Poetry is close to my heart. I would be lost without its very specific magic, its ability to spark wonder and shock and to open up fresh vistas on life in God. But as W. H. Auden famously says in his ...

What is a nonsense poem? Nonsense poems don't always make sense, they often use made up words, mixed up with real words. What are free verse poems? Free verse poems don't follow the rules.

You might have memorised and performed a poem in class before. This is called learning a poem ‘off by heart’. It’s a great way to really show you understand the poem and have some fun ...

Narrative means story and a narrative poem tells a story. Lots of poems are mainly about thoughts and feelings and not about telling a story, so this is a key difference. Key features of narrative ...

In an acrostic poem, the first letter of each line spells a word. The word is the subject of the poem. She really really likes stars. But this is no ordinary poem. This is an acrostic. So there is ...

The poet joins Kevin Young to read and discuss “I wonder if I will miss the moss,” by Jane Mead, and his own poem “Mother.” The poet joins Kevin Young to read and discuss her translation ...

What I love about poetry is that you can perform it anywhere. There are performances spaces all around us. In the bedroom. In the playground. I ….was…. at…. the ...

The form of a poem is how we describe the overarching structure or pattern of the poem. Some forms of poetry must stick to very specific rules about length, rhythm and rhyme. Poets enjoy playing ...

Do you hear a regular beat da-DUM, da-DUM? This rhythm is very common in poetry and it even has a name: it’s called iambic. Poets often choose to write in this rhythm. Rhythm can help to ...

Learn about rhythm in poetry and how it can be used as device which has an effect on the reader. How to understand open and closed form in poetry Closed form poetry uses stricts patterns of rhymes ...

William Shakespeare is the bestselling poet of all time. The word 'poetry' is from the Greek term poiesis, which means 'making'. The oldest written poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh originating from ...