<p>Wis, the OP said he was teaching English Lit, but then asked for favorite poetry in general, and listed some who were American. I didn’t see the post as looking for teaching advice so much as “what’s your favorite poetry/poets?”</p>
<p>Lefthand–How could I forget Hall? Wrote my undergraduate thesis on him. Got to meet him several times. And my MIL was a friend and wrote back and forth with him a lot when she and Jane Kenyon were both fighting illnesses.</p>
<p>You are correct, garland - I was really just looking for people’s favorite poets and poetry! (I don’t mind the teaching suggestions, though.)</p>
<p>I come from the generation where we memorized large quantities of poetry - American, English, you name it. I can still recite “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “An Irish Airman Foresees his Death,” “Evangeline,” and “Daffodils.” We never did much with modern poets, though - Dickinson was as modern as we got.</p>
<p>I really like Billy Collins’ poem, “The Lanyard.”</p>
<p>The Lanyard is sweet. And The Revenant always makes me laugh: [billy</a> collins: The Revenant - Billy Collins](<a href=“http://www.billy-collins.com/2005/06/the_revenant.html]billy”>http://www.billy-collins.com/2005/06/the_revenant.html)</p>
<p>We did a lot of modern poetry when I was in high school - though of course it’s not so modern now!</p>
<p>Mention of Daffodils reminds me - google “Lake District daffodil rap” and you’ll find a video of a large squirrel, I think, doing a rap version of daffodil. It was put out by the Lake District tourism board so it’s suitable for all ages though probably not all times. </p>
<p>Love The Lanyard. Makes a nice Mother’s Day read.</p>
<p>[The</a> Mower by Andrew Marvell : The Poetry Foundation](<a href=“http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173950]The”>The Mower by Andrew Marvell | Poetry Foundation)</p>
<h1>13, I’m sure Larkin was thinking of Andrew Marvell, another northern English poet, when he wrote his “Mower” poem.</h1>
<p>Two poems have stuck with me over the years, and I find myself thinking about them forty years after English classes:</p>
<p>Coleridge, Kubla Khan ([Kubla</a> Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge : The Poetry Foundation](<a href=“http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173247]Kubla”>Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Poetry Foundation))
Yeats, The Second Coming ([The</a> Second Coming - Yeats](<a href=“http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html]The”>The Second Coming - Yeats))</p>
<p>Twenty years ago, I had to have a group of fifth graders memorize and recite in unison a poem. This is the one I chose:</p>
<p>Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
-Langston Hughes</p>