Poetry Unlocked: Developing Skills for Reading and Understanding Poetry

Poetry Unlocked: Developing Skills for Reading and Understanding Poetry is a secondary school text written by experienced classroom English teachers. The book clearly explains the techniques, devices, forms and styles of poetry and illustrates these concepts through a range of poems accessible to secondary school students.

In each chapter, students are encouraged to apply their knowledge about poetic forms and devices using a variety of activities - oral and written, individual and group.

This text will help students to:

• Learn about the importance and relevance of poetry.
• Increase their knowledge of the 'tools', devices, forms and styles that poets use to make their message more effective.
• Increase their knowledge of the poet's purpose and point of view in writing poetry.
• Analyse poems.
• Create their own poetry.

The text is clearly organised with a summary at the end of each chapter and a summary of key terms at the end of the book. It is not necessary to work through each chapter in sequence. However, previous learning is reinforced by revisiting earlier concepts in later chapters. The text contains over 100 poems indexed by title and author.

Contents 

Why is Poetry Special?

• The importance and relevance of poetry
• Themes and subjects in poetry
• The poet's purpose and point of view

Understanding How Poets Create Poetry: The Sounds of Poetry.

• Alliteration
• Rhyme
• Rhythm
• Onomatopoeia
• Assonance, consonance, word sounds

Word pictures in Poetry

• Simile
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Imagery
• Symbolism and allusion

The Shape of Poetry: Poetic Forms and Styles

• Syllable poems: haiku, tanka, syllable cinquains
• Couplets and quatrains
• Ballads
• Shape poems, cinquains and limericks
• Narrative poetry
• Lyric poetry
• Free verse, blank verse, prose poetry
• Dramatic monologue
• Sonnets

Theory Into Practice

• How to 'read' a poem
• 'Reading' poems: Practise your skills
• How to create your own poems

• Useful poetry websites
• Answers
• Summary of definitions
• Index of poems
• Index of poets
• Acknowledgments