Poems that Dont Suck

In the poem from Billy Collin Introduction to Poetry, he expresses the beauty of saying things differently with the same meaning.  He wants the students or whomever to see the poem and use their imagination versus than having a poem that will straigh out tell you what's it's point or their meaning.  For example in, roses are red, violet are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you! Nothing wrong with it but it straightforward.  In Collin's poem he uses metaphor words to make it more interesting although kids will not want that because they want the straightforward poems.

Thanks For Remembering Us

Dana Gioia

The flowers sent here by mistake,
signed with a name that no one knew,
are turning bad. What shall we do?
Our neighbor says they're not for her,
and no one has a birthday near.
We should thank someone for the blunder.
Is one of us having an affair?
At first we laugh, and then we wonder.

The iris was the first to die,
enshrouded in its sickly-sweet
and lingering perfume. The roses
fell one petal at a time,
and now the ferns are turning dry.
The room smells like a funeral,
but there they sit, too much at home,
accusing us of some small crime,
like love forgotten, and we can't
throw out a gift we've never owned.

Based on the lesson plan structure that I selected, I would encourage the students the pleasure of reading poetry as well as listening to it.  Enabling the students to understand how emotional responses may be poetically expressed and ability to use technical language in their discussion of poetry.

• Based on the poem I selected, it's pretty short and simple.  The language of the poem is not complicated; therefore the students will not be confused on the words.
• Each student will be able to discuss as to whom they think they are referring to is having an affair or who is speaking, the husband or the wife.
• They can also express their emotions as what they would feel if they were in this situation and what they think they would do.