Engage students in a discussion about the definition of failure and why so many people are afraid of it using Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena speech from 1910.

1.)Literature should be puzzling, magical and mystifying. The best literature hinders easy interpretation and compels return visits. Poetry serves this purpose perfectly. Poetry is not meant to be solved. The ambiguous nature of the poem is one of the reasons it is not a favorite of the majority of class, but rather the minority.Poetry allows me to teach my students how to write, read, and understand any text. It also provides a healthy outlet for swelling teenage emotions. Some of the most empathetic and trusting moments in the classroom community for me over the past twenty years has come from students sharing their original work, to say nothing of the speaking and listening SOLS that are often overlooked in high school English. This lesson is for the discovery of poetry.