This poem was pasted on the wall of my Grade 11 high school classroom, and I was so enchanted by it I made the effort to memorize it. Many years later, it was one of the first poems I taught my children! (Or maybe they learned it because I'm still forever reciting it!) 🌬️🤍
Wonderful list Catherine! Have you discovered Mensa's "A Year of Living Poetically"? The site includes a list of poems which you can download in a pdf format (includes poem, analysis, and fill-in-the-blank practice). https://www.mensaforkids.org/read/a-year-of-living-poetically/
We particularly enjoyed A Psalm of Life (always made me tear up when students in my homeschool co-op recited this...)
This is their list:
“No Man is an Island” by John Donne
“Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare
“The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost
“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
“Death be not Proud” by John Donne
“Sonnet” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
“The Man in the Arena: Citizenship in a Republic” by Teddy Roosevelt
“Richard Cory” by Edward Arlington Robinson
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson
“A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The Cloths of Heaven” by William Butler Yeats
“Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
I learned Keats’ ‘To Autumn’ as a child, and loved it. Also large bits of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. Definitely helped me understand the rhythm of language, and in prose, too.
I have almost-ten-year-old Tolkien fan. We live in the US, but he does have an email address and is also hurting for like-minded friends. He also has a seven-year-old brother who has read The Hobbit and is just starting LotR.
Hi, Catherine! How do you recommend actually going about having them memorize the poems? Do I read the poems line by line with them to help them memorize them?
A few of the favourites in our house: Ozymandias, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Casabianca, Sea-Fever (John Masefield), Jabberwocky, A Psalm of Life (Longfellow).
Lots of these are on my list too, a great selection. We all love The Charge of the Light Brigade, such a good poem (especially for a boy who loves his war stories!).
It might be hard to find because it's out of print, but Felicity's World (published by American Girl). It gives a very good exploration of what life was like just prior to and during the Revolution from a child's perspective. Lots of pictures of artifacts from the era and short real-life stories about girls and women from the time period. Honestly, if you have a girl who's into historical fiction, the whole Felicity series is worth exploring. They also do a good job exploring things like how to respectfully and graciously hold your beliefs when those close to you disagree-- Felicity's best friend in the series comes from a Loyalist (wants to remain united with Britain ) family.
Not a book, but Liberty's Kids is a TV show free on YouTube that's SHOCKINGLY well done-- very nuanced, and depicts the war from the Loyalist and African American perspectives as well as from the Patriot one. The writers also went out of their way to bring in and quote a ton of actual accounts and writing from the time in the dialogue -- like I said, shockingly well done.
This all sounds fantastic, thank you so much! I love an out-of-print book recommendation - so many good books out there that are invisible unless you stumble across them in a second hand shop or some helpful person shares their knowledge!
At that age I had an edition of *A Child’s Garden of Verses* that I loved, and I memorized at my mother’s suggestion “The Land of Counterpane.”
My children at this age enjoyed memorizing Blake’s “The Tyger.” We also all loved the collection *Poetry Speaks to Children,” which comes with a CD and has something like 90 poems, many read by the poets themselves—Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Seamus Heaney, Yeats even!
One of my favorite poems is
Who Has Seen the Wind?
By Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
When I do a nature study with children on the wind, I begin with this poem. Lovely!
Lovely. She has some great, short poems for children. Simple but not basic, if that makes sense.
This poem was pasted on the wall of my Grade 11 high school classroom, and I was so enchanted by it I made the effort to memorize it. Many years later, it was one of the first poems I taught my children! (Or maybe they learned it because I'm still forever reciting it!) 🌬️🤍
My six year old is currently working on this one!
Wonderful list Catherine! Have you discovered Mensa's "A Year of Living Poetically"? The site includes a list of poems which you can download in a pdf format (includes poem, analysis, and fill-in-the-blank practice). https://www.mensaforkids.org/read/a-year-of-living-poetically/
We particularly enjoyed A Psalm of Life (always made me tear up when students in my homeschool co-op recited this...)
