If you've got a talent, protect it.
Do not weep do not wax indignant. Understand.
Always desire to learn something useful.
The most effective way to do it, is to do it.
Wherever you are - be all there.
The dog that trots about finds a bone.
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
To be a good loser is to learn how to win.
The wise does at once what the fool does at last.
If you think you can do it, you can.
Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.