Designing a Critical Scorecard: the Poetry League Table


Why not create your own league table of writers with your class? This is a great opportunity for critical thinking and collaborative decision-making.

Start by constructing a long or short list of writers/poets/novels/poems. Then discuss your key criteria for evaluation. Perhaps your scores will change over time?

Poet and playwright Oliver Goldsmith’s “poetical scale” was originally published in
The Literary Magazine in January, 1758.

Genius        Judgement        Learning           Versification

Chaucer                       16                    12                    10                    14

Spenser                        1 8                   12                    14                    18

Shakespeare                19                    14                    14                    19

Jonson                         1 6                   1 8                   17                    8

Cowley                        17                    17                    15                    17

Waller                          12                    12                    10                    16

Milton                          18                    16                    17                    18

Dryden                         18                    16                    17                    18

Addison                       1 6                   18                    17                    17

Prior                             16                    16                    15                    17

Pope                            18                    18                    15                    19


Further Reading

Check out the final section of Salvador Dali's Diary of a Genius for an absurdly serious League Table of famous artists.

"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."

"The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret."

Dr Ian McCormick is the author of The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences
(Quibble Academic, 2013)


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