Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.

To be saved is here, local and mortal.

Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.

Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can’t imagine ourselves living without.

Probably all the attention to poetry results in some value, though the attention is more often directed to lesser than to greater values.

If a poem is each time new, then it is necessarily an act of discovery, a chance taken, a chance that may lead to fulfillment or disaster.

In nature there are few sharp lines.

For though we often need to be restored to the small, concrete, limited, and certain, we as often need to be reminded of the large, vague, unlimited, unknown.

If we ask a vague question, such as, ‘What is poetry?’ we expect a vague answer, such as, ‘Poetry is the music of words,’ or ‘Poetry is the linguistic correction of disorder.’

It’s not a love of poetry readings that attracts those who do come to them but theater.