Reading Modern Poetry

With an emphasis on poetry written in the twentieth century, students will become familiar with a wide range of poems. Through careful reading, discussion, and short written essays, students will consider why poems are important and how they address our lives on levels both personal and social. Students will look at poems from two perspectives, those of reader and writer, encountering questions such as how a poem is made, what tools a writer uses to shape it, as well as what the reader can bring to the poem. Working as individuals and in small groups, students will discover how to enjoy and to talk about poems as works of art that enrich all our lives.