This page has links for specific poets. Lesson plans and activities related to specific poetry forms or poetic structure can be found on the Poetry Forms page. Poetry no longer under copyright can be found on the Poetry Collections page. Copyright restrictions may prevent contemporary poetry from being available online.
Swimming Upstream
Summary, 4 discussion questions, and 3 activities.
Swimming Upstream
Poetry writing activities appropriate for middle school students. This 18-page document requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or compatible application for access.
Allen Ginsberg
The Allen Ginsberg Trust offers biography, lectures, interview, audio and video clips, and photographs.
Allen Ginsberg: Poetry and Politics
Students will read one or more of Ginsberg's poems, will read about the work of other Beat writers, and will investigate the larger social and political climate in which they lived. Students will conduct internet and/or library research to address their own questions about Ginsberg, the Beat movement, and the turbulent social and historical context of the Sixties. This standards-based unit is part of the American Masters series.
Nikki Giovanni
Teaching ideas and links to poems.
"The Red Poppy" by Louise Glück
Text of the poem and audio file of the poet reading it.
Nikki Grimes
Links to ideas for teaching children's poetry and books.
The Poetry of Woody Guthrie: Guided Reading Mini-Lesson
Designed for grades 3-6, this lesson focuses on "This Land is Your Land" to develop vocabulary and reading and writing fluency.
Return to top.
Donald Hall
Biography, poetry, and the children's book, Ox-Cart Man.
Thomas Hardy
Lesson plans and resources for teaching poetry and prose.
Robert Hayden
Lesson ideas for "Those Winter Sundays," more.
Seamus Heaney
Biography, background, and links to teaching ideas.
George Herbert
Biography, background, and links to teaching ideas.
Robert Herrick
Links to biography, poetry, and criticism.
Homer
Teaching resources for the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Lesson plans and teaching materials for "God's Grandeur" and other poems.
Study Questions on A. E. Housman
This page includes questions for writing and discussion for the following: "The Loveliest of Trees," "When I was One-and-Twenty," "To an Athlete Dying Young," "On Wenlock Edge," "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff," "The Chestnut Casts his Flambeaux," and "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries."
Langston Hughes Teaching Resources
A collection of links related to teaching both poetry and prose.
Return to top.