Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as American poet Adrienne Rich reads her poem "What Kind of Times are These," in which she questions and challenges people's thinking about the cultural, political and social transformations undergone in the U.S. during the 20th century.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as American poet Billy Collins reads his touching and humorous poem "The Lanyard." Examine how Collins uses humor to explore a son's relationship with and appreciation for his mother.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic reads his poem "Stone." Consider how Simic uses the different creatures' descriptions of the stone to symbolize the complexity of a simple object.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Listen as American actress Blair Brown reads Emily Dickinson's poem "I started Early..." in this animated video.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as American poet Lucille Clifton reads her poem "won't you celebrate with me." Examine how Clifton's spare and powerful verse is said to bring to light the qualities that keep us alive and the belief that we can make things better.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as American poet Marie Howe reads her poem "The Gate," largely an elegy to her brother, who died of AIDS in 1989. Examine how the poem expresses feelings of loss along with hope and an appreciation of life.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as American poet Philip Levine reads his poem "Belle Isle, 1949." Discover how Levine's poetry has been influenced by his experiences and observations from his working-class life.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as poet Robert Frost recites one his most famous poems, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Think about why Frost considered this poem one of "a few poems it will be hard to get rid of."
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as American poet Sharon Olds reads her poem "I Go Back to May, 1937." Explore Olds's themes of relationships - husband and wife, parents and children - reflected in the poem.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch as American poet Stanley Kunitz reads his poem "Touch Me," in which the artist characteristically contemplates an earthbound immortality through metaphors of nature. Examine how the poem reflects Kunitz's perception of the themes of life and death.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Maryland Public Television: Knowing Poe
Watch veteran actor John Astin in the guise of Edgar Allan Poe as he recites Poe's poem "The Raven." A grief-stricken man is interrupted from his melancholy by the arrival of a raven that replied to every entreaty with the single word: "Nevermore."
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Listen as playwright Tony Kushner read sections of 19th-century American poet Walt Whitman's famous poem "Passage to India." Discover why Whitman is considered one of the first great, quintessentially American poets.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video
Source: WETA: Reading Rockets
Watch while this author of young adult books about African-American teens in Harlem talks about his book writing routine, what it's like to work with his son as illustrator and how his fans relate to his characters.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts, Social Studies
Topics: Literature: American. Careers.
Resource Type: Video
Source: Poetry Everywhere
Watch American poet Yusef Komunyakaa as he reads his poem "Facing It." Consider why it is said of Komunyakaa that he shows us, through his reflections on complex moral issues, what it means to be human.
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts
Topics: Literature: American. Poetry and Poets.
Resource Type: Video