10 High-Interest Poems

Amanda Gorman at President Biden’s inauguration. Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickenson on Apple TV+. Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning writer and musician Kendrick Lamar.

Poetry is everywhere, and it can still be hard to convince students to engage with it. To help you convince your students to dive in with you, we’ve rounded up ten high-interest poems that should hook even the most reluctant student’s attention.

As always, preview texts before sharing them with students. Some of these poems contain language that will work for some audiences and not for others.

1. Deer Hit by Jon Loomis

   • Underage drinking and driving, and having to watch as a parent cleans up your mess.

2. Explaining My Depression to My Mother by Sabrina Benaim

   • Emotional, descriptive, and relevant. This video doesn’t have 10.2 million views on YouTube for nothing.

3. A Poison Tree by William Blake

   • Easy to understand revenge poem that hits a lot of poetic terms: rhyme scheme, scansion, metaphor, enjambment and more.

4. The Journey by Mary Oliver

   • A little different from Oliver’s typical subjects and themes, “The Journey” is about transformation, and prioritizing one’s own needs above others.

5. Out, Out— by Robert Frost

   • In this poem, a boy dies after his hand gets too close to a buzz saw. Straightforwardly written, this poem is full of poetic devices and—considering the allusion in the title to Macbeth—layers of meaning.

6. Siren Song by Margaret Atwood

   • In this playful poem, Atwood gives her audience insight into what the Siren’s song might have sounded like. If your students like this one, check out the other poems from this collection, including Song of the Hen’s Head, Song of the Worms, and Corpse Song.

7. Dream Song 14 by John Berryman

   • Snide, dismissive, and bored are all apt terms for the speaker of this poem. There are some allusions and terms students might need explained, and the last four lines may need some guided analysis, but Berryman’s attitude is one reluctant students should enjoy and understand without any help needed.

8. Advertisement by Wislawa Szymborska

   • This poem is told from the perspective of the drug or pill that this poem advertises. No matter their background, student should be able to understand how the speaker attempts to lure its audience in with promises of an easy fix to big problems.

9. Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

   • This sonnet is told from the perspective of a boy watching his father get the house ready for the family on a cold, Sunday morning. It highlights a difficult parent-child relationship where both fear and love are present.

10. Ode to the Midwest by Kevin Young

    • This poem is great for teaching odes—we recommend studying it and then having students write an ode to one of their own communities, elevating the good (cheese!) and the not so good (throwing one’s back out, freezing weather, etc.).