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A homeschooling mother with a daughter in early high school asked for some recommendations from me for how to teach poetry. I figured others might be interested too, so I am including you all in my response.

The book above is a concise anthology that provides cultural literacy for some of the most quoted poems and poets. The first two books below help the student analyze and understand poetry and its components. Sound and Sense is a solid traditional approach, which is a classic that has been updated for over 50 years, while Painless Poetry is similar in an irreverent Cliff Notes style.

The bottom two books, The Roar on the Other Side and Poemcrazy are about how to write poetry; both are absolutely wonderful. Both deserve a whole blog post to themselves someday. I love them.

I highly recommend a curriculum coming at poetry from all sides, reading, analyzing, and especially important, writing it.

Let it be a joy-filled, liberating, creative time! Enjoy!

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