Poetry Rx Teacher and Student Guide

**POETRY RX -Selected by the New York Times as one of the eight best books of the year in the wellness category NOW ENJOY A CONCISE AND HELPFUL TEACHER AND STUDENT AND READER GUIDE AS WELL – PERFECT FOR BOOK CLUBS/READING GROUPS!** “A wonderful classroom teaching tool to broaden the experience of students through beautiful language and the sensibilities of the poet.” Poetry Rx presents 50 poems with short bio sketches to reveal the enigmatic minds that gave birth to these masterworks. "An especially enjoyable feature of the book is the recurring section connecting the poem and the poet.” – Peter Sacks, Harvard University This Poetry Rx Teacher and Student Guide presents in a question format these five areas in such a way as to stimulate discussion amongst groups of students who want to use this book to learn about poetry, psychology, or both. It is especially geared to the last two years of high school and the college years. In Poetry Rx, Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal collected an anthology of poems intended to be enjoyable, accessible and useful. As a Psychiatrist, Rosenthal observed the ways poems helped his patients through times of difficulty, giving voice to certain feelings while offering a way forward. Poems, he feels, are not merely an academic exercise; they are vibrant creations that can educate our emotions, expand our understanding of human experience and be a solace and source of healing. Each of the fifty poems is laid out in the same format. The poem is presented up front, then an essay analyzing the poem. Rosenthal then uses his experience as a longtime psychiatrist to extract specific take¬aways from each poem, which students will find germane to their own lives. Finally the author connects the poems with a brief biographical sketch of the poet in such a way that explains how the products of the creative mind spring forth from our own experience. Rosenthal addresses five major areas of life where poetry can play a valuable role.