Feel the Walls for a Light Switch: Exploring American Poetry

Were about to start a poetry unit! I know how excited you all are about this We will be tackling this unit over approximately 7 weeks covering a selection of poems from several different American poets who wrote throughout US history. The goal is that by providing you with a large selection of poetry, you can feel confident when doing analysis in this class and any English class in your future! Before we even get to the poetry, however, we will be doing a group project. Each group will be assigned one of the authors. You will then find information online about that poet which you will present to the class. There will be lab time! You will receive more instructions on the first lab day. Youll also have a study guide to take down information on your poet. You will need this for the test during this unit so take notes! There will be a vocabulary element to this course. Youll be expected to know all of the terms and provide an example of them on your study guide, but we will only be discussing a few of them in detail. You will have a quiz on these terms later in the unit, so be prepared! You will receive a handout with all of the poems, but here is the list: Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman, I Hear America Singing T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Emily Dickinson, A narrow fellow in the grass Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death Langston Hughes, I, Too, Sing America Langston Hughes, Night Funeral in Harlem Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou, Still I Rise Sylvia Plath, Daddy Sylvia Plath, Morning Song Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken e.e. cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town e.e. cummings, somewhere i have never travelled Joy Harjo, A Map to the Next World

Sherman Alexie, How to Write the Great American Indian Novel I know this looks like a lot of work to do, but one of the goals of this unit is to give you a wide range of poetry to look at. We may not have time to discuss every poem that is assigned in class, but you should be prepared to discuss all of the poems assigned for the poet of the day. Part of your homework points for reading these poems will be random checks throughout the unit to make sure you are marking them up. We will go over what marking up is when we begin reading the assigned poetry. There will be a bigger test after we read all of the poems listed above. There will be some multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank answers. Also, part of the test will give you a line or two from one of the poems we read. It is up to you to identify the author and the title. You will also explain in a short answer how the line is important to the rest of the poem. We will have a review day and discuss what will be part of the test in further detail closer to test day. Your final big project will be a close reading of a poem. The poem must be one that was not assigned as part of the class. It can be from one of our poets, but it doesnt have to be. The choice is up to you, but I will be pre-approving your poems before writing the paper. We will also spend class time doing over expectations for this essay and workshopping.

Introduction to Poetry
By 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 poems room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the authors 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.