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
Tues Aug 27: Edward Lear "The Duck and the Kangaroo" 
Tues Sept 3: Emily Dickinson "Hope is the thing with feathers"
Tues Sept 10: William Blake "A Dream"
Tues Sept 17: Lord Byron "She Walks in Beauty"
Tues Sept 24: Emily Bronte "Fall, leaves, fall" 
Tues Oct 1: William Shakespeare "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" (excerpt from Macbeth)
Tues Oct 8: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "The Haunted Chamber"
Tues Oct 15: Rudyard Kipling "The Way Through the Woods"
Tues Oct 22: Randall Jarrell "A Ghost Story"
Tues Oct 29: Edgar Allan Poe "The Raven"
Tues Nov 5: Robert Louis Stevenson "Windy Nights"
Tues Nov 12: Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Frost at Midnight"
Tues Nov 19: Dylan Thomas "Fern Hill"
Tues Nov 26: NO CLASS MEETING
Tues Dec 3: Jule Styne "Let it Snow"
Tues Dec 10: Johaness ur Kotlum "Jolakotturinn" (The Yule Cat)
Tues Dec 17: Clement Clarke Moore "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
WINTER BREAK
Tues Jan 7: Paul Laurence Dunbar "We Wear the Mask"
Tues Jan 14: Elizabeth Barrett Browning "I think of thee" (Sonnet 29)
Tues Jan 21: Letitia Elizabeth Landon "Revenge"
Tues Jan 28: H.D. "Helen"
Tues Feb 4: Oscar Wilde "Magdalen Walks"
Tue Feb 11: Richard Le Gallienne "The Dryad"
Tues Feb 18: Lewis Carroll "Jabberwocky"
Tues Feb 25: Wendell Berry "The Peace of Wild Things"
Tues Mar 4: NO CLASS MEETING
Tues Mar 11: Seamus Heaney "Follower"
Tues Mar 18: Edwin Muir "The Castle"
Tues Mar 25: Christina Rossetti "Remember"
Tues Apr 1: Mary Oliver "The Journey"
Tues Apr 8: William Shakespeare "Sonnet 29" 
Tues Apr 15: David Rubadiri "An Africa Thunderstorm"
Tues Apr 22: NO CLASS MEETING
Tues April 29: Billy Collins "The History Teacher"
Tues May 6: John Keats "Ode to Psyche"
Tues May 13: Langston Hughes "Dreams"