It’s National Poetry Day! A thread…

We are sharing poems with our classes today to celebrate National Poetry Day. We have chosen some favourite poems – linked in this thread, along with some highlights from Clive James’s book. 1/ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/26/clive-james-the-poems-i-remember-are-the-milestones-marking-the-journey-of-my-life

“If a poem doesn’t sound compelling, it won’t continue to exist… With a poem the most important thing is the way it sounds when you say it.”
If only students were allowed to read poems aloud in exam situations… 2/

“My understanding of what a poem is has been formed over a lifetime by the memory of the poems I love; the poems, or fragments of poems, that got into my head seemingly of their own volition…”
This will need to be on the marketing for ‘Poetry By Heart'! 3/

“I discovered early on that a scrap of language can be like a tune in that respect: it gets into your head no matter what. In fact, I believe, that is the true mark of poetry: you remember it despite yourself.” 4/

And some favourite poems from our English department /6 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44107/holy-sonnets-death-be-not-proud

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43291/sailing-to-byzantium https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57285/disabled

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43291/sailing-to-byzantium

In true English-teacher-style you may have noticed that the numbering of this thread proved a bit of a challenge... /end!