The best poems allow people of all ages and cultures to derive meaning from their words, no matter how long ago those words were written. Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Dark Night" and Robert Frost's "Birches," for example, portray varying views of human life, what it has to offer and how to handle it all. As a culminating project in this unit, ask students to compile a personal anthology of poems that speak to their lives. They should type the poems, giving credit to the author and source of each, and then organize them into a meaningful structure. Have students create a table of contents and write a preface explaining why and how they chose the poems include in their anthologies.
Many poets have sought inspiration in nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Song of Nature" and Thomas Hardy's "The Darkling Thrush" both describe the authors' life experiences in relation to the natural world. Any thematic unit on nature must also review traditional Japanese haiku, beautiful, albeit brief, structured poems with a unique perspective on an element of nature. Take students outside for a few days, no matter what the weather is like -- sunshine, rain or snow. Allow them to find a private place to stop, watch and listen. Each day, students should write a poem about their experiences in nature. Choosing one poem, they should use a movie-making program, such as Windows Photo Story or Movie Maker, to create a video made of images that display each line of the poem, one at a time.
Best studied in early February, possibly with a poem a day until Valentine's Day, is a thematic unit on love poems. A good place to start is with "Annabelle Lee" by Edgar Allen Poe, a story of two childhood lovers whose love exists even after death; "Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art" by John Keats, about the speaker's desire to stay close to his love forever; and "My River" by Emily Dickinson, where she yearns for her love's acceptance. Remember that love means something different to everyone, so be sure to include a variety of poets, styles and stories within the unit. As a final project, students will write three love poems to be used on Valentine's Day cards -- one for a significant other, one for a parent or family member, and one for a friend. Students will design a card for each poem.
When teaching a unit on poetry, it is common to meet resistance from students, especially those who think poetry is only gooey love words. Prove them wrong with a thematic unit on humor. Contemporary poets such as Bruce Lansky and Shel Silverstein should be included. Lansky has an abundance of poems, such as "My Violin," that make readers laugh out loud, and Silverstein's humorous books "Where the Sidewalk Ends," "Falling Up" and "A Light in the Attic" are classics filled with funny poems and illustrations to match. To end the thematic unit, ask students to compose their own books of humorous poetry, made of at least five poems, and draw an illustration for each.