Lesson Plan for "A Story about the Body" by Robert Hass
Christina Yovovich

In my poetry sequence plan I have a week devoted to discussing form in poetry. I plan to focus on freeverse, as 300 level poetry classes have a focus on form and spend time a lot of time discussing formal poetry. In order to prepare students for taking that class, I think they need a solid foundation in thinking about the poetic line and stanzas. I think Hass' prose poem "A Story about the Body" would be an interesting poem to use towards the end of form week. By then, students will have discussed form as it relates to freeverse. They'll also have continued our discussions of imagery and sound/rhythm in poetry from earlier weeks.

After discussing more "traditional" poems throughout the week, I'd have students read this one. Then, I'd have them freewrite for five-ten minutes about what makes this a poem rather than a story. I'd instruct them to be specific -- to quote and contemplate specific phrases, images, etc. Then I'd have students share their thoughts together in pairs. Finally, I'd discuss the poem as a whole class. I'd have students read or paraphrase from their freewriting, always making sure to guide them to staying close to the text. We'd discuss the poet's use of imagery and sound especially.

Then I'd have students work in pairs to rewrite a portion of the poem -- specifically to put in linebreaks. I'd tell them to think about what we'd discussed earlier in the week -- the way the first and last words of lines have extra emphasis, the way the end of a line has a pause about the length of half a comma, the way stanza breaks create longer pause, etc. Next, I'd lead a whole class discussion about how the linebreaks changed their reading of the poem. This would be a natural way to discuss what the lack of line breaks added to the poem, in other words how and why the prose poem form was essential to this particular poem.

Finally, I'd assign the students a writing exercise. In this writing exercise I'd have them write a prose poem about an encounter between two people in which there is a misunderstanding or disconnect of some kind. I'd instruct them to think about imagery and sound. I'd then tell them to take it home and revise it for the next class.