The Art of Poetry

Welcome! The Art of Poetry is structured with three basic chunks: elements of poetry, tradition of poetry, application of poetry. In each chapter there is a small anthology, a learning to read closely section, and activities that range from writing exercise suggestions to other related activities that attempt to nail the encounter with the poem to daily life. The book comes with a Teacher's Edition that helps to answer the questions about each poem.

I wrote Art of Poetry to give students and teachers access to poetry which belongs to all of us as human beings, which operates the way we all think and live, which we need to live well. My goal was to teach the skill of reading closely and to represent the familiarity and strangeness of this process.