Recommendations for poetry books for teenagers
I'm looking for recommendations for less juvenile poetry. My children are big fans of Shel Silverstein, but need something more age-appropriate. Looking for preteen and early teenage recommendations.
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Answers ( 3 )
I started a love affair with Edgar Allen Poe when I was in middle school. "Anabelle Lee" and "The Raven" are great poems for young readers.
I would also recommend "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. This is the poem that inspired Ponyboy in "The Outsiders" novel.
"Oh Captain, My Captain" by Walt Whitman is also a wonderful poem to share. It's great for discussion too.
Emily Dickinson poems are winners, as are Shakespearean sonnets. I would include in the list Rudyard Kipling, Lord Byron, Langston Hughes and Dylan Thomas. A little tougher read is Beowulf which is an epic poem written sometime around 1000 AD but it is a exciting story of a battle with a monster.
And for a very timely reading I recommend "The Hill We Climb" by Amanda Gorman, the 22 year old poet laureate who read this poem at President Biden's inauguration.
If you can find it, I recommend Louis Untermeyer's Golden Treasury of Poetry
It is not going to come cheaply, but you can find it for around/less-than $50 online at used book stores and e-bay. This is an amazing book- and one which I have had and read and bought for my children as they had children for over fifty years.
It is meant for children and young adults, but even you parents will enjoy reading this anthology. And, if you're like me, you will start reciting all kinds of poems- even epitaphs- simply because of the charm of them.
There once was a man named Bunn;
he was killed by a gun.
His name was not Bunn, but Wood.
But Wood would not rhyme with gun-
and Bunn would.
In looking for a poet whose name I can't quite get right, I ran across this resource list, you might want to take a look at, it's a poetry for teens resource.
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/25-best-poetry-books-teens/