Poetry… Do I Dare? I ask them to take a poem/and hold it up to the light/ like a color slide… But all they want to do/ is tie the poem to a chair with rope/ and torture a confession out of it…. From “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins

How do poets express self, identity and other themes in their work? How can I express myself through poetry…do I dare?

The unit culminates in a final project. Students can choose from one of the following suggestions for their final project: 1. Compile an anthology of the works of one poet, selected with care and thoughtfulness, and show how the poems are connected and the themes expressed 2. Compile an anthology of poems from a variety of poets, that explains how the themes of the various poets are connected and why their poems are important 3. Create an anthology of students’ own poetry, centered around the theme of identity and how much they dare to reveal

In 2006 archeologists unearthed a stone block dating to about 900 BCE. They believe it came from the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica, an early civilization in present-day Mexico that predates the Maya. A study of the previously unknown symbols chiseled into the rock revealed paired sequences of symbols that could be poetic couplets, according to a recent article from Brown University. Whether this turns out to be the America’s first poem or not remains to be seen, but suffice it to say that poetry has been around for millennia. Individuals and societies have written “poetically” for thousands of years. There are the Psalms written by King David, the Sumerian songs of Gilgamesh circa 2000 BCE, as well as the ancient Egyptian poems and songs of love such as the example below: The little sycamore That she planted with her own hand Opens its mouth to speak. Its rustling is as sweet As a draught of honey. How beautiful its graceful branches In their greenness. On it hangs young fruit and fruit that is ripe, Redder than the blood-red jasper. The love of my loved one is on the other shore. An arm of the river lies between us, And crocodiles lurk on the sand-banks. But I enter the water, I plunge into the flood; My eager heart carries me swiftly over the waves; I swim as surely as though I were walking on solid ground. Love, it is love that gives me strength, Averting the perils of the river. 18th Dynasty Translated by Samivel, The Glory of Egypt, The Chinese contributed the Shih Ching, a collection of 305 poems that date back to 1000 BCE, and from ancient Greece we have the poems of the famous dramatists such as Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The middle ages gave us "Beowulf" and the The Canterbury Tales. Most early poetry is thought to have grown from an oral tradition of reciting or singing. It may have been a means of remembering the past. Early poetry is also believed to be clay tablets) is the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, a hero-king. The idea of the hero-king is reinterpreted in poetry by the Ancient Greeks in The Iliad and The Odyssey and in India, The Ramayana. Poems have been written by all cultures and peoples throughout history. As societies changed over time so did poetry, but poems always reflect what matters to society or to the poet, while evoking powerful emotions, and inspiring readers.