Poetry Power: How to Read and Analyze Poems

In this class, students will be taught about poetry. We will read a poem each week and then analyze it. We will identify the mood/tone of the poem and look for poetic devices, such as similes, metaphors, personification, imagery, anaphora, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and more. We will discuss several poetic devices during each class meeting; however, we will mainly focus on 2-4 poetic devices during each class. After we read and discuss the poem, students will be given follow-up work to continue their studies at home. The study topics will include the following: the topic of the poem, the style of the poet's writing, certain poetic devices featured in the poem, making connections to similar poets, finding examples of other poems with the same types of poetic devices as the ones we study during class. We will discuss the poetic devices themselves and why poets choose to use certain poetic devices to convey meaning.

I'll open each class meeting with introductions and greetings. I will then share a slide presentation featuring the current meeting's poem, poet, and an analysis of the poem. We will read the poem and then discuss and analyze it. Students will be given time to share their thoughts and observations.
**I recommend students bring a notebook or journal and pens or pencils to our class meetings.**

I encourage student participation. I enjoy discussions and invite learners to take active roles in their education. I ask open-ended questions, use slides to present information & facilitate students' further pursuits of topics we study. 

No prior knowledge is needed. Students will be able to enjoy this class whether they are new to reading poetry or seasoned poetry readers. 

SCHEDULE
Thurs Nov 14: Robert Louis Stevenson "Windy Nights"
Thurs Nov 21: Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Frost at Midnight"
Thurs Nov 28: NO CLASS MEETING 
Thurs Dec 5: Johaness ur Kotlum "Jolakotturinn" (The Yule Cat)
Thurs Dec 12: Clement Clarke Moore "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
WINTER BREAK
Thurs Jan 9: Paul Laurence Dunbar "We Wear the Mask"
Thurs Jan 16: Elizabeth Barrett Browning "I think of thee" (Sonnet 29)
Thurs Jan 23: Letitia Elizabeth Landon "Revenge"
Thurs Jan 30: H.D. "Helen"
Thurs Feb 6: Oscar Wilde "Magdalen Walks"
Thurs Feb 13: Richard Le Gallienne "The Dryad"
Thurs Feb 20: Lewis Carroll "Jabberwocky"
Thurs Feb 27: Wendell Berry "The Peace of Wild Things"
Thurs Mar 6: NO CLASS MEETING
Thurs Mar 13: Seamus Heaney "Follower"
Thurs Mar 20: Edwin Muir "The Castle"
Thurs Mar 27: Christina Rossetti "Remember"
Thurs Apr 3: Lord Byron "She Walks in Beauty"
Thurs Apr 10: Mary Oliver "The Journey"
Thurs Apr 17: William Shakespeare "Sonnet 29" 
Thurs Apr 24: NO CLASS MEETING
Thurs May 1: Billy Collins "The History Teacher"
Thurs May 8: John Keats "Ode to Psyche"
Thurs May 15: Langston Hughes "Dreams"
Thurs May 22: Edward Lear "The Duck and the Kangaroo" 
SUMMER BREAK
Thurs Aug 14: Emily Dickinson "Hope is the thing with feathers"
Thurs Aug 21: William Blake "A Dream"
Thurs Aug 28: Emily Bronte "Fall, leaves, fall" 
Thurs Sept 4: John Keats "To Autumn"
Thurs Sept 11: Elizabeth Barrett Browning "The Autumn"
Thurs Sept 18: W.B. Yeats "The Wild Swans at Coole"
Thurs Sept 25: William Shakespeare "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" (excerpt from Macbeth)
Thurs Oct 2: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "The Haunted Chamber"
Thurs Oct 9: Rudyard Kipling "The Way Through the Woods"
Thurs Oct 16: Randall Jarrell "A Ghost Story"
Thurs Oct 23: Edgar Allan Poe "The Raven"