Teaching Children to Love Poetry: Introduction to a Series
The Poor Poet by Spitzweg
When I think about how to describe the process of really understanding a poem, I can’t help but think that reading poetry is kind of like analyzing a painting. When you see a painting, you look at all the details of the subject depicted, and you put together all the information you see into a story, a feeling, or an idea. Only through careful observation are you able to uncover the “big idea” behind a work of art, and if you are walking down a museum hallway at too brisk a pace, you are likely to miss the point of any given piece.
Truly reading and understanding a poem is a lot like truly coming to terms with the meaning of a panting. If you are willing to put in the work required, the payoff will be a beautiful image, a gripping story, a deep feeling, or a powerful idea that will stay with you long after you have turned the page. Through poetry, you discover lessons that inform your own outlook on life, beautiful images to enhance your appreciation of the stunning vistas of your life, and so much more.
It is my intention with this series to share with you some of the poems I love to teach my young students, and explain how I do it in such a way that keeps them interested, allows them to understand thoroughly, and even become motivated enough to memorize long poetry when it is not required of them. In each installment, I will share a poem, tell you what it is about, and then tell you why I love to share it with my students and how I do it. The poems I’ve chosen are well-loved by my classes, and are frequently recited from memory in the halls of the school.
This series will not be historical in nature, nor will it touch on meter or rhyme. I will also be avoiding poetry that is explicitly meant for children. While many of those are fun and cute, and I like them, those selections are outside the scope of this series for reasons you will soon discover.
Rather, this series will focus on the meaning of classic poetry, why children should be exposed to it, and how to go about exposing them to it. In each installment, I will attempt to illustrate the importance of sharing real, classic poetry with children, and why it is perfect food for their souls, even if it was not originally written with them in mind.
Due to its elevated language and the natural constraints of the format, poetry is certainly more difficult to engage with than many novels or short stories (especially for kids), but it is well worth the price of admission. By taking the power of great literature and distilling it into beautiful language that evokes raw emotion and beautiful imagery, poetry has a unique power to enrich the soul and bring us joy. Children should not be left out of that pursuit.