Teaching Poetry Through Art Integrated Learning: A Study of John Keats’ A Thing of Beauty

The research paper explores the effectiveness of Art Integrated Learning (AIL) as an innovative pedagogical approach for teaching English poetry, with special reference to John Keats’ poem A Thing of Beauty. AIL is an innovative, learner-centred, and powerful pedagogical approach that promotes learning of any subjects through and with various art forms. It encourages learners to explore concepts imaginatively while establishing links between different disciplines and art forms. Teching poetry through visual arts (such as sketching, clay modelling, paper craft, puppetry, and digital graphics) as well as performing arts (including music, dance, drama, film, and theatre) enhance comprehension and retention of concepts. It increases essential comprehensive skills of the students for learning abstract concepts and theories. Traditional methods of poetry teaching often fail to engage learners due to abstract themes, figurative language, and lack of emotional involvement. The present study adopts a qualitative, classroom-based Art Integrated Learning activity to examine how integrating visual arts, performing arts, and creative expression enhances students’ comprehension, language skills, and value-based learning. The findings indicate that AIL significantly improves engagement of learners and their aesthetic appreciation, emotional response, and overall understanding of poetic concepts. The study also highlights the relevance of AIL in achieving the objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which emphasizes experiential, holistic, and competency-based education.