9 Honors English BUONO
READING and ANALYZING POETRY
During our poetry unit everyone will be required to choose a poem from the following list to read aloud in front of the class. In order to choose a poem, you will need to read some and decide what you like. This list of poetry comes from the Poetry 180 website, which is http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/p180-list.html
.
Reading a poem aloud requires more than just standing up and reading from a piece of paper. There is an element of performance to it. The better you read it, the more people will understand and enjoy it. Attached are suggestions (also from Poetry180) for how to read a poem aloud.
The readings will be graded in the following way: (25 points)
 Pace: not too fast; the class must hear and understand every word
 Appropriate tone of voice: not too soft or loud; not overly dramatic
 Flow: reading through the ends of lines; smooth progression from phrase to phrase; no fumbling over tricky words
 Pronunciation: words are pronounced correctly and clearly
 Preparedness: some eye contact with the class, which shows that you have practiced reading this poem and may have some of it memorized; no long pauses or looks of confusion
In addition to reading the poem aloud, you are required to write an analysis of the poem. This is a document that follows the steps listed on the poetry annotation guide. You may NOT write in the first or second person voice here; this is analysis.
The analysis will look like this: (50 points)
1.
You will begin with a paragraph about the poet and the poem in general; this may require a little bit of research. You will also note anything you notice in the way of surface information.
2.
You will then devote individual paragraphs, in the following order, to: a) Verse/Form b) Sound c) Figurative language d) Speaker e) Mood f) Overall Meaning
**Your analysis is due on the day you read your poem. I will assign these dates.**
You must let me know which poem you will be reading before you read and analyze it. This means browsing the website and choosing one. Once you’ve chosen, print it out and start practicing!

9 Honors English
Reader
AMB
Title
1
Introduction to Poetry
2
Sidekicks
3
The Summer I Was Sixteen
4
The Blue Bowl
5
Lines
6
The Distances
7 "Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting
8
Out?"
Numbers
9 The Cord
Author
Billy Collins
Ronald Koertge
Geraldine Connolly
Jane Kenyon
Martha Collins
Henry Rago
Ron Koertge
Mary Cornish
Leanne O’Sullivan
10 At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border William Stafford
AMB
11 Passer-by, these are words...
12 The Bat
Yves Bonnefoy
Theodore Roethke
13 Did I Miss Anything
14 Neglect
15 The Poet
16 Radio
Tom Wayman
R. T. Smith
Tom Wayman
Laurel Blossom
AMB 17 Bad Day
18 The Farewell
19 The Partial Explanation
20 Dorie Off To Atlanta
21 Wheels
22 Remora, Remora
23 Tour
24 After Us
Kay Ryan
Edward Field
Charles Simic
Mark Halliday
Jim Daniels
Thomas Lux
Carol Snow
Connie Wanek
25 Domestic Work, 1937
26 Before She Died
27 Poetry
28 Foundations
29 Advice from the Experts
30 One Morning
31 Marcus Millsap: School Day Afternoon
32 Publication Date
33 The Meadow
34
Gouge, Adze, Rasp, Hammer
35
Hand Shadows
36
The Printer's Error
37
She Didn't Mean to Do It
38
Cartoon Physics, part 1
39
Snow
40
Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
41
In the Well
42
The Poetry of Bad Weather
43
The Green One Over There
44
A Man I Knew
45 Nights
46 Grammar
Natasha Trethewey
Karen Chase
Don Paterson
Leopold Staff
Bill Knott
Eamon Grennan
Dave Etter
Franz Wright
Kate Knapp Johnson
Chris Forhan
Mary Cornish
Aaron Fogel
Daisy Fried
Nick Flynn
David Berman
Robert Bly
Andrew Hudgins
Debora Greger
Katia Kapovich
Margaret Levine
Kevin Hart
Tony Hoagland
BUONO

9 Honors English
AMB
47
Fault
48
Thanks For Remembering Us
49
Painting a Room
50
Otherwise
51
A Primer of the Daily Round
52
Love Poem With Toast
53
Selecting a Reader
54 Song
55 Biscuit
56 Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale
Ron Koertge
Dana Gioia
Katia Kapovich
Jane Kenyon
Howard Nemerov
Miller Williams
Ted Kooser
Eamon Grennan
57 White-Eyes
58 To Help the Monkey Cross the River,
59
60
63
64
Lesson
Football
61 Sister Cat
62 The Bagel
What I Would Do
For My Daughter
65 I've Been Known
66 The Moon
Jane Kenyon
Jane Yolen
Mary Oliver
Thomas Lux
Forrest Hamer
Louis Jenkins
Frances Mayes
David Ignatow
Marc Petersen
David Ignatow
Denise Duhamel
Robert Bly
67 Watching the Mayan Women Luisa Villani
68 Bringing My Son to the Police Station to be Fingerprinted Shoshauna Shy
69 The Space Heater
70 Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the
Road?
Sharon Olds
Robert Hershon
71 Smoking
72 Gratitude to Old Teachers
73 Love Song
74 Near the Wall of a House
75 To a Daughter Leaving Home
76 June 11
77 A Birthday Candle
78 Doing Without
79 My Life
80 Reckless Poem
81
After Years
82
Small Comfort
83
Turtle
84
Knowledge
85
Rotary
86
Sure
87
Alley Cat Love Song
88
The Exchange
89
Dutch
90
A New Poet
91
Timely Enumerations Concerning Sri Lanka
92 Birth Day
93 Relearning Winter
Elton Glaser
Robert Bly
Carol Muske-Dukes
Yehuda Amichai
Linda Pastan
David Lehman
Donald Justice
David Ray
Joe Wenderoth
Mary Oliver
Ted Kooser
Katha Pollitt
Kay Ryan
Philip Memmer
Christina Pugh
Arlene Tribbia
Dana Gioia
Ron Rash
Kay Ryan
Linda Pastan
Oliver Rice
Elise Paschen
Mark Svenvold
BUONO

