Poetry has been around for nearly five millennia, yet never has it been more puzzling. Technology, social media, and the blinding pace of contemporary life leave many students and readers in the dark. Just in time, this book comes to the rescue not just with a response to the problem of understanding and enjoying poetry, but it offers a solution.…

Using eleven of W.B. Yeats's poems, John Gordon explores ways of thinking about and teaching poetry in secondary schools and at undergraduate level. He draws together commentary, research, and his own professional experience, to enable his readers to develop flexible pedagogical judgement that can respond to the requirements of a range of students…

This book integrates poetry and psychology to explore how people shape their childhood place memories and self-identities in conformity with their philosophies of nature. Drawing upon written work and original interviews, the book describes uses of memory through the perspectives of five contemporary American poets: William Bronk, David Ignatow,…

This introduction to prosody--the art and science of metrical composition in poetry--teaches the reader how good poems work. The guide discusses the basic building blocks of poetry, such as rhyme, rhythm, meter, and form. Each of the 10 chapters is a progressive, step-by-step presentation with illustrative examples. The guide does not deal with…

The purpose of this poetry anthology is to create a positive inspirational yet realistic picture of teachers and the very challenging and complex contexts within which they "weave their magic in students' lives" and make contributions to the world. The anthology aims to show how teachers think and feel about teaching, learning, and their…

Tomas Rivera, the son of migrant farmworkers, became a secondary school teacher, university professor, university administrator, and finally Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside (UCR). He published two novels in Spanish and numerous short stories, poems, and essays in Spanish and English. His and his family's experiences as…

This collection of some of the critical works of a lauded contemporary poet, Kenneth Koch, gathers together poems, articles and interviews which are about poetry--Koch's critical work has mainly taken the form of poems about poetry (including parodies) and books about teaching the writing of poetry to schoolchildren. Focused on the practical…

Intended for anyone who wants to write poetry (and do it well), this guide provides the "nuts and bolts" of craft and process, as well as the sources of inspiration. The guide contains brief essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and suggested subjects for writing; each essay is followed by distinctive writing exercises. Included…

Suggesting that the teaching of poetry must be engaging as well as challenging, this book presents practical approaches, guidelines, activities, and scenarios for teaching poetry in high school. It offers 40 complete poems; a discussion of assessment issues (including authentic assessment); poetry across the curriculum; and addresses and…

Written by teachers and poets, this book offers insights into the nature of poetry and the ways in which children can be taught to enjoy reading and writing poetry. The book contains the following articles: "Poetry and the Magic of Words," by Colin Thiele; "Poetry and the Child," by Charles Causley; "A Verse Along the…

This book offers guidance for poets at every stage of development. It is a book about a person's shaping his or her memory and passions, pleasures, obsessions, dreams, secrets, and sorrows into poems. The book contains chapters on the language and music of poetry, the art of revision, traditional and experimental techniques, and how to get poetry…

This book emerged from a Poetry in the Schools program which had two facets: teacher workshops and instruction by poets in elementary and secondary classrooms. Part one, "Poets and Teachers in Dialogue," describes major issues discussed in teacher workshops: keeping the imagination alive, writing as a way of discovery, exploration of…

This book is a sample of what actually happens when the professional teaching poet sits down with the student poem. It allows the reader to observe the poets in their roles as teachers. The collection of student workshop poems and the teachers' essays about the poems--their analysis, specific criticisms, teaching techniques and procedures--are…

This book is designed as an introduction to Christopher Smart's poetry for the general reader, the college student, and the college teacher. The political, social, and literary background of eighteenth-century England is examined in the first part of this volume. The second part concerns itself with Smart's life and the factors affecting his…

In this handbook, four authors write on the same topics but with varying emphases. Gwendolyn Brooks sketches the background of Afro-American poetry and offers practical hints and exercises for writing. Keorapatse Kgositsile discusses the role and situation of the black writer. Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) explains an author's commitment and…