Summary
You’re probably already familiar with poetry, from the nursery rhymes you learned as a kid to the song lyrics you sing today. Unlike the sentences and paragraphs that make up prose, poetry uses intentional line breaks and stanzas, and chooses words for their sound as well as their meaning. Iambic pentameter alternates stressed and unstressed syllables and was favored by poets like Alexander Pope and William Shakespeare, whereas William Carlos Williams often wrote in free verse. Poetry can express feelings or ideas more intensely than prose, or offer a fresh way of seeing the world, often through use of metaphor and imagery, as in the work of Emily Dickinson. Press "play" to get in a poetic state of mind.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
A few questions to talk through after watching Poetry:
- What is one new thing you learned about poetry?
- Can you explain it to a partner in your own words?
- Where might you see this in the real world?
- What is one question you still have?
Quick work-a-long
Try it:
- Write one sentence explaining poetry.
- Draw or give one example of your own.