9 Honors English BUONO
94
My Daughters in New York
95
From On Being Fired Again
96
Keats
97
The Hymn of a Fat Woman
98
My Father's Hats
99
Of Politics & Art
100
Loud Music
101 Some Clouds
102 A Wreath to the Fish
103 A Shadow of a Nest
104 To Stammering
105 A Birthday Poem
106 The Grammar Lesson
107 Blind
108 Halloween
109 Fast Break
110 On a Cape May Warbler Who Flew Against My Window
111 The Kitchen Shears Speak
112 Slow Children at Play
113 Lift Your Right Arm
114 Machines
115 The Death of Santa Claus
116 Cat Scat
117 Ladies and Gentlemen in Outer Space
118 Notice
119 Thanksgiving
120 The Swan at Edgewater Park
121 The Hand
122 Soccer Moms
123 Coffee in the Afternoon
124 Morning
125 Animals
126 God Says Yes To Me
127 Hate Poem
128 The Student Theme
129 The Birthday
130 Witness
131 Not Swans
132 Leaving the Island
133 The Summer Day
134 One Day A Woman
135 Walking to Oak-Head Pond, and Thinking of the Ponds I
Will Visit in the Next Days and Weeks
136
Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper
137
Wan Chu's Wife In Bed
138
This Moment
139 How Many Times
140 The Dead
James Reiss
Erin Belieu
Christopher Howell
Joyce Huff
Mark Irwin
Norman Dubie
Stephen Dobyns
Steve Kowit
Nancy Willard
Gary Margolis
Kenneth Koch
Ted Kooser
Steve Kowit
Charles Webb
Mac Hammond
Edward Hirsch
Eamon Grennan
Christianne Balk
Cecilia Woloch
Peter Cherches
Michael Donaghy
Charles Webb
Eamon Grennan
Ron Padgett
Steve Kowit
Mac Hammond
Ruth L. Schwartz
Mary Ruefle
Paul Muldoon
Alberto Ríos
Mary Oliver
Miller Williams
Kaylin Haught
Julie Sheehan
Ronald Wallace
Elizabeth Seydel Morgan
Martha Collins
Susan Ludvigson
Linda Pastan
Mary Oliver
Miller Williams
Mary Oliver
Martín Espada
Richard Jones
Eavan Boland
Marie Howe
Susan Mitchell

9 Honors English
141
The End and the Beginning
142
Locals
143
Social Security
144
Smell and Envy
145
The Yawn
146
Blue Willow
147
Tuesday 9:00 AM
148 Before the World Intruded
149 Her Head
150 96 Vandam
151 My Moral Life
152 It Took All My Energy
153 Once upon a Time There Was a Man
154 Forgiving Buckner
155 Legs
156 Dandelion
157 Heat
158 Forgotten Planet
159 Loyal
160 Dutch Boy
161 Key To The Highway
162 Herd Of Buffalo Crossing The Missouri On Ice
163 Mentor
164 Unconditional Day
165 The Rider
166 Kyrie
167 The Last Wolf
168 Gee, You're So Beautiful That It's Starting to Rain
169 Schoolboys with Dog, Winter
170 Summer in a Small Town
171 Entrance
172 How to Listen
173 Immortality
174 Our Other Sister
175 Gretel
176 How to Change a Frog Into a Prince
177 Eagle Plain
178 End of April
179 Bike Ride with Older Boys
180 Break
BUONO
Wislawa Szymborska
James Lasdun
Terence Winch
Douglas Goetsch
Paul Blackburn
Jody Gladding
Denver Butson
Michele Rosenthal
Joan Murray
Gerald Stern
Mark Halliday
Tony Wallace
Mac Hammond
John Hodgen
Mark Halliday
Julie Lechevsky
Michael Chitwood
Doug Dorph
William Matthews
Doug Dorph
Mark Halliday
William Matthews
Timothy Murphy
Julie Lechevsky
Naomi Shihab Nye
Tomas Transtromer
Mary TallMountain
Richard Brautigan
William Matthews
Linda Gregg
Dana Gioia
Major Jackson
Lisel Mueller
Jeffrey Harrison
Andrea Hollander Budy
Anna Denise
Robert Francis
Phillis Levin
Laura Kasischke
Dorianne Laux

9 Honors English BUONO
HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD
1.
Read the poem slowly. Most adolescents speak rapidly, and a nervous reader will tend to do the same in order to get the reading over with. Reading a poem slowly is the best way to ensure that the poem will be read clearly and understood by its listeners. Learning to read a poem slowly will not just make the poem easier to hear; it will underscore the importance in poetry of each and every word. A poem cannot be read too slowly, and a good way for a reader to set an easy pace is to pause for a few seconds between the title and the poem's first line.
2.
Read in a normal, relaxed tone of voice. It is not necessary to give any of these poems a dramatic reading as if from a stage. The poems selected are mostly written in a natural, colloquial style and should be read that way. Let the words of the poem do the work. Just speak clearly and slowly.
3.
Obviously, poems come in lines, but pausing at the end of every line will create a choppy effect and interrupt the flow of the poem's sense. Readers should pause only where there is punctuation, just as you would when reading prose, only more slowly.
4.
Use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words and hard-to-pronounce words. To read with conviction, a reader needs to know at least the dictionary sense of every word. In some cases, a reader might want to write out a word phonetically as a reminder of how it should sound. It should be emphasized that learning to read a poem out loud is a way of coming to a full understanding of that poem, perhaps a better way than writing a paper on the subject.