Poetry is powerful. These engaging, shorter texts offer an abundance of opportunities to work on reading comprehension, fluency, and writing skills while building background knowledge and connecting social and emotional learning.
See my Poem of the Week post for tips on how to incorporate more poetry into your classroom.
While links to the poems are provided for your benefit, I am not affiliated with any of these sites or authors. These are simply some of my favorite poems to teach to students in grades 3-8.
“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins
I always start the year with this poem. It frames our intentions and lets students know that we are not looking for one correct interpretation. Also, the figurative language is worth discussing.
“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
Excellent for connections to history and for teaching structure. This is a Petrarchan sonnet and once you teach your students about voltas, they’ll start seeing them everywhere.
“Give Me the Splendid, Silent Sun” by Walt Whitman
Speaking of voltas! This poem is loaded with figurative language and sophisticated vocabulary, but once students understand that the speaker is grappling with two desires, it’s a good one to imitate. Plus, “trottoirs” is so fun to say.
“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman
Pair this with “I, Too” by Langston Hughes and you’ve got yourself a discussion on point of view (standard 6).
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman
Ok, so I love Walt Whitman. Don’t come at me. He contains multitudes. This one has a beautiful theme worth discussing.
“I, Too” by Langston Hughes
A historical clapback in poetry form. Perfection.
“From Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes
Extended metaphor. Mimetic syntax. Inspiring theme. Clear point of view. This is a great one for students to imitate by writing their own advice poem.
“In Time of Silver Rain” by Langston Hughes
A spring poem from this prodigious Harlem Renaissance author that students of all ages can appreciate.
“If-” by Rudyard Kipling
I can’t tell you the amount of times the lines “If you can meet with triumph and disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same;” have resurfaced in my brain throughout my adult life. This is poem with a theme that sticks with you. It would be fun to pair it with “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes as they are both advice poems from parents.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost
A beautiful, reflective poem for the winter. Here’s a gorgeously illustrated book of the poem.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
Are you even teaching poetry if you don’t include this one? I’m pretty sure the students get it every year. Ask them these questions: Is he glad he made the choice he did? What’s your evidence for that? I had a group of 5th graders that made me question everything I thought I knew about this poem.
“Speak Up” by Janet S. Wong
An introduction to poems for two voices and perfect for opening discussions around race, culture, immigration, and identity.
“I Love the Look of Words” by Maya Angelou
Rich in figurative language and a good one for students to imitate.
“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou
A powerful poem worth reading and discussing but I strongly encourage you to omit the 7th stanza or you will have complaints. I would print out the edited version with a line that said “edited for school use” and not post a link to the whole poem anywhere.
“Speech to the Young” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“Even if you are not ready for day / it cannot always be night.” is another set of lines that have come to mind countless times. This is in my top 5 for powerful themes.
“The Layers” by Stanley Kunitz
Deep and haunting. I’m not sure what it all means but I like to puzzle over it. Here’s an amazing video of the 2014 Poetry Out Loud winner, Anita Norman reciting it. (She’s from TN!) I still get chills when I hear her say, “I have walked through many lives, / some of them my own”.
“Fame is a bee” by Emily Dickinson
This seemingly simple quatrain packs a punch. Or should I say, sting? This is a good one to imitate at the beginning of the year or use on a four-day week.
“Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson
Good introduction to extended metaphors.
“To Be of Use” by Marge Piercy
Teeming with strong metaphors, this poem resonates deeply with my middle-aged woman soul.
“The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams
This will seems trite to students on the first read, but once you let them argue about why he would have written this they’ll appreciate William’s very visual close-up. Excellent for imitation.
“This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams
This author writes the simple so beautifully. This poem has inspired countless imitations, including this book of “Poems of Apology and Forgiveness”.
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
Your students will love this one. If you do any poetry recitations, give this one as an option. Point out the portmanteau words and let them have fun with it.
“Ode to Family Photographs” by Gary Soto
Another poem that appears simple but it offers lots of opportunities for inferencing. This is a great one for imitation at the beginning of the year as you’re getting to know students and their families.
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
A great one to quote absurdly as you’re putting restless children to bed. A powerful theme (standard 2) for students to be exposed to with an interesting structure (standard 5).
“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare
Yes, you can include Shakespeare in the early middle grades. Here’s a fun video from Shmoop that teaches the structure of sonnets. Writing a sonnet would be a fun mathematical-linguistic challenge for students to tackle in teams!
“i carry your heart with me” by e.e. cummings
e.e. cummings breaks all the capitalization and punctuation rules and your students will love it
“A Poison Tree” by William Blake
A good one to pull out when that middle school drama gets to be too much.
“What is One?” by Judith Nicholls
Perfect for a math connection or an Earth day celebration. Easily imitable.
“Abandoned Farmhouse” by Ted Kooser
Students will have to inference and will enjoy doing it. This would be a good poem to have a Socratic seminar around, or to use if you needed to teach using evidence from the text.
“The Dawn’s Awake!” by Otto Leland Bohanan
Rich figurative language and strong vocabulary around a common topic: the sun.
“I Am Offering This Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Refrain, similes, a beautiful theme. It is like a warm coat, indeed.
“The Gift to Sing” by James Weldon Johnson
An uplifting theme. This would be a neat one to pair with “The Layers”.
“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop
The villanelle is a really fun structure to teach. Not as imposing as a sonnet, students can usually create their own villanelles after some teacher modeling.
“The Wind and the Moon” by George MacDonald
A longer narrative poem with a twist at the end.
“The Black Land” by Joseph Warren Beach
Scattered gems of figurative language throughout this poem about farming.
“The Song of Hiawatha” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Use whole or in part as a connection to units about Native Americans.
“Something” by Michael R. Burch
A haunting, yet surprisingly gentle, poem about the Holocaust. Structure, figurative language, and the topic of the poem are all worthy discussion points for students at the upper end of the middle grades.
“Street Painting” by Ann Turner
Mimetic syntax at its finest, this poem has a rhythm well-suited for this urban scene.
“Seeing the World” by Steven Herrick
Interesting uses of spacing in the structure of the poem. This poem lends itself to conversations about perspective and point of view.
“Foul Shot” by Edwin A. Hoey
A high interest poem about basketball, this poem builds suspense through the author’s careful word choice.
“Every Cat Has a Story” by Naomi Shihab Nye
I enjoy the body of work by Nye, she excels at writing delightful poems about common subjects. This one is sure to engage the cat lovers in your classroom and students could easily imitate it by writing a poem describing several animals or objects they like.
There you have it, 41 poems that are worth teaching to students in the middle grades! Let me know your favorite poems to teach in the comments below!
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