Catholic Review Poetry Madness

I left my Archbishop Curley classroom on March 13, expecting to be gone for a few weeks, maybe even a month, due to the Covid-19 outbreak. My students were working on research papers and projects and it soon became evident that they needed more help than I could offer over email. It would be hard to start a novel so late in the year and without being face-to-face.

Most poems can, however, be read in one sitting and are a great way to reinforce literary techniques. I knew that if I found the right poems, I’d be able to keep my students engaged. So, like many teachers, I “recalculated,” and, thanks to a fellow English teacher friend, discovered a fun way to teach poetry. (Yes, “fun” and “poetry” can go together in an all-boys school!)

“Poetry Madness” pits 16 poems against each other in a NCAA March-madness style bracket, which many of the boys are familiar with and enjoy partaking in every spring. I do not have a particularly strong background in poetry, so it took a great deal of searching (and help from Facebook friends) to track down 16 poems that would appeal to 96 high school boys. I decided to break them into categories: athletes (for sports poetry), outdoorsmen (for nature poetry), soldiers (for war poetry), and brainiacs (for metaphysical poetry). Former Curley Friar Matt Foley suggested “If” by Rudyard Kipling to end the year. My final choices and their links can be found below.

Students had an analytical assignment to complete for each poem, such as examining a poetic element like alliteration or imagery. Sometimes they could write a poem themselves, such as an ode to someone or something important in their lives. I have found some helpful videos on YouTube for explaining the building blocks of poetry as well as some famous voices reading some of the poems. (Definitely check out Morgan Freeman’s “Invictus”.) I even had Curley’s Latin teacher Mark Muth make a video explaining the meaning of “Dulce et decorum est.”

We met in Zoom twice a week to discuss poetry and life in general. After they had read and analyzed all four poems in each category, students get to vote on their favorites. In many cases, the votes were neck-and-neck, such as Randall Jarrell’s “Death of a Ball Turret Gunner” and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” Sometimes it only took one vote to determine a victor, which offered an important lesson during an election year.

In the end, Kobe Bryant’s “Dear Basketball” was the big winner. It was practically unanimous, since the basketball legend died in a tragic helicopter crash in January and, shortly thereafter, our Archbishop Curley Friars won the MIAA B Conference basketball championship. I am having a line from “Dear Basketball” made into a poster and I plan to hang it in my classroom next year. It says, “You asked for my hustle, I gave you my heart.” Hopefully my students will get to stop by and see it!

If you have some extra summer time on your hands, read the poems and complete your own Poetry Madness bracket. I’d love to hear which one came out on top for you!

Poetry Madness 2020 selected poems:

ATHLETES

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

“Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike

“Dear Basketball” by Kobe Bryant

To an Athlete Dying Young by A.E. Housman

OUTDOORSMEN

“Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand” by e.e. cummings

“Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas

“Stopping by Woods on a Winter Evening” by Robert Frost

“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold

SOLDIERS