So, do you have a favorite poem?

[theelfqueen]

We're doing a "Poem a Week" in our Literature class ... this week we did one of my all time favorite poems (somewhere i have never traveled by ee cummings) and I told my DS that it was one of my favorites.

 

He is not terribly interested in poetry which is why we've added it once a week - to get more exposure without drowning him in a whole unit of nothing but poetry. He seemed surprised that I have favorite poems and poets (I haven't even dragged him into Rilke yet! LOL) and it made me wonder. I think I first really found poems and poets I loved in high school forensics/debate.

 

Anyway -- do you have favorites that you want to share (For ME to wrap myself in  ... and maybe I'll take him into them, too)

 

(I'm excited to be on a board with other grownups who are interested in these things ;) Not always common on the other forums I frequent)

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by theelfqueen

[Eagle]

I have MANY favourites! Too many to choose just one. My ds loves poetry so we read poems together frequently.

 

Something that I love (and may work for you) is that every year ds chooses a poem, copies it in his best handwriting, and surprises me with it as my birthday gift. He includes his name and the year on it. I laminate it and add it to my birthday poem book. I am hoping little ds will do the same when he is older. I treasure this collection of poems that will grow over time. I can always look back to see what his favourite was that year.

 

It isn't too late for you to start this tradition in your family. With three dc your book will grow faster.

[Zoo Keeper]

When I was a child, I thought this poem  was the funniest thing ever. I memorized it just because I loved it so. I can still rattle it off by heart.  My kids think I'm weird.

 

I also loved and memorized The Walrus and the Carpenter, which is yet another evidence of my oddity.  That one is so much fun to recite dramatically. 

 

 

 

 

[Carol in Cal.]

The Chambered Nautilus

[wintermom]

If by Kipling is a good one to be familiar with, as there are many references to it in other literature. It's not exactly my favourite, though. I really like Christina Rossetti and Robert Service.

 

We did a Poem Week with our Writing group, and found many fun poems in the juvenile section of the library. There were some nice collections of poems with animal themes that our gang really enjoyed. 

[foxbridgeacademy]

Jaberwocky and "If" but not the one by Kipling.

We have this little book,(called "The Children's Picture Book")  it's a reproduction of "The Children's Tableaux" by Ernest Nister (I don't know if he's the author but instead just the publisher/artist?)

Here's the Poem (because it's very hard to find online)

 

"If"

If all the World were water

And even stones could float,

If houses all were Noah's Arks

And every car a boat

 

If birds and bugs had fins and gills

And fish could fly,

We' all go swimming in the Woods

And let the lakes stay dry!

 

You see, if all the World were "If"

We'd never wear a frown-

Everything could be ANYTHING

And the World would be upside-down!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by foxbridgeacademy

[Hobbes]

I love A.A. Milne's poetry... so many selections, but especially "Forgiven". Delightful.

[texasmama]

http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html

 

and

 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/poem/175903

 

and

 

http://poestories.com/read/bells

[texasmama]

http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Poems-Old-New-Selected/dp/0385076967

 

The above is a wonderful anthology that I have read aloud to all of my children.

[helena]

I'm currently in love with our February poem. I was looking at many, many winter poems and finally thought to myself "Why aren't there any California winter poems??" I googled it, and voila!! :)

I'm in So Cal, it's 83*.

I love Robert Frost's Now Close the Windows... but, come on! Shapiro is speaking my language. 

 

 

 

CALIFORNIA WINTER

By Karl Shapiro

 

 

It is winter in California, and outside

Is like the interior of a florist shop:

A chilled and moisture-laden crop

Of pink camellias lines the path; and what

Rare roses for a banquet or a bride,

So multitudinous that they seem a glut!

 

A line of snails crosses the golf-green lawn

From the rosebushes to the ivy bed;

An arsenic compound is distributed

For them. The gardener will rake up the shells

And leave in a corner of the patio

The little mound of empty shells, like skulls.

 

By noon the fog is burnt off by the sun

And the world's immensest sky opens a page

For the exercise of a future age;

Now jet planes draw straight lines, parabolas,

And x's, which the wind, before they're done,

Erases leisurely or pulls to fuzz.

 

It is winter in the valley of the vine.

The vineyards crucified on stakes suggest

War cemeteries, but the fruit is pressed,

The redwood vats are brimming in the shed,

And on the sidings stand tank cars of wine,

For which bright juice a billion grapes have bled.

