The Teaching ELA Podcast

I felt great. I had just taught an amazing lesson on analyzing poetry. Finally, my students could write intelligent analysis in their poetry essays.

My joy turned to horror as I read “this poem is cool” 8,114 times. I sniffled as students laughed at my grief. Seconds before peppering the class with spiral notebooks, I had an idea: maybe I should teach poems by Carl Sandburg. I put the notebooks away, called my bookie, and placed a bet on Chicago.

I had work to do. I had to create a list of Carl Sandburg poems with teaching ideas. Here’s what I came up with.

Links

• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
• Sandburg Page

A Summary of the Romeo and Juliet Prologue

1. The families in question are equal in rank and stature. The use of “dignity” suggests that both families are of noble blood.
2. The setting is “fair Verona.” The use of “fair” to describe the city, by contrast, highlights the disruption caused by the families’ quarrel. It also indicates the time of year, Spring.
3. The family fight began before anyone can remember and has recently escalated.
4. “Civil” is used twice. “Civil blood” suggests that Verona citizens have died. “Civil hands” indicate that Verona citizens have caused the crime and are, therefore, “unclean.” “Civil” also indicates the feud is public and affects the affairs of government.
5. Line 5 contains alliteration: “From forth the fatal loins of the two foes.” This begins the second quatrain and marks a change in focus from the feud of the two families to the dalliances of the two lovers in question. “Fatal loins” is also a pun. Both Romeo and Juliet have come from the loins of feuding families. Loins also represent sexual organs, and the young lovers’ lust for each other contributes to their downfall.
6. The lovers mentioned in line 5 are cursed and commit suicide.
7. Their tragic fate…
8. causes the feud between the families to end.
9. What happens to these two lovers whose love ends their lives…
10. The end to their parents’ hatred…
11. which can only be ended by the death of these two lovers…
12. is what the play’s about.
13. The final couplet of a Shakespearean Sonnet comments on the preceding twelve lines and offers some sort of resolution. In this case the last two lines inform the reader that the play they are about to see will answer any questions they might have.

Links

• Prologue Blog Post
• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
• Figurative Language in Poetry Lesson Plan

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Eldorado,” the knight, as well as the reader, is encouraged to find joy in the journey, because just like the mythical city of gold which shares its name with the poem, dreams often prove to be elusive, like a shadow. The poem begins “Gaily bedight / A gallant knight” (1-2), and why is this knight so gaily dressed? And why is this knight singing a song? It is because he is on a quest. He has not found anything, has not achieved anything. It’s the quest that brings him happiness, that causes him to dress gaily and sing songs. The knight fails to understand the cause of his happiness. He laments his failure, never having found Eldorado. He does not fail, however, to continue searching. The first thing he asks after “his strength / Failed him at length” (13-14) is “Where can it be / This land of Eldorado?” The shade doesn’t take him there, of course; he simply tells him to “Ride, boldly ride,” for that is Eldorado.

Links

• How to annotate and analyze a poem.
• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
• Here’s a poetry analysis lesson plan with handout for doing an “Eldorado” poetry analysis lesson: Eldorado Poem Analysis Lesson Plan.
• “Eldorado” Blog Post

Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com

“Bright Star” Blog Post

British Romanticism Blog Post

Takeaways

1. This is a great lesson to do when you have an observation coming.
2. This assignment is best when you use the same poem.
3. Success depends on preparation.

Links

• how to annotate and analyze a poem.
• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
• The Speed Poetry Analysis Blog Post

Poem: “I Hear America Singing” – Whitman pays tribute to the people who make America great–its workers.

Brief Analysis – Singing is a metaphor for the goods and services produced by American workers. Whether you consider it a Marxist cry for the workers of the world to unite or a celebration of the Capitalistic notion that each man’s work is his own is open to interpretation (I lean to the latter). America is an example of synechdoche, with the whole representing the parts.

Takeaways

1. There are plenty of Whitman poems to teach
2. Whitman’s poetry was revolutionary for its celebration of the common person
3. It’s ok to celebrate yourself

Links

• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
• Figurative Language in Poetry Lesson Plan
• Theme in Poetry Lesson Plan 
• Walt Whitman Page

A key component of a villanelle is the two refrains. In “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” the poem’s title and “Rage against the dying of the light” are each repeated several times. Not only does this emphatically state one of the poem’s theme—to fight and struggle even when loss seems inevitable—but it shows the imploring nature of the poem’s speaker’s tone as he begs his father to stay alive as long as possible.

Links

• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
• Figurative Language in Poetry Lesson Plan
• Theme in Poetry Lesson Plan
• Blog Post for “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”
• Poetic Form Handout

• Emily Dickinson’s Nature Poems Post
• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
• Figurative Language in Poetry Lesson Plan
• Theme in Poetry Lesson Plan

The Bust of Pallas: Pallas Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom. It is upon this wisdom that the raven settles, adding credence, at least according to the narrator, to its utterances. The bust of Pallas and the raven’s subsequent perch on it may be ironic, for it is the narrator that gives the bird such wisdom. A casual observer would assume the bird sits there because it seems like a logical resting place. If you’re ever in Europe, note how the pigeons perch themselves on statues in the center of town. Only a moron would assume a bird takes on the character of a statue on which he perches. I don’t think, for example, that a bird resting on Napoleon’s shoulder suddenly becomes a ruthless general.

Links

1. “The Raven” Symbolism Chart.
2. Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com
3. Figurative Language in Poetry Lesson Plan
4. “The Raven” Symbolism Lesson Plan 
5. “The Raven” Lesson Plans: Quotes for Writing a Literary Criticism of “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe
6. Stanza by Stanza Summary of “The Raven” with Lesson Plan
   
   

The mariner reveals himself as some wandering story-teller, bringing peace to his soul and trouble to the hearts of his listeners by telling his story. The moral of the tale is that love is the solution to one’s problems.

The mention of the wedding feast may be an allusion to the Parable of the 10 Virgins. In the parable, those left out of the wedding feast are consigned an awful fate. In this poem, however, the wedding guest hears an important tale. So what exactly is the wedding guest missing out on? Why does he need to hear the mariner’s story? 

Links

• For a side-by-side summary of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” click on this “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” summary pdf download.
•  “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Blog Post
• Poetry Collections at ELACommonCoreLessonPlans.com