High School Poets' Society

Our goal is to commit our deepest thoughts, beliefs, and emotions to the page while also expanding our literary craft. Each week we will explore a modern poem and discover the building blocks of poetry writing and analysis. We will also experiment with writing original poems and exercises. This class incorporates literary analysis skills based on the English common core for elementary and middle school! No previous poetry knowledge is assumed (however, I can work with students of all levels). 

Each class we will begin with a quick writing exercise based on a question of the day and/or response to a prompt (written, visual, video). These exercises will often provide the basis for individualized poetry topics. Next I will introduce a poetry technique/technical term. We will read a poem which illustrates this new skill. Finally, we will produce our own poem of the day to practice our new writing technique. I will provide individualized feedback on poems and/or we will use breakout groups to do peer editing. We will use a simple critique model: wow/ wonder/wish to learn how to give constructive, kind critiques. I may adjust readings based on ages enrolled and students’ personal interests. 

Wow= I like how you did X
Wonder = asking questions about elements of the poem
Wish = suggestions for the future “I wish this line/ this poem did X” 

Classes include: 
Week 1, 2: Image
This week we will learn about poetic image and simile—how to incorporate all five senses into your poem for complete, detailed writing. We will read and analyze “The Cloak” by Ibn Ezra, challenge ourselves to a simile freestyle competition, and write found object poems. 

Week 3,4: Metaphor 
This week we will continue our exploration of poetic image through the technique of metaphor and conceit. We will read poems from Roethke’s Native Son and write our own nature-inspired poems based on descriptions of weird plants. We will also do a “random word” challenge where we write poems incorporating assigned words (this really helps push our use of imagery!)

Week 5,6: Voice
This week we will learn all about poetic voice—whether yours or an imagined character. We will read and analyze some hilarious persona poems by Carol Anne Duffy and you will be assigned some hilarious personas to explore. We will also read “ironic” poems such as James’ Wrights “Lying in a Hammock” and write our own “sucker-punch” poetry. 

Week 7,8: Found Poetry
Learn how to find a poem anywhere! We will be writing erasures from newspaper articles and poems based on google results. These poems are great for practicing our craft techniques while getting to play with someone else’s words. 

Week 9,10: Sound
This week is all about alliteration, assonance, and consonance. Namely, how can we work with sound in poems. We will write tongue-twisting sound-driven poems and explore some of poetry’s best sound-smiths such as Olga Broumas and Sylvia Plath.  

Week 11,12: Rhyme / Heroic Couplet
Heroic couplet is a traditional form that’s making a come-back—it’s especially fun for writing epics and fantasy. We will discuss how to do rhyme well in a contemporary poem and combine rhyme and meter to begin writing our first form. We will explore examples of contemporary heroic couplets by Jill McDonough and analyze rhyme in Hamilton lyrics.  

Week 13,14: Villanelle
Learn my guaranteed secret to writing a successful villanelle—a form that will dazzle your friends. With their engaging repetition and weaving of old lines into new, villanelles are the perfect poems to explore repeating patterns. We will read Dylan Thomas’s famous “Do not go gentle into that good night” and check out some contemporary villanelles before writing our own.  

Week 15,16 : Ekphrasis
Ekphrasis are poems about visual art. We will write our own ekphrasis based on found photographs and artwork and explore some famous examples such as William Carlos William’s Landscape with Fall of Icarus. 

Week  17,18 : Sestina
Sestinas are poems written in six stanzas with six lines each (and each line ends with one of six words). We will look at Elizabeth Bishop’s classic sestina and Lloyd Schwartz’s 6-word sestina and try to make our own. The sestina can get silly fast but is the mark of a truly skilled poet.