Explore Poetry

Good morning gang, 

This week I will be posting my Introduction to Poetry outline. This is my favourite unit and it pains me to be sharing online as I believe poetry to be a visceral experience. That being said, in order to prepare for grade 12, be sure to know the literary terms as well as poetic devices that I will be sending along. 

This week, read my outline, work on the terms worksheet, and prepare for the Haiku challenge.

But first, a poem…

Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem

And hold it up to the light

Like a colour 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 waterski

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 says.

          -Billy Collins