Junior Cycle Poetry II

This booklet builds on Junior Cycle Poetry I and is ideal for teachers looking to expand their poetry selection with fresh, engaging, and relevant poems while still supporting exam skills and personal response.

What’s included:

• A carefully curated mix of modern, spoken-word, and classic poems
• Strong representation of Irish voices, including Daragh Fleming and Natalya O’Flaherty, and of course, Seamus Heaney.

Poems that explore:

• Teenage identity and emotional experience
• Love, relationships, and family
• Mental health, resilience, and self-expression
• Nature as escape and reflection
• Clear, accessible notes on themes, imagery, tone, and message
• Personal response prompts written directly for Junior Cycle students
• Unseen poetry practice, suitable for classroom use or assessment
• Visual supports and imagery to aid engagement and understanding

Why teachers like it:

• Written in clear, student-friendly language without oversimplifying
• Encourages thinking, discussion, and response, not rote learning
• Flexible and easy to dip into, perfect for mixed-ability classes
• Works particularly well for Transition Year, allowing teachers to pick and choose poems alongside other resources
• Several poems are also ideal for Ordinary Level Leaving Certificate unseen poetry practice
• This resource is designed to help students feel more confident approaching poetry, while giving teachers a practical, usable booklet that works in real classrooms.

Ideal for Junior Cycle, TY, and OL LC unseen poetry revision.