Teaching Human Values through Poetry

Though its language abounds with imagery and metaphor, yet poetry has been able to move generations and raise awareness to crucial and significant matters that are related to humanity at large. It was through poetry that the African- Americans challenged the marginalization that the authorities practiced upon black people, and it was through poetry that soldiers who experienced war terrors were able to raise people’s awareness towards wars’ devastating impact on human lives and values. This paper tackles several examples from English poetry, which demonstrate poetry’s power to enhance human values, moreover, it will discuss how these poems could be included in school curricula to deliver the message they bear to young generations.