‘Oh no, we did old poems in Year 5!’ What is the place of classic poetry in the twenty-first century classroom?

These are the indignant words of Jack, the hero of Sharon Creech’s inspired book, Love that Dog, uttered after his teacher has read two of Robert Frost’s poems to the class: ‘The Pasture’ and ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’. Jack is left feeling

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bemused and excluded by the poems but, luckily, he is in the hands of wonderful teachers: Miss Stretchberry, whose determination and passion ensure that poetry is within the reach of all the children in her class, and the poems themselves, a small group of so-called ‘classic’ poems. Creech skilfully interweaves the teacher’s mediations with the impact of the poems themselves and shows how disaffected Jack is ultimately empowered as a reader and writer of poetry. This inspired poetic narrative touches on the very nature of poetry, its resonances in our lives and the challenges of teaching poetry that does not immediately reach out to a young reader.