Author Joan Bransfield Graham opens each of the six stanzas of her descriptive poem about her hometown with the question: "What do I like best about the sea?" The answers to the questions are framed in strongly rhythmic rhyme, and each stanza describes the sea from the aspect of one the five senses. Use this poem to teach students how to use sensory language in their writing or as a template for writing a question-and-answer poem.
Written in the 1700s by English poet Mary Howitt, this famous poem records a conversation between a spider and its prey, the fly. The spider asks the fly a series of questions designed to flatter and entice the fly into its web. The moral of the story, readers learn from the author, is to ignore flattery and silly words and therefore stay out of trouble. Use this classic question-and-answer poem to model how conversation is used in poetry.
Written by nationally-known author and speaker Georgia Heald, this non-rhyming question poem hints at issues of conservation and preservation. The entire poem is a series of wistful, descriptive questions about animals such as tigers, orangutans, condors, whooping cranes and blue whales. Use this poem for Earth Day celebrations or when incorporating poetry into a science or geography unit.
This first stanza of "Will There Really Be a Morning?" sets the wondering, musing tone for this short poem. Written by Emily Dickinson, one of America's most renowned and best-loved poets, this poem has been well-used in the classroom for good reason. Its simple format of three four-line stanzas and an ABAB rhyme scheme is suited for elementary students as well as older children who are learning to write poetry. The first two stanzas are questions, while the third stanza is a plea for the answers from anyone who might have them.