1. Lesson 2 1. Introduction to Poetry OBJECTIVE: Students will define poetry and begin the process of creating meaning.

2. WHAT IS POETRY?

3. According to you, poetry is… …only understood by the poet …always about emotions …boring …made up of rhyming words …difficult to understand

4. POETRY

5. Rules of Analyzing Poetry Rip It Out! Even though we’re analyzing poems, don’t become so technical that you miss the message!

6. Billy Collins Billy Collins - Introduction to Poetry audio-visual.wmv - YouTube Billy Collins - Introduction to Poetry audio-visual.wmv - YouTube “I don’t think people read poetry because they’re interested in the poet. I think they read poetry because they’re interested in themselves. That’s why I read poetry…to discover things about myself.”

7. Introduction to Poetry Billy Collins I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to water-ski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means. Who’s “I”? Who’s “them”? ~color slide ~hive ~maze ~room in house Difficult to figure out/confusing/ uncertainty “poem” metaphor wants them to have fun with a poem Is that normal? UNDERSTANDING!!! Assumes they are stable enough/comfortable enough to look up and wave another metaphor Even though poetry can be complicated, it is to be enjoyed and meaning is created through connections between the reader and the poem.

8. Your Turn - The Poetry Splash (homework) The Poetry Splash (homework)The Poetry Splash (homework) Individual Work Read through the poems provided. Pick one. Break it down, using our work with “Introduction to Poetry” as a model. Answer the questions that are posed in the box on the front of your handout.