According to the Oxford English dictionary, poetry is defined as the expression and embodiment of beautiful or elevated thought, imagination, or feeling, in language adapted to stir the imagination and emotion, both immediately and also through harmonic suggestions latent in or implied by the words and connections of words actually used... Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used aesthetically and evocatively [3, p. 918].Poetry from the Greek word poesies means creativity – a special way of speech organization, expressed in a graceful, harmonious and a verse form. This article will consider effectiveness of applying English poetry to teaching different aspects of  language, motivating learners to learn foreign language and promote their cognitive activity.Using poetry at lessons is quite an interesting and fruitful way of implementation of personally-oriented approach on the English language lessons.Many teachers still focus too much on lexical points or pay too much attention to grammar practice but give less attention to the development of student's creativity. Getting acquainted with poetic works of the language learning countries contributes to self-enrichment of students, development of their ethic views and aesthetic taste. Studying English poetry promotes students' cognitive activity, cultivate their thinking. English poetry inclusion helps to overcome national cultural centralism, enhance general language competence, enrich intercultural knowledge with vivid expressions, can improve learner's guessing and predicting skills with its special uses of words and deviant forms. It also develops learner's reading competence. The goals of teaching poetry also the following: to enlarge learner's vocabulary, to develop learner's logical thinking ability, to raise learner's cultural and intercultural awareness, to develop reading and pronunciation skills and so on. Teaching poetry helps to improve student's creativity and self-cultivation.