 

And skiers from the snow line driving home

Descend through almond orchards, olive farms.

Fig tree and palm tree - everything that warms

The imagination of the wintertime.

If the walls were older one would think of Rome:

If the land were stonier one would think of Spain.

 

But this land grows the oldest living things,

Trees that were young when Pharoahs ruled the world,

Trees whose new leaves are only just unfurled.

Beautiful they are not; they oppress the heart

With gigantism and with immortal wings;

And yet one feels the sumptuousness of this dirt.

 

It is raining in California, a straight rain

Cleaning the heavy oranges on the bough,

Filling the gardens till the gardens flow,

Shining the olives, tiling the gleaming tile,

Waxing the dark camellia leaves more green,

Flooding the daylong valleys like the Nile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's  Now Close the Windows

Now close the windows and hush all the fields:

If the trees must, let them silently toss;
No bird is singing now, and if there is,
Be it my loss.

It will be long ere the marshes resume,
I will be long ere the earliest bird:
So close the windows and not hear the wind,
But see all wind-stirred.

Edited February 8, 2016 by helena

[Critterfixer]

My favorite is Coleridge's Kubla Khan. I also like The Tyger by Blake.

One that the boys memorized recently that they liked was The Fog, by W.H.Davies. 

[KrissiK]

"Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

Laugh and the world laughs with you

Weep and you weep alone

The sad old earth must borrow it's mirth

But has trouble enough of its own.

[Guest]

Definitely IF by Kipling.

[wintermom]

nm

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by wintermom

[mellifera33]

Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Wallace Stevens

 

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

 

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell

 

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

 

Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

 

[You Fit into Me] by Margaret Atwood

 

Sadie and Maud by Gwendolyn Brooks

[J-rap]

I have many favorites, but I usually don't remember them until I read them again! 

 

One that I do remember is "The Land of Counterpane" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

My father used to read me poetry a lot, so I'm sure some of my memories of poems I enjoy are tied to memories of being with my father.

 

 

[MrsWeasley]

My favorite? The Summer Day by Mary Oliver:  https://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html

[VaKim]

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. 

Edited February 8, 2016 by VaKim

[Kristie in Florida]

“Hope†is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

 

...

 

It speaks to me.

[fdrinca]

My poetry phase peaked as a moody adolescence, thus is heavy on the Sylvia Plath. I love a good dramatic reading of "Daddy." 
 

Cumming's "anyone lived in a pretty how town" is another favorite for reading aloud.

 

 

 

[KrissiK]

“Hope†is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

 

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

 

...

 

It speaks to me.

That's a good one, too! We memorized it last year!

[debi21]

My poetry phase peaked as a moody adolescence, thus is heavy on the Sylvia Plath. I love a good dramatic reading of "Daddy." 

 

Mine too. I wrote a very long h.s. paper on her. Memories! Two of my favorites were "Tulips" and "Elm." I still think she was an amazing poet.

 

 

[Carol in Cal.]

And then there is:

But after all, my one time love,

My no longer cherished,

Need we say it was not love

Just because it perished?

 

--Edna St. Vincent Millay, I think.  Or maybe Emily Dickenson.

[Grover]

The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God

[JenneinCA]

Casey at the Bat

[Haiku]

We have been memorizing poems for 8 years now. We have lots of favorite poems! 

 

My son's favorites are O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman, Some Opposites by Richard Wilbur, and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.

 

My daughter's favorites are Hunting Song of the Seeonee Pack by Rudyard Kipling, This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams, and My Dog May Be a Genius by Jack Prelutsky.

 

My favorites are The Song of Wandering Aengus by William Butler Yeats, Snow in the Suburbs by Thomas Hardy, and Sea-Fever by John Masefield.

 

Some of the poems we have memorized are high-brow, and some are just plain silly fun. If a poem is tough, we look it up on Shmoop or another resource so that we really understand it. My kids love poetry and don't view it as threatening.

 

ETA: An enduring favorite is The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service. My dad memorized it and used to recite it for us when I was a kid. I recited it for my kids. They memorized it and recited it for my dad as a Christmas present a few years ago. :)

Edited February 10, 2016 by TaraTheLiberator

[Chrysalis Academy]

I mostly like depressing poetry. Or poetry that I like to read when I'm depressed? It's somehow comforting.

