why teach poetry ?
In our technological age of “sound bites” and short attention spans, the brevity and compression of poetry are especially appealing to students. The same student who might balk at reading ten pages of prose for a homework assignment may show more enthusiasm and care in the preparation of a ten-line poem, simply because it seems more manageable. I have discovered, especially in recent years, that my students are genuinely intrigued by the ideas as well as the form of poetry, even if they have had limited experience with reading poems. Students sometimes associate poetry with the lyrics for popular music or with the search for individuality. Topics such as identity, discovery, family relationships, survival, change, mortality, hopes, and dreams are of primary interest to young people searching for self-awareness in an uncertain world. By addressing such topics, poetry often has the ability to reach the heart of the young reader with more intensity and immediacy than some of its prose counterparts. It also helps students discover the interconnections of all literary genres, especially when a course exposes them to fiction, poetry, and nonfiction on related topics or themes.
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