Poetry for High Schoolers Part 6: W.B. Yeats and EE Cummings

Somehow I got behind in posting our high school plans for poetry. Here is part 6 in the series and it actually features two poets, W.B. Yeats and E.E. Cummings. I didn't think Mr. A could take six weeks of Mr. Cummings so we broke it up with a totally different poet.

W.B. Yeats (three week mini-study)
Week 1:
Read the Wikipedia article for Yeats and make notes for your notebooking page. Listen and watch this YouTube.com video of Second Coming.

Read the SparkNotes page for this poem: Second Coming. Write a comment about the tone and the words used in this poem.
Week 2:
Read two more Yeats poems of your choosing. Print one and answer one of your poetry questions. Mr. A chose "To An Isle In The Water" and answered the question, "Who is the speaker and what is his tone?"
Week 3:
Same as last week (Guess I was in a hurry when I made up this section of study.)
Mr. A picked "In The Seven Woods" and answered the question, "What imagery does the poet use?"
Finish the author notebook page.

E.E. Cummings
Week 1:
Read the Poet.org information for E.E. Cummings. Take notes for your notebook page. Read five of his poems and make some observations about his form. Watch the following YouTube.com video for "Leaves Fall".

Week 2:
Creative Assignments:
Buffalo Bill - add some words, capital letters, and punctuation to help the poem make more sense.
I Carry Your Heart With Me - Pick an image to go with this poem. (See top of the post for his version.)
If - Write one stanza in imitation of this poem.


Week 3:
More Creative Assignments:
In time of daffodils - Write another stanza starting with "in time of ____"
Maggie and milly and molly and may - Pick an image to go with this poem.
When serpents bargain - Draw an oak and an acorn and copy the 3rd stanza onto the page.
Poem 42 - enjoy!
Finish your author notebook page.

There is one more part to this series and it is by far the most fun...at least I think so. Stay tuned for Langston Hughes.

Our Poetry Schedule:
Weeks 1-6 Edna St. Vincent Millay
Weeks 7-12 Robert Browning
Weeks 13-18 Robert Frost
Weeks 19-24 Carl Sandburg
Weeks 25-27 W.B. Yeats
Weeks 28-30 E.E. Cummings
Weeks 31-36 Langston Hughes

You can click on the "poetry for high schoolers" tag at the bottom of this post for all the other entries in this series.