Keywords
poetry writing, writing practice, poetry assignments
Submission Type
Research
Preview
This article presents my effort to move students past their belief that poetry is inaccessible by requiring them to write bad poetry. My original goal was to bring back the fun of poetry by letting students play with words and sounds rather than obsessing over rhyme schemes. I wanted my students to see that they knew more about poetry than they thought they did, that poetry and language play are a natural part of how we think. As students created bad poetry and discussed what they believed poetry was (and wasn’t), we discovered together that much of our fear of poetry comes from a narrow definition that confines it to pre-set patterns. When we broadened our conception of poetry to say that poetry is the result of playing with words and sounds for rhetorical effect, regardless of the quality of the final assignment, we learned that reading and writing poetry really is for everyone.
Recommended Citation
Benson, Sheila
(2009)
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at Poetry Writing (Minus Twelve): Using Bad Poetry to Make Good Poetry Accessible,"
The Utah English Journal: Vol. 37, Article 7.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/uej/vol37/iss1/7