What should we teach about poetry?
It seems to me we don't currently teach students enough about metre. It’s rare, for example, to see the subject given more than surface attention in revision guides, resources shared via twitter, or English teaching blogs. It's also far from common to see it deeply addressed in lessons outside of A Level (and often, not there either). This is an observation rather than a criticism – there’s clearly much good stuff that is being taught about poetry – plenty of themes, onomatopoeia, alliteration, rhythm etc, and I’m not suggesting that metre is being totally ignored. I’m also fully open to the possibility that I may be completely wrong, and that in fact the teaching of metre is in rude health. I'm not convinced; this post proposes that deeper understanding of metre could and should be given a more central position as part of the core knowledge to which students are entitled in KS3 and 4. In my own teaching, I’m certain that, for the first few years at least, nuanced teachin...