In this article, I elucidate the idea of a poetics of teaching and outline its value to scholars and teachers who seek a deeper understanding of the practice. A poetics of teaching draws together aesthetic, intellectual, and moral dimensions of the work that are often treated separately, if treated at all, in both research and in the classroom. In so doing, a poetics clarifies our picture of what the work offers to the men and women who take up the role. A poetics of teaching calls attention to how teaching can enrich the life of the teacher, even as he or she seeks to deepen and to broaden students' knowledge, understandings, and outlooks. I draw upon aspects of art, of inquiry, and of metaphor to help illuminate these educational values.