This is their list:
“No Man is an Island” by John Donne
“Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare
“The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost
“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
“Death be not Proud” by John Donne
“Sonnet” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
“The Man in the Arena: Citizenship in a Republic” by Teddy Roosevelt
“Richard Cory” by Edward Arlington Robinson
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson
“A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The Cloths of Heaven” by William Butler Yeats
“Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” by Dylan Thomas
This is brilliant Ruth, thank you. I hadn’t read A Psalm of Life before, what a great poem.
Thank you for this, Ruth!!! We are new to memorizing poetry but I have really started realizing the value of it. This resource is just what we need!
I learned Keats’ ‘To Autumn’ as a child, and loved it. Also large bits of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. Definitely helped me understand the rhythm of language, and in prose, too.
Not a Serious Literature poem but fun to recite aloud:
The cow mainly moos as she chooses to moo
And she chooses to moo as she chooses
She furthermore chews as she chooses to chew
And she chooses to chew as she muses
If she chooses to moo she may moo to amuse
Or may moo just to moo as she chooses
If she chooses to chew she may moo as she chews
Or may chew just to chew as she muses
(Jack Prelutsky)
I have almost-ten-year-old Tolkien fan. We live in the US, but he does have an email address and is also hurting for like-minded friends. He also has a seven-year-old brother who has read The Hobbit and is just starting LotR.
Hi, Catherine! How do you recommend actually going about having them memorize the poems? Do I read the poems line by line with them to help them memorize them?
Cargoes - John Masefield
One of my favourites. Such magical, evocative words. Quinquireme of Ninevah…
Love Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening! We also memorised The Road Not Taken.
Another I'd add to this list, for your Tolkien fan...
the "All that that is Gold does not Glitter..." poem from Fellowship of the Ring.
I like that a lot Chrysti, thank you.
A few of the favourites in our house: Ozymandias, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Casabianca, Sea-Fever (John Masefield), Jabberwocky, A Psalm of Life (Longfellow).
Lots of these are on my list too, a great selection. We all love The Charge of the Light Brigade, such a good poem (especially for a boy who loves his war stories!).
I have a 10 year old Tolkien nerd here :) He might be interested in a pen pal!
Just put you in touch with his mother by email. I hope you are all surviving the flu! You are remarkably good humoured!
American Revolution book recommendation:
It might be hard to find because it's out of print, but Felicity's World (published by American Girl). It gives a very good exploration of what life was like just prior to and during the Revolution from a child's perspective. Lots of pictures of artifacts from the era and short real-life stories about girls and women from the time period. Honestly, if you have a girl who's into historical fiction, the whole Felicity series is worth exploring. They also do a good job exploring things like how to respectfully and graciously hold your beliefs when those close to you disagree-- Felicity's best friend in the series comes from a Loyalist (wants to remain united with Britain ) family.
Not a book, but Liberty's Kids is a TV show free on YouTube that's SHOCKINGLY well done-- very nuanced, and depicts the war from the Loyalist and African American perspectives as well as from the Patriot one. The writers also went out of their way to bring in and quote a ton of actual accounts and writing from the time in the dialogue -- like I said, shockingly well done.
This all sounds fantastic, thank you so much! I love an out-of-print book recommendation - so many good books out there that are invisible unless you stumble across them in a second hand shop or some helpful person shares their knowledge!
I want to help your kids out with an easy money poem, but one of my absolute favorites from Emily Dickinson:
-----
Fame is a bee.
It has a song—
It has a sting—
Ah, too, it has a wing.
-----
Tell them I want a cut!
At that age I had an edition of *A Child’s Garden of Verses* that I loved, and I memorized at my mother’s suggestion “The Land of Counterpane.”
My children at this age enjoyed memorizing Blake’s “The Tyger.” We also all loved the collection *Poetry Speaks to Children,” which comes with a CD and has something like 90 poems, many read by the poets themselves—Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Seamus Heaney, Yeats even!
I also loved A Child’s Garden of Verses but I memorised From a Railway Carriage 🥰
Sgt. Lamb’s America. The war from the perspective of a British soldier. Wonderful novel. By Robert Graves.
Ooh the Rosetti gives me chills