When students enter my AP Literature classroom, most of them are coming from AP English Language where they have had very little exposure to poetry. It’s just not part of the course. This means at best, they had poetry over a year ago. But let’s face it, lots of English teachers shy away from poetry too. That’s why I like my second unit of the year to be an introduction to the poem.
What is an “Introduction to the Poem” Unit?
Students often have negative associations with poetry. They think it is lots of words that are meant to trick them. They believe that other people see all this meaning while they don’t. This is why it is important to start them with an introduction to the poem that will not intimidate them.
A unit on the introduction to the poem goes back to the basics. It starts them thinking about what poetry is before they even dive into examining poems.
Then when you do dive into the poetry start with aspects that are easier to reach like the title, the speaker and characters. These elements are carryovers from prose, making them easier for students to see and discuss. It also makes poetry less intimidating because they can make those connections to what they know.
Once students have a grasp of those elements, you can move into analysis of contrasts, structure and figurative language.
How to teach an Introduction to the Poem Unit
For this unit, we focus on the essential question: What is poetry? With that question as our guide we then work our way through elements that make poems poetry.
Lesson One: What is Poetry?
Begin the unit with a lesson on what poetry is. A great way to do this is through poets talking about poetry. I like to use poetry quotes about poetry. In this What is Poetry Lesson, I hang poetry quotes about poetry around the room and have students reflect on them and then discuss them.
This could also be done as stations (digital or conventional) or using a single sheet of paper with all the quotes.
Lesson Two: Who is the Speaker in Poetry
Once your class has discussed “what is poetry,” the next step in an Introduction to the Poem Unit is to make connections to concepts they already have from the study of prose. This should include a focus on the title and the speaker in poetry.
Focusing on the title of a poem before students ever read the poem can give them clues to what to expect. Often it sets them up to have a greater understanding of the poem as a whole. Then we read the poem to identify the speaker. Having an idea of who the speaker in the poem is helps them to make meaning, garner tone and move into deeper analysis of the poem.
I like to do this with Langston Hughes’s poem “Aunt Sue’s Stories” because the speaker is clearly Sue’s nephew and the title lends itself to immediate understanding.
Lesson Three: Characters in Poetry
The next thing I like to do in my Introduction to the Poem Unit is focus on the idea that poems, just like prose, have characters. Any of the poems in Edgar Lee Masters’s The Spoon River Anthology will work for this. I like “Theodore the Poet” for looking at characterization in poetry.
Lesson Four: Contrasts in Poetry
The next concept that I like to have students focus on in their introduction to poetry is contrasts. Contrasts are another element that are easy for students to spot and often they are archetypal allowing students to immediately make deeper connections.
Marianne Moore’s poem called “Poetry” contrasts what the speaker does and doesn’t like about reading poetry. This makes it perfect for our students who don’t like reading poetry.
Lesson Five: Structure in Poetry
I like to begin the discussion of structure in poetry with an open form poem like Gwendolyn Bennet’s “Lines Written at the Grave of Alexander Dumas.” This poem allows students to talk about line and stanza breaks without the focusing on form as you would if you were discussing closed form poems like sonnets or villanelles.
Lesson Six: Figurative Language in Poetry
Imagery and figurative language are often the hardest concepts for students in the introduction to the poem. Because the very nature of figurative language is not literal, they must make inferences to discover meaning.
However, a poem like Countee Cullen’s “To John Keats, in Springtime” is a great place to start because it immediately starts with a metaphor to springtime as an echo. And because the poem is a response to a Keats poem, there are metaphors and similes throughout that students can easily grasp.
Concluding a Unit on the Introduction to the Poem
You can use any poems that work for your students. I selected these poems with an eye toward poems that are about poetry, about writing or about poets to tie them together in a unit. This allows my summative assessment to tie back to the essential question of the unit which is “What is Poetry?” by giving them a short two line poem and asking them to argue whether it is actually poetry.
You can grab this unit ready to use through my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
Additional Resources
Be consistent with your poetry instruction through Poem of the Week
Focus on Teaching Poetry Analysis or The Teaching of Poems
Three Quick Poetry Activities for High School (Smith Teaches 9 to 12)
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Unit Bundle: What is Poetry? This unit is a bootcamp style unit which is perfect for your first AP Literature Poetry Unit or for any upper level high school English class (English 10, 11, 12) as an introduction to the poem.
Hook Lesson: What is Poetry? An Introduction to Poetry for AP Literature
Lesson 1: Speaker & Title–Langston Hughes’s “Aunt Sue’s Stories”
Lesson 2: Character–Edgar Lee Masters’s “Theodore the Poet”
Lesson 3: Contrast–Marianne Moore’s Poem “Poetry”
Lesson 4: Structure–Gwendolyn Bennet’s “Lines Written at the Grave of Alexander Dumas”
Lesson Five: Metaphor & Simile–Countee Cullen’s “To John Keats, at Springtime”
Culminating Project: Formative and Summative Writing Tasks
