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Lines from poetry are often used at the beginning of chapters in some YA novels, many a time to hint at what is to come. For example, Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries series, began every chapter of her fantasy romance novel Avalon High with a stanza from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. Those who have read the novel will know that in doing so, Meg Cabot gives readers a slight clue as to the true identity of the characters.
Similarly, YA favourite Cassandra Clare chose to begin each chapter of her novel Clockwork Angel with a section from poems that her characters, who lived in late-19th century London, would be familiar with, such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Sir Galahad.
Plot lines and poems seem to intersect in many YA novels too, and give us an insight into some of the main characters emotions. Sarah Dessen, author of Someone Like You, and Lock and Key, uses one of TS Eliot’s (yes, the man whose poems inspired Cats: The Musical!) poems, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, in her novel Dreamland. Experiencing feelings of rejection and a kind of separateness from the rest of the world, main character Caitlin finds it easy to identify with Prufrock’s own feeling of being in limbo.
Some of our favourite characters like poetry too. John Green’s Paper Towns is full of metaphors, and one of these can be found in the form of poetry. The elusive Margo from John Green’s Paper Towns, who mysteriously disappears one evening, leaves an odd clue to her whereabouts in the form of Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass collection. However, the highlighted lines in the poem prove very ambiguous, making it difficult not only for our hero, Q, to understand, but for the reader too! As it turns out, Margo hadn’t intended the poem to be used as a way of finding her, instead simply highlighting the sections she felt exemplified her own life, much like Sarah Dessen’s character Caitlin.
Why is there so much poetry in YA/teen lit?
Quote:
Lines from poetry are often used at the beginning of chapters in some YA novels, many a time to hint at what is to come. For example, Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries series, began every chapter of her fantasy romance novel Avalon High with a stanza from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. Those who have read the novel will know that in doing so, Meg Cabot gives readers a slight clue as to the true identity of the characters.
Similarly, YA favourite Cassandra Clare chose to begin each chapter of her novel Clockwork Angel with a section from poems that her characters, who lived in late-19th century London, would be familiar with, such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Sir Galahad.
Plot lines and poems seem to intersect in many YA novels too, and give us an insight into some of the main characters emotions. Sarah Dessen, author of Someone Like You, and Lock and Key, uses one of TS Eliot’s (yes, the man whose poems inspired Cats: The Musical!) poems, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, in her novel Dreamland. Experiencing feelings of rejection and a kind of separateness from the rest of the world, main character Caitlin finds it easy to identify with Prufrock’s own feeling of being in limbo.
Some of our favourite characters like poetry too. John Green’s Paper Towns is full of metaphors, and one of these can be found in the form of poetry. The elusive Margo from John Green’s Paper Towns, who mysteriously disappears one evening, leaves an odd clue to her whereabouts in the form of Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself from Whitman’s Leaves of Grass collection. However, the highlighted lines in the poem prove very ambiguous, making it difficult not only for our hero, Q, to understand, but for the reader too! As it turns out, Margo hadn’t intended the poem to be used as a way of finding her, instead simply highlighting the sections she felt exemplified her own life, much like Sarah Dessen’s character Caitlin.
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