Opinion: How Should Poetry Be Taught

In sixth grade, my cousin from Italy came to visit for three months. He has always been one of my favorite cousins. Every thing that comes out of his mouth sounds like a line from Nobel Peace Prize book. I love it. He speaks in fables and legends, always teaching me the right things to do. He brought out this book from our bookshelf one day, it was called "Italian Poetry." I opened that book, and since then I have been infatuated with poetry. 

Poetry is so beautiful. It heals. It teaches. It awakes the soul. It flows. (Sometimes).

How should poetry be taught, then? 

"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood." 
T.S. Eliot

I strongly believe poetry structure can be taught, the rhythm, stanzas, the iambic 
beats. What cannot be taught, is the meaning, I think that to the actual poet it 
could mean something completely different than what we interpret it to be, and that's 
okay. Often times, our analysis of a piece of work stems from our emotions. And if 
something speaks differently to us than our peers, then we have achieved the meaning of 
poetry, beauty. Beauty is unique.