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The Shape of a Poem NEW
Poetry has an undeserved reputation of being difficult: difficult to write and difficult to understand. When I teach poetry, even to very young students, I try to explain abstract concepts—ideas usually thought of as “advanced,” such as meter and alliteration—in practical, hands-on terms. All of us are attuned from a very early age to poetic logic through nursery rhymes, knock-knock jokes, songs, and even schoolyard taunts (“liar, liar / pants on fire” is rhyming trochaic dimeter!), but because discussions of poetry so often focus on theory, not practice, many people believe that poetry is hard. In reality, poetry is simply an art, rooted, above all, in self-expression.
| Format | Costs | Grade Level(s) | Curriculum Connections |
| Residency | TBA | Grade 4 - Grade 6 | Communication Arts Other |
About Arthur, James
James Arthur’s poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, and The Southern Review. He has received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, a Discovery/The Nation Prize, and the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Scholarship, held in previous years by Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Bly, and Adrienne Rich. James is a fellow of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. He often teaches through Stanford University’s Educational Program for Gifted Youth.
All Programs by Arthur, James
- The Shape of a Poem (Residency) - This Program
