Poetry > P Poetry

Advantages: variety of poems, price of book, suitability for children
Disadvantages: none

The Works, as it says on the cover, is a book of poetry that has a poem of every type, variety and on every topic. It really does have every poem you could need for the Literacy hour. The Works is published by Macmillan, and the poems are chosen by Paul Cookson. It is the first in a series of books (6 the last time I checked). It includes poetry such as haiku, riddles, tongue twisters, acrostics, monologues, songs, nonsense poems, narrative verse, ...
...total of 525 pages. The book cost me £6.99 and I use it regularly with my class. When it is not being used for Literacy lessons, I use it to dip in and out of as the children love the riddles and find some of the funny poems really good to discuss with each other. The poems are set out in well indexed sections depending on poem type, along with an index of authors and first lines, so it is easy to find whatever you need. The majority of these poems ... Read review

Advantages: Profound but down to Earth - a poetic genius...
Disadvantages: You'll either love him or hate him!

Philip Larkin, an insight into the genius, the poet, the man… I have to admit that when I first started to study Larkin for my A – levels, it was difficult not to curse him, let alone like him! On the surface, Larkin appears to be a misogynistic and sexist man with a supercilious eye for anything lower class. This, unfortunately has become the most popular attitude towards Larkin, however, I feel that this is not the case. After having studied only ...
...you must go deeper than the words on the page in order to understand this mysterious but incredible writer, and that is what I intend to help people to do… General Background: Philip Larkin was born in 1922 in Coventry. He grew up there and went to read English at Oxford University. For the remaining thirty years of his life, Larkin lived in Hull where he became the librarian at the city’s university, until his death in 1985. Personal Background: ... Read review

Advantages: Wonderful thought provoling, bleak yet humorous
Disadvantages: A little too melancholic perhaps?

...Larkin's style, wit and even the bleak nature of much of this work. As an angst ridden teenager the poems seemed to speak directly to me. The title poem made me want to scream at the realisation that in Victorian society a woman 'defiled' by a man would be deemed damaged goods and unlikely to mary; oh the unfairness! And yet the perpetrator was himself 'more deceived' by his act. I was inspired to write to Larkin and received a lovely reply to my ... Read review

Advantages: Powerful and gripping storyline, Great contributions of all characters
Disadvantages: None that I have found

Written by Arthur Miller in the early 1950s during the time of the McCarthyism when the government blacklisted accused communists. Miller was also summoned in court and he wrote this play as a parable and links the Salem witch-hunt and the McCarthy trials which took place nearly 250 years apart. A very powerful play and an excellent one to study for GCSE English Literature for its revoloutionary work in the theatre and its portrayal of the human ...
...man's struggle to find and do what is right by him. With just 4 Acts and 5 important characters, this truly is a masterpiece. Proctor, a hard-working family man finds in the middle of lying and confessing to witchcraft, both of which go against his newly developed religious beliefs. ... Read review

Advantages: Interesting concept behind the plot
Disadvantages: Slow paced

Author: George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright born in 1856, and who died in 1950. Although he write music as well, he most enjoying writng plays, with the prupose of putting across a social message, and making it more memorable with the use of comedy, whilst doing so. Some of his plays addressed the issue of education, religion and government, however one topic he often considered was the exploitation of the working class. As a socialist, ...
...a British socialist movement, writing brochures and leaflets for them. He even married a fellow member of the Society, called Charlotte Payne-Townshend. He was an eloquent orator, and gave speeches on equal rights in politics for men and women, how to live healthy lifestyles, and condemning the attitudes of the rich towards the poor. This socialist attitude of Bernard Shaw influenced many of his writings, including Pygmalion, which has become a classic. ... Read review