The Uses of Poetry in the Classroom

Teacher's Bibliography

Addonizio, K. & Laux, D. (1997). The poet's companion: A guide to the pleasures of

writing poetry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. A thorough treatment for teachers, including essays on poetry composition, suggested topics and student exercises.

Coles, N. & Oresick, P. (Eds.) (1990). Working classics. Chicago: University of Illinois

Press. Poems by and about industrial workers, with an engaging introduction.

Collins, J. (1971). Barbara Allen. On Both Sides Now [record]. New York: Elektra.

Daniels, J. (1990). Punching out. Detroit: Wayne state University Press. A collection of

gritty, personal, reflective poems on industrial work.

Fletcher, R. (2002). Poetry matters: Writing a poem from the inside out. New York:

HarperCollins. Literacy expert Fletcher provides, in a personal narrative, advice for those wishing to teach poetry.

Graham, S. & Harris, K. (2000). The role of self-regulation and transcription skills in

writing and writing development. Educational Psychologist, 35(1), 3-12. One of many qualitative studies conducted on successful teaching using specific strategies (protocols).

Harjo, J. (1994). Downloaded May 20, 2005, from

http://www.foodreference.com/html/perhaps-the-worl-ends-here.html

Perrine, L. (1982). Sound and sense: An introduction to poetry, (6th Ed.). New York:

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Classic introduction to poetry for adolescents

and undergraduates.

Powell, J. & Halperin, M. (2004). Accent on meter: A handbook for readers of poetry.

Urbana, Il: National Council of Teachers of English. A practical manual for

teaching scansion in particular, and poetry in general.

Somers, A. B. (1999). Teaching poetry in high school. Urbana, Il: National Council of

Teachers of English. Another how-to-teach poetry book, but a resourceful chapter

on teaching poetry across the curriculum.

Turco, L. (1968). The book of forms: A handbook of poetics. New York: E.P. Dutton &

Co. Indispensable and thorough resource for form and meter in poetry.

Wormser, B. & Cappella, D. (2000). Teaching the art of poetry: The moves. Mahwah,

NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Element-by-element discussion of poems, how to approach them in a classroom, and exercises for student writers.

Wormser, B. & Cappella, D. (2004). A surge of language: Teaching poetry day by day.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. A companion piece to earlier work that ambitiously declares that poetry teaching should be central in an English curriculum

Student's Bibliography

Coles, N. & Oresick, P., (Eds.) (1995). For a living: The poetry of work. Chicago:

University of Illinois Press. Follow-up companion to an earlier anthology, with poems by and about workers in many industries. Helpful index of occupations.

Daniels, J. (1990). Punching out. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Down-to-earth,

idiosyncratic poems written about plant work in Detroit.

Selected Poems on Service, Technical, and Trade Topics by Published Poets

Berryman, John. "Dream Song 54: 'NO VISITORS' I thumb the roller to"

Brooks, Gwendolyn. "To Those of My Sisters Who Kept Their Naturals"

Burns, Robert. "Some Hae Meat"

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "A Cook" (Prologue to "Canterbury Tales")

Dickinson, Emily. "Myself was formed—a carpenter"

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "The Lawyers' Ways"

Fielding, Henry. "Roast Beef"

Frost, Robert. "'Out, out—'", "Mowing", "The Axe-Helve" and "Blueberries"

Hayden, Robert, "Those Winter Sundays"

Masters, Edgar Lee. "Griffy the Cooper", "Paul McNeely", "Sersmith the Dentist", "Mrs.

Merritt", "Judge Somers", "The Circuit Judge" and "Mrs. George Reece"

Milton, John. "Sonnet XIX: On His Blindness"

Neruda, Pablo. "Ode to An Onion"

Owen, Wilfred. "Conscious"

Piercy, Marge. "For the Young Who Want To"

Riley, James Whitcomb. "Our Hired Girl"

Sandburg, Carl. "And They Obey", "Psalm of Those Who Go Forth Before Daylight", "The Lawyers Know Too Much", "Prayers of Steel" and "Stripes"

Sexton, Anne. "The Death King", "To A Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph"

and "Lullaby"

Southey, Robert. "To A Goose"

Swift, Jonathan. "Leekes Onyons Garlic"

Tennyson, Alfred Lord. "On A Slope of Orchard"

Whitman, Walt. Books XXIV and XXIX of "Leaves of Grass"

Wilde, Oscar. from "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" (VI)

Note: For contemporary and classic poems in specific career areas on the Internet, use a search engine and type: poetry or poems about + [career (carpentry for example)].