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Introduction to Poetry

All you ever wanted to know about poetry—and then some.

  • Course Length: 18 weeks
  • Course Type: Elective
  • Category:
    • English
    • Literature
    • High School

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Shmoop's Introduction to Poetry course has been granted a-g certification, which means it has met the rigorous iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Courses and will now be honored as part of the requirements for admission into the University of California system.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
This is a poem.

And this is one,
too.

Okay, so maybe we're not the most profound poets on the block, but that doesn't mean we can't teach you a thing or two about the trade. This course will introduce you to everything poetry: from the fancy terms (enjambment! iamb! villanelle!) to the stuff you think you know but really don't (lines! rhymes! rhythm!). And along the way, you may even become a poet yourself. Yeah, we said it.

Technology Requirements


Required Skills


Unit Breakdown

1 Introduction to Poetry - Poetry: A Scoop

This unit will help you get your feet wet in poetry, giving you a handy dandy guide to How to Read a Poem and bringing you face to face with a few fun poetic forms.

2 Introduction to Poetry - Setting and Poetic Devices

Every poem has a setting, whether or not it's obvious. This unit will help you find the setting and figure out why it matters.

3 Introduction to Poetry - It's All in the Music

What's a course on poetry without talk of poetic devices? This unit will tackle metaphor, simile, imagery, rhyme, and sound. You know, just the basics.

4 Introduction to Poetry - Sonnet? We Hardly Know It

An entire unit on sonnets? You betcha.

5 Introduction to Poetry - Poetic Forms and Traditions

Sonnets aren't the only important poetic form. This unit will help you distinguish between lyric, epic, and narrative poetry, while introducing you to everything from the haiku to the ghazal (gesundheit!). And of course, we'll top things off with some fancy free verse.

6 Introduction to Poetry - Only the Good Notes: Music as Poetry

Bruce Springsteen and Billie Holiday—and a bunch of other goodies—comin' at ya in this unit on music as poetry.


Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 3.02: Sound in Action

A sketch of a man digging in the ground
Mining for musical devices is a dangerous game. We recommend hard hats and doughnuts for morale.
(Source)

In today's lesson, we're going to let you loose on a poem. You're going to use your newly-trained musical ear to take it apart, study its musical anatomy, and draw up a fab report.

Because we don't do lab reports in Poetry Class, but we are fabulous.

We'll hone our close reading skills by identifying musical devices in action, and examining how this poem's music helps make meaning.

The poem in question? Seamus Heaney's "Digging." You may have heard of it, in another English class, at some hi-fi cocktail party. Or, we don't know, a handful of lessons ago when you wrote an extended analysis on the importance of speaker versus setting within it.

What we're saying is this. You got this poem down, but you won't have dug down to its darkest depths until you've studied its music.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 3.3.02: Once More, With Pealing

Now that you're experts on the musical devices of poetry, you might as well put that expertise to use. Click on over (again) to Seamus Heaney's "Digging" and give it a read. While we asked you to focus on the poem's speaker-setting relationship the last time you read this, this time you should pay special attention to the sound and rhythm of the poem, and not just its content. Be sure to read it aloud to yourself a time or two, and slowly. Then listen to the man, the legend, Heaney himself read the poem. No need to write anything down just yet. Just listen to the poem and try to get a feel for its music and sounds. Go with the flow. Feel the beat. Along with other clichés.

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 3.02a: The Song of Seamus

Step One

Listen to Heaney's reading a second time. This time, keep your ears open for the musical devices you've just learned about:

  • alliteration
  • assonance
  • consonance
  • internal rhyme
  • slant rhyme

In a document, jot down any musical devices or moments that you hear in the poem. Don't worry about catching them all.

Step Two

Using these notes as a jumping-off point, go through the poem line by line, digging up all the musical devices you can find with that finely tuned ear of yours. Copy-paste the text of the poem into your document from Step One and then mark the musical devices you hear by coloring the text according to the following key:

  • alliteration = red
  • assonance = blue
  • consonance = pink
  • slant rhyme = green
  • perfect rhyme = orange

You'll notice we left out internal rhyme, because alliteration, assonance, and consonance all fall under that category. (Another FYI: a perfect rhyme is exactly what it sounds like: a rhyme that rhymes perfectly. The words true and blue, for example, are a perfect rhyme.)

