During the age of revolutions, Shelley wrote that poets were the “unacknowledged legislators of the world” whose ideas and beliefs were the foundations of the social and political culture that changed the world.

However, today WH Auden’s line that “poetry makes nothing happen” has come to reflect a culture where it can feel as if verse is only of interest to English teachers and exam boards.

Ofqual’s recent decision to make poetry temporarily optional for the 2021 GCSE exams fed into poetry lovers’ fears that it could disappear from classrooms, having been unloved and neglected by school leaders, policymakers and the culture at large.

Yet my international school experience has shown me that this view of poetry’s is an anomaly of the anglophone world, rather than the natural state of things.

Promoting poetry in schools

Many of the native English-speaking students I’ve taught have had little contact with poetry and little enthusiasm when they have.

However, when students from other backgrounds are asked, the aversion to poetry often disappears to be replaced by wide-eyed enthusiasm.

In China, for example, poetry is alive and flourishing in the everyday lives of young people. Lines from Tang dynasty poets Li Bai and Du Fu, whose works predate Shakespeare by hundreds of years, are familiar to everyone regardless of background.

Poetry Congress, a recent X Factor-style poetry recital TV competition, was a huge ratings hit, ultimately won by a food delivery worker.

Meanwhile, the medieval poet Hafez is a national icon in Iran; his books are found side by side with the Koran in most households. And a social media storm erupted between Russia and Uzbekistan a few years ago, when president Putin’s rival Alexei Navalny suggested that Uzbeks were ignorant of the poetry of Alexander Pushkin. Young people took to social media to protest their love for the 19th-century Romantic and founder of Russian literature.

Meanwhile, English speakers are lucky if we can quote a few words of poets in our own language, let those of other tongues.

So how can schools - international or otherwise - start to rectify this situation?

1. Take poetry off the page and on to the stage

We still turn to poetry at times of heightened emotion, whether it’s in the aftermath of tragedy, showing appreciation for others in testing times, during political campaigns or recognising major life events.

Schools should take the cue from this and regularly bring poetry into our events and rituals such as assemblies, sports days and prizegivings.

Old favourites If and Invictus still work a treat, but why not try Nikita Gill’s Kindness or Rachel Rooney’s Battle Call.

2. Read poetry to write poetry

In her Orwell Prize-winning book, poet and teacher Kate Clanchy observes that “very, very few people really enjoy the practice of criticism, but almost everyone enjoys writing and reading”.

Yet we spend far more time teaching how to analyse a poem than how to write one, if at all.

Clanchy’s books, online workshops and other resources give practical ideas for helping students, including EAL learners, to use the reading of poetry to inspire original poems. often with incredible results.

For younger students, try Simon Mole’s Youtube channel for ideas.

I recently tried this with a Year 9 group studying Carol Ann Duffy’s poem Medusa, resulting in a student’s poem being mistaken for work by Keats by colleagues!

3. Teach living poets and invite them in

We are actually going through a golden age of youthful engagement with poetry at the moment, but few curricula or prescribed reading lists vary beyond the classics and a select few contemporary voices.

Teachers can help to bring more diverse and relevant voices into the classroom by following the #teachlivingpoets hashtag and website.

The CLIPPA Poetry Award for Young People has brought attention to exciting new voices such as Joseph Coelho, Kwame Alexander and Sarah Crossnan.

If you can, invite a poet to your school or for an online visit - they are often very engaging speakers.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to host some amazing poets such as Jackie Kay, Luke Wright and Omar Musa in my school, and all have captivated students.

4. Use poetry with pictures

In a recent interview, the acclaimed children’s author Barry Hutchison spoke of his difficulty in visualising poetic imagery, which may be a barrier to many other potential poetry readers.

Given the discussion of dual coding in other subjects, teachers should look out for poetry accompanied by visuals to aid interpretation, such as the comic-style adaptations by Zen Pencils and Classical Comics’ version of Dulce Et Decorum Est. These have proved very useful in the past and I hope to use some of Chris Riddell’s enthralling work in future. 

5. Start a ‘poetry by heart’ challenge

While students are rarely inspired by memorising poetry for the purpose of exams and essays, when set as challenge to recite and perform in front of others, many overcome their hesitancy and really shine.

I helped to organise this Shakespeare recital event with other schools in the Nord Anglia group, which has got lots of students excited about Shakespeare.

When social distancing allows it, a live recital event can be captivating, whether reading old classics or students’ own work. The Poetry By Heart and Poetry Out Loud websites have many resources to support this.

David Robinson is an English and humanities teacher at Nord Anglia International School in Hong Kong. He has taught internationally for 14 years