Rebecca Kruth of Michigan Radio.

Rebecca Kruth （Byline）： The courtyard at West Bloomfield High School is basically just a cut-through to the other side of the school. There’s 1）grassy areas， some bare patches and a few picnic tables 2）scattered around—nothing here that’s likely to inspire 3）odes or 4）sonnets. On one side， a group of students is dumping 5）wheelbarrows full of 6）peat 7）gravel into a plot that， hopefully， by this time next year， will brighten up the place a bit.

Sydney Jones： Some of the people may not know this is， you know， a literary garden， but they might just enjoy the color.

Kruth： That’s 17-year-old Sydney Jones， and， yes， sometimes a rose is just a rose， but not in this garden. American literature teacher Jennifer McQuillan is holding a 8）clay pot filled with soil. The brownish green beginnings of a 9）daylily are 10）poking through.

Jennifer McQuillan： I get up every morning. I take pictures of it. We measure it. That’s actually part of my daughter Emily’s job is she measures it， and we were delighted to see some growth.

Kruth： This daylily was Emily Dickinson’s—literally. It came from her 11）homestead in Amherst， Mass.， and soon it will have a new home in this courtyard. McQuillan has been calling authors’ homesteads all summer， asking for clippings to add to this literary garden.

McQuillan： We’re talking 12）bigwigs of American literature—Poe， Fitzgerald， Whitman， Dickinson， I mean， Vonnegut.

Kruth： Jennifer McQuillan wants her students to see just what authors saw in their backyards that inspired their writing. That’s hard to do inside the windowless classroom where she’s taught for the last 16 years， so McQuillan gets her students outside as much as possible. Senior Jack Berkey says he still thinks about the 13）transcendentalist authors he read in her class， like Thoreau and Emerson.

Jack Berkey： We got to go outside in， like， the cold of winter， walk around the woods. When we went out there， it wasn’t like， oh， go walk this way. It was kind of like just go in the woods and do whatever you want， which was kind of what the authors wanted you to do was just to find yourself.

Kruth： Even just working on the garden today， shoveling dirt and rocks， is jogging some students’ memories.

Ilyssa Brunhild： I thought about the pear tree from Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Kruth： That’s Ilyssa Brunhild， a junior.

Brunhild： Growing up， it kind of symbolized， and I like that for， like， students who are looking to grow through literature， and it’s， like， all symbolic with the plants and you know. （laughter）

Kruth： There will eventually be a pear tree here， but it won’t come from author Zora Neale Hurston’s homestead because her Florida homestead no longer exists. McQuillan says that’s unfortunately become a common thread as she tries to track down homesteads for female authors.

McQuillan： They have less access to， you know， generations with money that can preserve homesteads. What this garden has done has also opened up questions about whose 14）legacies do we preserve， whose memories？ You know， who has the money to preserve those memories？

Kruth： It’s also raised another question—how do you get 15）wisteria to thrive from clippings that traveled from the Mark Twain house in Hartford， Conn.， or a rosebush to grow from a cutting from William Faulkner’s home in Oxford， Miss.？ McQuillan is up for the challenge.

McQuillan： There’s all these moments in literature where nature is this force to be 16）reckoned with no matter how carefully you try to contain it or cultivate it， but you have to try. I think you have to try， and I think this is just such a novel way of getting them involved.

Kruth： Pun， of course， very much intended.

史蒂夫·英斯基普（主持人）：我是史蒂夫·英斯基普，今天給大家?guī)硪晃挥⒄Z教師的故事，她希望找到一種可以讓人喜歡上文學的方法。下面是來自密歇根州電臺麗貝卡·克魯斯的報道。

麗貝卡·克魯斯（撰稿人）：到西布魯菲爾德高中的另一邊基本上可以從這個庭院抄近路過去。這里有一片草地，幾塊光禿禿的土地和一些野餐用的桌子散落在周圍，看上去這里沒有哪一點可能激發(fā)人吟詩作詞的興致。另一邊，一群學生正用手推車裝滿泥炭礫石，將它們倒在一片空地上，希望來年這個時候，這個地方可以多一絲生氣。

悉尼·瓊斯：一些人也許不知道這是，你知道，一座文學花園，但是也許他們只是喜歡這里的色彩。

克魯斯：那是17歲的悉尼·瓊斯，沒錯，有時候玫瑰就只是玫瑰，但在這座花園里不是。美國文學教師詹妮弗·麥克奎琳正拿著一個裝滿泥土的陶罐。黃花菜褐綠色的芽兒正破土而出呢。

詹妮弗·麥克奎琳：每天早上起來，我就給它拍照，測量它的生長狀況。實際上，那是我女兒艾米莉的一項工作，是她做的測量，而我們也很高興看到它一點點地成長。

克魯斯：嚴格來說，這黃花菜是艾米莉·狄金森的。它來自狄金森位于馬薩諸塞州阿默斯特鎮(zhèn)的住所，但很快地，它將在這座庭院里有一個新家。整個夏天，麥克奎琳已經(jīng)給很多作家的住所打了電話，問他們要一些剪枝，添加到這座文學花園里。

麥克奎琳：我們說的是美國文學巨匠，比如愛倫·坡、菲茨杰拉德、惠特曼、狄金森，我的意思是，馮內(nèi)古特。

克魯斯：詹妮弗·麥克奎琳希望她的學生可以看到作家們的后花園里激發(fā)他們寫作靈感的東西。這是在無窗的教室里很難辦到的，而她已經(jīng)那樣教了16年，所以麥克奎琳讓她的學生盡可能多地出去戶外。畢業(yè)班學生杰克·伯奇說，他現(xiàn)在仍舊會想起在麥克奎琳的課堂上讀到的超驗主義作家的作品，比如梭羅和愛默生。

杰克·伯奇：我們會去到戶外，比如，在寒冷的冬天，在森林里四處轉悠。當我們到達那里，并不是像這樣“哦，走這條路?！倍皇亲哌M森林，做我們想做的事情，就像是作家們希望你做的那樣，只是發(fā)現(xiàn)自己。

克魯斯：就算只是像今天這樣在花園里鏟土搬石，也能喚起一些學生的記憶。

伊莉莎·布倫希爾德：我想到了《凝望上帝》里的那棵梨樹。

克魯斯：那是伊莉莎·布倫希爾德，一個三年級的學生。

布倫希爾德：它就像一種成長的象征，我喜歡（那種形式）是因為，比如說，那些期望從文學的殿堂中成長起來的學生，就和這些植物一樣都是極具象征意義的，你知道。（笑聲）

克魯斯：最后這里也會有一棵梨樹，但它不是來自于作家佐拉·尼爾·赫斯頓的住所，因為她佛羅里達的住所已經(jīng)不存在了。麥克奎琳說，當她想要尋找女性作家的住所時，不幸的是，很多都是相同的境況。

麥克奎琳：你知道，很少有辦法可以世世代代都有錢去保護這些住所。這座花園現(xiàn)在所做的也引發(fā)了一個問題：我們保護的是誰的遺產(chǎn)，誰的記憶？你知道，誰有足夠的資金去保護那些記憶？

克魯斯：同時，另一個問題也產(chǎn)生了：怎樣能讓來自馬克·吐溫位于康涅狄格州哈特福德的住所的紫藤剪枝繁茂生長，或來自威廉·?？思{位于密西西比州牛津的住所的一段玫瑰剪枝成長為玫瑰花叢？麥克奎琳正準備迎接挑戰(zhàn)。

麥克奎琳：在文學作品中，都有這樣的時刻，在那時不管你想要多么細心地包容它或照料它，自然的力量都是無法估量，不能忽視的，但你不得不去嘗試。我認為你必須去嘗試，這也是讓他們?nèi)橥度氲囊环N新奇的方式。

克魯斯：明顯是雙關語。（注：上文中的novel有小說和新奇的兩個含義，在這里都有體現(xiàn)。這種教授文學的方法很新穎。）