Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry About School

Learning by Heart brings together a unique and diverse collection of poems about the experience of school as seen through the eyes of America's best contemporary poets. These poets capture the educational process not only in the classroom but as it takes place in the libraries and hallways, on playing fields, and at dances. Alternately joyous and defiant, they demonstrate how it is that young people come to find their place in the world.

Most of the poems in this anthology were written between 1970 and 1995, a period that encompasses both the halcyon years of the poets-in-the-schools programs and the primary and secondary school years of many of the poets included. Their poems define school in that most contemporary sense--with a multitude of voices--reflecting perspectives from African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, and Native American as well as Anglo American backgrounds, from both public and private schools in rural and urban environments.

Learning by Heart offers a profound and timely statement about schools and learning as well as the role of art in education. Finally, these poems validate that most important lesson: even the most common of experiences is worthy of creative expression.

Contributors include Gary Snyder, Louise Glick, Eamon Grennan, Donald Hall, Audre Lorde, Gary Soto, Mark Doty, Paul Zimmer, Jane Kenyon, Li-Young Lee, Jorie Graham, David Wojahn, Louise Erdich, Toi Derricotte, Philip Levine, William Stafford, James Wright, Sherman Alexie, Cornelius Eady, Rita Dove, Gwendolyn Brooks, Maxine Kumin, Edward Hirsch, Robert Bly, Sharon Olds, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly.