Critical Approaches

1) Choose a lyric poem that is of great value to you — could be a ‘classical’ poem that’s been anthologized multiple times, like a Shakespearean sonnet; could be a poem from a particular poet that you really like; could be favorite song lyrics.

2) Explain why your chosen poem/lyric is of value/ consider perhaps, its message, emotion, truth, etc. — maybe consider its ‘place’/’importance’ in your life.

3) How might you teach such a poem? What do you want your student-reader-learner to come away with?

4) Choose either Horace or Longinus and speculate upon the ways that your chosen theorist might judge and evaluate your chosen poem.