Margaret Atwood Drills

Describe her poetry
To try to get students integrating superficial learning with the true understanding of a poet's style and genre, we tried these drills. Firstly they explained the poets overall style and technique. This was dry and boring and full of platitudes and academic claptrap.

Then they tried to describe it without explanations. This worked well as they started to emulate her style.
 Then they tried to rip it off. This provoked the most intensity and focus, forcing them to see how the poem really worked and how she made her impact through her devices.

We then read a number of other poems by her and it all became clear that the more you read a poet, the better you understand their works without having to resort to second hand internet crits and essays.

http://www.poemhunter.com/margaret-atwood/

Describe her poetry without explanations.
Margaret Atwood: Burning rubber on the road. The spot between the tire and the tarmac. Evoking sounds and senses in montage shards. She watches from the cupboard, hidden in platitudes, but waiting for the light to go out. She waits for the reader to come closer for and explanation, then pounces into the crevices of the brain and probes, her golden needles, clinical and clumsy, Knives wielded by the amateurs in her productions.  Have I got a lead role?

Write an Atwood Poem (My rather poor attempt was really overshadowed by Timara's who seemed to click with the style easily)

She sits and knits
Time clicking past her fingers
and the hall clock waits
as it has for past faces and figures
the men who wandered through the hallway
Bringers of children and beer breath
the older then, the boy child now.

and one day she will lie with gathering clouds
and antiseptic tiles in the departure lounge
with no visitors, but the crisp nurse,
who understands but cannot wait to get home
and wait for her date