Comprehending poetry can be difficult and frustrating for students. Fortunately, there are ways to make reading and analyzing poetry fun and interesting! In this class, we will cover two poems per week focused on one particular poetic element or theme. We will read through the poems multiple times, we will break each poem down line by line, and we will discuss the meaning that we are able to take from each piece. Students will also have time to write their own poems that mimic an aspect of the poems we read. 

I am an energetic and enthusiastic educator. Students will feel my excitement about these wonderful pieces of literature, and I will use humor while discussing with students. Learners will be welcome and encouraged to discuss with their peers and myself, but they are not required to share. I do ask that students send me a message through Outschool or Zoom chat to let me know that they don't want to be called on or asked to share. 

The goal of this ongoing class is to:
- learn about poetic elements
- find meaning in poetry
- closely examine the language and style of each poem
- develop an appreciation of poetry
- express creativity by writing our own poems


The schedule for this class is as follows:
Week 1 - Feb 26 to Mar 4: The Power of the Individual
> “Invictus” William Ernest Henley
> “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

Week 2- Mar 5 to Mar 11: Imagery
> “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
> “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost

Week 3- Mar 12 to Mar 18: Death in Poetry
> “Because I Could not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson
> “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman

Week 4- Mar 19 to Mar 25: Rhyme Scheme
> “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” William Wordsworth
> “The Tyger” William Blake

Week 5- Mar 26 to Apr 1: Alliteration
> “Icarus” by Edward Field
> “Sick” by Shel Silverstein

Week 6- Apr 2 to Apr 8: Beauty
> “She Walks in Beauty Like the Night” by Lord Byron
> “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Week 7- Apr 16 to Apr 22: Odes
> “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats
> “Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market” Pablo Neruda

Week 8- Apr 23 to Apr 29: Free Verse
> “Fog” by Carl Sandburg
> “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams

Week 9- Apr 30 to May 6: Iambic Pentameter
> “An Essay on Man” Alexander Pope
> “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Week 10- May 7 to May 13: Ghosts
> "Annabelle Lee" Edgar Allan Poe
> "Haunted Houses" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Week 11- I am on vacation!

Week 12- May 21 to May 27: Nonsense Verse
> "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
> "The Common Cormorant" by Christopher Isherwood

Week 13- May 28 to June 3: Elegy
> "Epitaph" by Katherine Phillips
> "The Kaleidoscope" by Douglas Dunn

Week 14- June 4 to June 10: Prose Poetry
> "Bath" by Amy Lowell
> "Information" by David Ignatow

Week 15- June 11 to June 17: The End of the World
> "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost
> "Advice to a Prophet" by Richard Wilbur

Week 16- June 18 to June 24: Types of Sonnets
> "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
> "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" by William Shakespeare

Week 17- July 2 to July 8: Family
> "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes
> "The Stick-Together Families" by Edgar Albert Guest

Week 18- July 9 to July 15: Limericks
> "There Was an Old Man with a Beard" by Edward Lear
> "There Was a Small Boy of Quebec" by Rudyard Kipling

Week 19- July 16 to July 22: Perseverance
> "The Rose That Grew from Concrete" by Tupac Shakur
> "If-" by Rudyard Kipling

Week 20- July 23 to July 29: The Importance of Friendship
> "A Poison Tree" by William Blake
> "Alone" by Maya Angelou


*Please let me know if you would like another time or day for this class!*