Painless Poetry

Poetry instruction sometimes hurts—particularly when it is presented as dry old irrelevant stuff. Painless Poetry does more than just take the edge off, it makes learning how to analyze and understand poetry fun.

Written for middle and high school students, Painless Poetry begins by defining "poem" and goes on to discuss most aspects of poetry analysis, from form and structure to metaphor and the music of poetry. This is a pretty basic introduction, but at the same time very thorough. A variety of exercises force students to go beyond the examples and think for themselves, applying principles they've learned.

This is much less of an anthology than comparable texts, containing only excerpts from famous poems and not a ton of those. However, the author manages to convey the information clearly and concisely, and is even entertaining. Some older students may think the language is slightly condescending at times, though if they haven't studied much poetry they probably won't even notice.

Students learn how to scan lines, identify rhyme schemes, understand tropes, etc. This isn't a curriculum and won't work as a literature course (you won't actually find many poems in the text itself). It's an excellent introduction and will serve as a supplement to a more involved literature course. Since poetry is often marginalized in high school literature programs, however, it's good to know this book exists.

Bear in mind this isn't the last word on poetry instruction. It's a good introduction, but it is just that and leaves a lot of room for further study. Being able to analyze poetry isn't a skill you "achieve", it takes constant practice and study. It won't take you all the way by any means, but Painless Poetry will give students a good shove in the right direction.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.