If Shmoop were going through this poem, we would start off by highlighting the words thumb and gun in the first two lines in green, because that's a big ol' slant rhyme right there. In the next stanza, we would highlight the words "gravelly ground" in red as an example of alliteration.

Get the idea? Great. When you're done, upload your document below, complete with your list of musical devices, as well as your color-coded poem.

Participation Only Rubric - 15 Points

OutstandingNeeds Improvement
Quality of Participation

Student did the assignment as instructed. 

(15)

Student only did part of the activity or assignment.

(8)

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 3.02b: She Ain't Nothin But a Soul Digger

  1. You should have one heck of a rainbow going on in your copy of Heaney's poem. It's no surprise. The dude used musical devices like they were going out of style.

    Now it's time we see what these sonic moments can do for a poem. Pick your favorite moment of alliteration, assonance, consonance, or slant rhyme in the poem and write a brief, 150 – 200 word expository response that answers the following questions:

    • Why is this your favorite musical moment? How does the sound make you feel?
    • What's the central meaning, message, theme, or mood of this poem?
    • How does this moment of alliteration, assonance, consonance, or slant rhyme advance the central meaning of the poem? How does it help you understand the poem better?

    For example, Shmoop might write:

    The slant rhyme that pairs "thumb" and "gun" in the first two lines of Heaney's poem is our favorite musical moment, because it's arguably the most integral to the poem's meaning. The repeated "un" sound in "thumb" and "gun" make us think of an echo, possibly from a gunshot. The use of the word "gun" in this rhyme makes us think of the writer's pen as a tool of power, while "thumb" echoes the larger theme of hands and manual work in the poem. Taken together, the rhyme reinforces the poem's message that writing is work that takes a great deal of power, just as much so as manual labor, and that it has the indelible impact of a gunshot.

    Once you've churned out that paragraph, input your work below.

  2. That was just a little warm-up. Now that you've delved deeper into how your chosen musical moment advances this poem's meaning, answer Shmoop this in a 200 - 300 word long expository response.

    • How does this musical moment advance the poem's meaning more effectively than all of the other moments you noted?

    Your response should do the following:

    • Reiterate and explain, in greater depth, what you believe to be the poem's central message, theme, or mood.
    • Explain how your chosen moment effectively advances this central meaning.
    • Describe what this moment does that the others in your list don't, in terms of advancing the central message or theme of the poem. Pull up at least three other moments from your list as points of comparison, and explain why these fall short in conveying the poem's meaning.

    For example, Shmoop might start this mini-essay off like so:

    We believe the central message of Seamus Heaney's "Digging" is that writing is just as powerful and demanding as manual labor; and just as farmers dig through peat bogs, writers dig for meaning. The slant rhyme "thumb" and "gun" in the first two lines of the poem brings to mind the reverberating echo of a gunshot, thereby reinforcing the association between writing and power. The other moments in the poem focus more on conveying the hard, gritty, messy nature of manual labor, but don't draw a clear parallel between that and writing. For example, the alliteration "squelch and slap/of soggy peat" creates a visual image of peat-farming as hard, dirty work, but it doesn't explicitly tie this image back to the theme of writing.

    Think you've figured out why your musical moment is "the one"? Give us your thoughts below.

Expository Writing Rubric - 15 Points

OutstandingProficientDevelopingNeeds Improvement
Evidence / Support

All support is clearly and logically connected to the topic. Examples, evidence, and details are thorough and relevant with effective explanation.

(6)

All support about the main topic is relevant. Examples, evidence, and details are explained.

(5)

Most support is related to the topic. Examples, evidence, or details are given.

(5)

Insufficient examples, evidence, or details. Support may be irrelevant.

(4)
Content Understanding

All content is accurate and analysis is interesting and sophisticated.

(6)

All content is accurate.

(5)

May contain minor errors.

(5)

Major errors.

(4)
Style

Language is clear and interesting. Enhances presentation of information. No errors.

(3)

Language is clear and appropriate to topic. Minor spelling or grammatical errors.

(3)

Language is occasionally unclear, but meaning is generally understandable. Frequent spelling/grammar errors that do not impede comprehension.

(2)

Language use makes writing very difficult to understand. Frequent spelling or grammar errors that impede comprehension.

(2)