Favorite Poem Project

08/22/2026

08/21/2026

!

Today, we’re thinking about “American Poets’ Favorite Poems” - a Favorite Poem Project reading held at the Provincetown Fine Arts Center on August 7th, 1998. Swipe to see the complete lineup.

Robert Pinsky called the event “an unprecedented gathering of poets.” Lloyd Schwartz proclaimed it “a wonderful demonstration to the audience, each other, and the world that we love poetry and can’t live without it.”

Stanley Kunitz read Hopkins’ “God’s Grandeur.” David Ferry read Longfellow’s “The Fire of Driftwood.” Marge Piercy read Blake’s “The Sunflower.” Favorite Poem Project founder Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky read Frost’s “To Earthward,” and Project Director Maggie Dietz Maggie Dietz read Pound’s translation of Po’s ‘The River Merchant’s Wife.”

The event was sponsored by the Fine Arts Work Center and the Provincetown Banner.

Tell us: do you spy any of your favorite poems on this list? Share in the comments below, or send us a Direct Message. We’d love to hear from you.

•

08/12/2026

“In that time of ugly religious passions, the stringent education available to a privileged few made it possible for excellent poetry to be written by a ruler - and for a great poem to be composed by a young man condemned to death for trying to kill her,” writes Favorite Poem Project founder Robert Pinsky in a 2011 Slate article.

The article, entitled “Poets Under Pressure,” contains poems by Queen Elizabeth and Chidiock Tichborne - a queen and her would-be assassin.

Swipe to read the poems and Pinsky’s commentary, as well as a writing prompt.

Tell us: what poems contain the kind of energy that makes you feel “as if the poet looks up directly at the reader”? Share in the comments below, or send a DM. We’d love to hear from you.

•

07/08/2026

Welcome back to Resource Wednesdays: Poetry in the Classroom!

This week’s lesson plan can be modified for students of all levels and ages. Our Terms for the Tools of Poetry lesson plan was designed by teachers in MA and NY. It is intended to support students as they prepare for examinations like the MCAS or AP tests, where knowledge of poetic tools can aid them in analyzing and discussing poetry.

We recommend that this lesson be taught only after an introductory lesson or lessons that help students establish personal connections with particular poems.

Swipe to read an excerpt from this lesson plan. Our Classroom Resources page has free lesson plans and educational resources for educators. While the website is categorized by age, materials can be modified for students of all ages and needs.

The full lesson plan for Terms for the Tools of Poetry is available via the link in our bio. There, you’ll find homework ideas and potential next steps.

Tell us: how do you approach teaching poetic terms? Share in the comments below, or send us a Direct Message. We’d love to hear from you.

•

06/24/2026

EN107: The Voice of Poetry is an experiential poetry class taught by Favorite Poem Project director and BUCH Public Humanities Manager Annette Frost.

As part of this class, students were guided to choose their own favorite poems and create videos in the style of the original FPP videos. The class voted on the top three videos.

This week and next, we’ll be posting the three winning videos by EN107 students that were professionally remade by BU’s Institute for Excellence in Teaching & Learning.

Here is Joseph Raymond’s video, in which he reads and discusses a section of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” by Walt Whitman.

You can access these videos on our website under “The Favorite Poem Project Videos,” and/or the “Student Videos” filters in our Poetry Archive. Check out the link in our bio to look at all three videos.

•

06/22/2026

EN107: The Voice of Poetry is an experiential poetry class taught by Favorite Poem Project director and BUCH Public Humanities Manager Annette Frost.

As part of this class, students were guided to choose their own favorite poems and create videos in the style of the original FPP videos. The class voted on the top three videos.

This week and next, we’ll be posting the three winning videos by EN107 students that were professionally remade by BU’s Institute for Excellence in Teaching & Learning.

Here is Himagowri Prasad’s video, in which she reads and discusses “The Fig Tree”: an excerpt from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

You can access these videos on our website under “The Favorite Poem Project Videos,” and/or the “Student Videos” filters in our Poetry Archive. Check out the link in our bio to look at all three videos.

•

06/19/2026

EN107: The Voice of Poetry is an experiential poetry class taught by Favorite Poem Project director and BUCH Public Humanities Manager Annette Frost.

As part of this class, students were guided to choose their own favorite poems and create videos in the style of the original FPP videos. The class voted on the top three videos.

This week and next, we’ll be posting the three winning videos by EN107 students that were professionally remade by BU’s Institute for Excellence in Teaching & Learning.

Here is Harleen Bains’s video, in which she reads and discusses “If I Must Die” by Refaat Alareer.

You can access these videos on our website under “The Favorite Poem Project Videos,” and/or the “Student Videos” filters in our Poetry Archive. Check out the link in our bio to look at all three videos.

•

06/12/2026

“I come from a family of eight,” says Boston-based student John Ulrich. “[we are a r]eally tight, close family. [...] You know, I was never by myself.”

Ulrich identifies this unconditional love as what “saved” him. it was a “huge backing” of brothers and sisters that “didn’t turn their back, no matter what.”

This support means a lot to Ulrich, who has lost friends and loved ones to overdoses and su***de. He describes it as a “cluster of death.” He formed a South Boston Survivors group with his girlfriend, little sister, and friends to spark creativity in young people.

Brooks’s “We Real Cool,” came to Ulrich in the middle of these tragedies. It reminds him of how things “got so drastic so quick.”

“It just made so much sense. It was like telling my story. A perfect picture of what was going on in my neighborhood.”

Tell us: what poems feel like they capture your experience the way Brooks captured Ulrich’s? Share in the comments below, or send us a DM. We’d love to hear from you.

•

06/03/2026

It’s Resource Wednesday: Poetry in the Classroom!

This multi-day unit relies on students’ prior knowledge of poetry and gives them the opportunity to build community through poetry; teachers may choose to shorten or combine a given day’s lesson from Favorite Poems: Ours and Others’, as they see fit. Swipe to check out this resource!

Our Classroom Resources page has free lesson plans and educational resources for educators. While the website is categorized by age, materials can be modified for students of all ages and needs.

The full lesson plan for Poetry and Culture is available via the link in our bio. There, you’ll find homework ideas and potential next steps.

Tell us: have you implemented a multi-day poetry unit that focuses on community-building? What was that experience like? Share in the comments below, or send us a DM.

•

05/29/2026

Roxbury-based Rev. Michael Haynes’s brother, Roscoe Baker, passed away on May 17th, 2026. We at the FPP are thinking of the Haynes and Baker families.

Watch this video to hear Rev. Haynes read Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life.”

•