Taylor Swift announced this week her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, will be released on April 19 – smack-dab in the middle of National Poetry Month. The online hype will grow as we get closer to the album launch, so let’s pull some of that TikTok excitement into the classroom by highlighting the lives and works of 13 (*wink) famously tortured poets.
• Break your class into 13 teams. Each team chooses one of the following poets to research in your computer lab or on their own 1:1 devices as they complete the assignment grid:
1. Edgar Allan Poe
2. Sylvia Plath
3. Emily Dickinson
4. Lord Byron
5. John Keats
6. Percy Bysshe Shelley
7. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
8. T.S. Eliot
9. Oscar Wilde
10. Dylan Thomas
11. Jack Kerouac
12. Ernest Hemingway
13. William Shakespeare
(Note: I chose these 13 as our “tortured poets” because the emotional depth in their poetry often reflects their personal struggles. Please add or remove writers, as you wish.)
• Once the research grids are complete, ask students to look at their writer’s catalog of poetry, read a few of those poems, and then choose one poem that can be thematically connected to a popular song they know today. If your room is full of Swifties, you can tie this assignment to the release of her new album by narrowing their connection options to songs from Taylor Swift’s discography. If your students are indifferent to Taylor Swift, open this up to any (school-appropriate) musical artist or song.
• Finally, if time allows, ask the student teams to prepare a two-minute presentation where they introduce their poet to the class by presenting four interesting things they discovered about the writer and sharing the poem they selected along with the modern musical connection. Alternatively, you could turn this part of the assignment into a poster-based gallery walk.
Want all 13 author research grids at a deep discount? Click here to download the 13-pack for just $13 – a 33% discount over the cost of buying them all individually:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Tortured-Poets-Bundle-Author-Biography-Research-Activity-Print-Digital-11037447
Want even more poetry lesson ideas? Check out my four-week high school poetry unit, built specifically for students and teachers who think they don’t like poetry:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/High-School-Poetry-Unit-4-Weeks-Analysis-Fun-Supplements-PDF-Google-Drive-1303263
Note: This collection of author biography research worksheets is an independent product and is in no way affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Taylor Swift or her representatives. I do not claim to have any association with Taylor Swift, and this product should not be misconstrued as officially endorsed or supported by her in any way. The references to Taylor Swift in this product description are used for descriptive/informative purposes only. All content in this product is solely my own and does not reflect the opinions, views, or endorsements of Taylor Swift or her representatives. I respect Taylor Swift’s talent and contributions to the music industry. I wish to make it clear that my product is separate and distinct from her work.
Blog header image used with permission and created by DALL·E, OpenAI’s AI model.