Introduction to Modernist Poetry

A three-lesson unit introduces high schoolers to Modernist Poetry. After examining modernist poetry's historical, social, and cultural context (1890-1950), students do a close reading of Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," identifying the speaker, poetic devices, and themes. To end the unit, scholars demonstrate what they have learned about Modernist Poetry by closely reading and analyzing T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."