6 Poems to Teach Situation and Setting
- Kristi My
- Apr 29, 2025
- 3 min read
Tomorrow is the last day of April, which means that tomorrow is the last day of National Poetry Month. So until next year, this will probably be the last poetry round-up for a while. I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading these poems with me. I've enjoyed the opportunity to read them again and think about the semester I've had.
The Norton Introduction to Literature: Shorter 14th Edition by Kelly J. Mays
As previously mentioned, this semester I am teaching from The Norton Introduction to Literature: Shorter 14th Edition by Kelly J. Mays. The poems from this round-up will have been pulled from “Chapter 13: Situation and Setting: What Happens? Where? When?” They’re poems that I appreciated reading and teaching this semester, and I believe they really help put into perspective for students how to look at situation and setting.
6 Poems to Teach Situation and Setting
I thought that this was an ideal poem to open up the chapter, especially since it was a great discussion starter for my class. Some of the students mentioned how they always believed that motherhood led to bliss and perfect happiness, and this poem details a mother being overwhelmed by her children and the responsibilities of having them. It was a great conversation about how people might hide their situations, or present themselves differently depending on the setting.
I read a whole Denise Duhamel book when I was in graduate school, but this poem might be my favorite thing that I have read of Duhamel’s. Set in the classroom of a remedial Humanity 101 class, the poem explores the idea of what does “humanity” even mean? And with Literature and Culture being a humanities class, it makes for good discussion of what the situation of our class might be.
In an exploration of the sci-fi genre, this poem explores what the future might look like. Smith’s version contrasts with the genre because it doesn’t deal with robots or space exploration, but rather explores what humanity will look like in the future where things, such as the setting, have changed. The situation in the poem is a reaction to that change.
With this poem, I feel as though I cannot talk about it and do it justice, but I am most drawn to the significance of the turning of words. In the poem, Lee plays with the difference between “persimmon” and “precision” and all the difference that change can make. The change can be significant depending on the situation and setting, whether you are looking at fright or fight. I'm going to stop now and just let you read it and see what I'm trying to explain.
The situation of this poem is that it is a response to “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” by Christopher Maslowe. While I managed to appreciate the wit and tone of the Raleigh poem on my own, I would say that it is another poem that my appreciation deepened when my students wrote about it. They expanded on my understanding of just how much bite this nymph has, how smart the nymph is to not fall for the honeyed words of the shepherd.
This poem was included in the text as an occasional poem, which offers its own kind of situation and setting. In the case of Blanco, this poem was written for the second inauguration of Barack Obama in 2013. The poem is able to paint that setting by highlighting different problems and appealing to the tone of that time.
A few weeks ago, I shared a list of poems that I didn’t completely appreciate until my students talked about them. Terrence Hayes’ “Carp Poem” is an honorable mention on this list for that reason. I appreciated this poem more after my students dissected it in class. The situation is that the narrator is going to teach in a prison, and there is some great symbolism to be explored.
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