'Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.' T.S.ELIOT (1888 –1965)
Poetry offers wonderful opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and listening practice for students of English. Poetry also gives them a chance to expand vocabulary knowledge, to play with language, and to work with different rhythms and rhyme patterns. The benefits of using poetry are not simply anecdotal.Research by Dr. Janette Hughes at the University of Ontario, for example, demonstrates the positive effects of poetry on literacy development. As Dr. Hughes points out, "paying attention to vocabulary and rhythm develops oral language skills," (Hughes, 2007, p. 1) and the development of oral language skills has a strong correlation to proficiency in reading. So here is my selection from the poets and the poems I like best. I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do.
