Poetry Unlocked: An Anthology Arranged In Themes

Poetry Unlocked: An Anthology Arranged in Themes is a collection of almost 200 classic and contemporary poems for secondary school students selected by experienced classroom English teachers. The anthology aims to introduce students to important and interesting poems and poets from the canon of English literature and from other languages and cultures. The poems are arranged in themes relevant to secondary students, ranging from Animals and School to Life, Relationships and Young People.

The selection of poems in each theme aims at diversity and accessibility in order to engage students' interest in reading poetry for enjoyment. At the end of many themes there are short biographies of important and well known poets to introduce students to the people behind the poems to enhance their appreciation and understanding of the poets and their work.

Contents 

ANIMALS

• Bird in the classroom, Colin Thiele
• The bat, Theodore Roethke
• The donkey, G. K. Chesterton
• The blind men and the elephant, John Godfrey
• SaxeTortoise, David Speechley
• Circus, Margaret Stanley-Wrench
• The tyger, William Blake
• The killer, Judith Wright
  • A POET'S LIFE: Judith Wright (1915-2000)

CELEBRATIONS

• Christmas at the orphanage, Bill Knott
• Santa Claus, A.B. (Banjo) Paterson
• I celebrate Hanukkah, Anonymous
• The Great Feast, Reece (aged 10)
• New Year's watch, Su Shi
• Chinese New Year, Anonymous
• Corroboree, Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal
• The wedding, Mal Foster
• haiku - malay village wedding, john tiong chunghoo
• Halloween, Mac Hammond

CITY LIFE

• City jungle, Pie Corbett
• Outer suburbs, John Manifold
• Social security, Terence Winch
• Letter from Lilliput, John Paisley
• In the new landscape, Bruce Dawe
  • A POET'S LIFE: Bruce Dawe (1930-)

COMPUTERS and TECHNOLOGY

• Abort, retry, ignore? Anonymous
• Cyber space, Moya Levy and Sue Flaherty
• Cyber me, Brian Routh

COUNTRY LIFE

• The shearer's wife, Louis Esson
• Country towns, Kenneth Slessor
• Elegy written in a country church-yard, Thomas Gray
• Past carin', Henry Lawson
  • A POET'S LIFE: Henry Lawson (1867-1922)

DEATH

• Do not stand at my grave and weep, Mary Frye
• Remember, Christina Rossetti
• Death of a whale, John Blight
• For Sadako, Ross Clark
• Because I could not stop for Death, Emily Dickenson
• The death of a cat, Anthony Thompson
• O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman
• Death is a fisherman, Benjamin Franklin
• Do not go gentle into that good night, Dylan Thomas
  • A POET'S LIFE: Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)

DISABILITY

• My son (for Donovan), Jim Bouder
• I asked the little boy who cannot see, Anonymous
• The afflicted, Robert W. Service
• The quiet music of the deaf, Maureen Emily Orr
• Disabled, Wilfred Owen
  • A POET'S LIFE: Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

ENVIRONMENT

• Homework, Allen Ginsberg
• Fate's tools, Geoffrey Lungren
• Prayer to protect water, Claudia L'Amoreaux
• Prayer for the white man, Traditional Native American Indian
• Tewa song, Traditional Native American Indian

FAITH

• Holy Dan, Anonymous
• The weaver, Anonymous
• Long long ago, Anonymous In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Qur'an - 24:35 - Al 'Nuur - the Light
• Pied beauty, Gerard Manley Hopkins
  • A POET'S LIFE: Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

FANTASY and THE SUPERNATURAL

• La belle dame sans merci, John Keats
• The lady of Shalott, Alfred Lord Tennyson
• The dead, Susan Mitchell
• Amaze, Adelaide Crapsey
• November night, Adelaide Crapsey
• The spider and the ghost of the fly, Vachel Lindsay
• The raven, Edgar Allan Poe
• The pied piper of Hamelin, Robert Browning

FRIENDSHIP

• Moving on, A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson
• My friend, Jeffrey Mattingley
• She had more friends, Joanne Burns
• Taking leave of a friend, Li Po
• My friend must be a bird, Emily Dickinson
  • A POET'S LIFE: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

HEALTH

• The mother's son, Rudyard Kipling
• The dilemmas of AIDS, James Sykes
• Song of the decanter, Anonymous
• Common cold, Ogden Nash
  • A POET'S LIFE: Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

HUMOUR

• A bush Christening, A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson
• The young girl in the choir, Anonymous
• Numbers, Mary Cornish
• Johnny Sands, Anonymous
• The walrus and the carpenter, Lewis Carroll
  • A POET'S LIFE: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS

• Manikurdorrk / Brolga, Jack Riala
• Terra nullius, Philip Rush
• Bora ring, Judith Wright
• Ballad of the totems, Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal
  • A POET'S LIFE: Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal (1920-1993)

LIFE

• Leisure, W.H. Davies
• Viewing time, E.V. Milner
• Slow dance, Anonymous
• Do not seek too much fame, Anonymous
• Dreams, Langston Hughes
• Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley
• If, Rudyard Kipling
• The world's need, Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• To put the world right in order, Confucius
• The seven deadly sins, Mathatma Gandhi

LOVE

• Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold
• Annabel Lee, Edgar Allan Poe
• 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.', Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Comparisons, Christina Rossetti
• Remembrance, Emily Bronte
• Thy heart, Anonymous
• She walks in beauty, Lord Byron
• My mistress' eyes are nothing like