 

T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is my all-time favorite.  I like The Hollow Men too. 

 

Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

 

The Second Coming by Yeats

[El...]

At the moment, I have the first part of The Deer's Cry by St. Patrick on the living room chalkboard.  I may do the next verse next month!

 

I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

Of the Creator of creation. 

 

I love his poems.  He was a nature mystic, I think. 

 

[theelfqueen]

I had forgotten that I loved the Song of the Wandering Aengus!

 

There are many lovely selections here... I am enjoying the heck out of this thread!

[Chris in VA]

I love Emily Dickinson, esp

 

A bird, came down the walk-

 

I love how the words in the first part of the poem are choppy, like the bird hopping about, and then they change, as the bird takes flight. Oh! It's lovely!

 

I love Hopkins' Pied Beauty.

I see life as a "dappled thing," full of light and dark.

 

I love John Donne's Batter My Heart.

Some people do not like the metaphor, but I do.

 

There are many more, but that's a start.

 

 

[Guest]

Oh, DS loves anything by Jack Prelutsky and Lear :)

 

This reminds me of when I had to memorize The Village Blacksmith in 2nd grade...I still love that one too.

[Baile]

My favorite, since I first read it in college, has been Chanson de la plus haute tour, by Arthur Rimbaud.

 

My oldest son's favorite is A Supermarket in California, by Allen Ginsberg, and my 7yo loves Duello, by Robert Service. 

[Lori D.]

… oops

Edited February 11, 2016 by Lori D.

[Reefgazer]

Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening".

[alisoncooks]

I love "Who Loves the Rain" by Frances Shaw, but I always come back to this e.e. cummings poem in the spring:

 

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

 

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth

day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

 

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any–lifted from the no

of all nothing–human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

 

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

 

e.e. cummings

[RootAnn]

My favorite changes on a regular (or irregular) basis.

 

I'm looking forward to having one of my boys memorize G.K. Chesterton's The Hunting of the Dragon someday. 

 

We like silly poems like Prelusky's Eyeballs and Shel Siverstein's My Hobby:

 

When you spit from the twenty-sixth floor,
And it floats on the breeze to the ground,
Does it fall upon hats
Or on white Persian cats
Or on heads, with a pitty-pat sound?
I used to think life was a bore,
But I don't feel that way anymore,
As I count up the hits,
As I smile as I sit,
As I spit from the twenty-sixth floor.

[Kareni]

Here's an older thread on the same topic ~  Poetry anyone? Add your favorites here

 

This one was a favorite of mine in high school, and I still like it.

The Preacher: Ruminates behind the Sermon  by Gwendolyn Brooks


I think it must be lonely to be God.
Nobody loves a master. No. Despite
The bright hosannas, bright dear-Lords, and bright
Determined reverence of Sunday eyes.

Picture Jehovah striding through the hall
Of his importance, creatures running out
From servant-corners to acclaim, to shout
Appreciation of His merit's gaze.

But who walks with Him?--dares to take His arm,
To slap Him on the shoulder, tweak His ear,
Buy Him a Coca-Cola or a beer,
Pooh-pooh His politics, call Him a fool?

Perhaps--who knows?--He tires of looking down.
Those eyes are never lifted. Never straight.
Perhaps sometimes He tires of being great
In solitude. Without a hand to hold.


Regards,
Kareni

[vonbon]

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene Field

 

Also Eric Carle's Animals, Animals is a really good book of illustrations and classic poems about animals.  They're funny and enjoyable for people from toddlers to adults. 

 

ETA: Another vote for Edward Lear's Nonsense Poems.  People of all ages in our home love it.  

Edited February 14, 2016 by vonbon

[StartingOver]

Spell of the Yukon, Robert Service

[Ausmumof3]

So many I love here.

 

My current favourite is this by Emily Dickinson

 

The Preacher.

 

He preached upon "breadth" till it argued him narrow, —

The broad are too broad to define;

And of "truth" until it proclaimed him a liar, —

The truth never flaunted a sign.

 

Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence

As gold the pyrites would shun.

What confusion would cover the innocent Jesus

To meet so enabled a man!

[Tanaqui]

I have a few.

 

Ballade of Lost Objects. This is just true to life, and now it's come full circle - the girls wear the clothes I stole from my mother when I was their age! (That's ballade, btw, not ballad. Tricked me the first time I read it, and I had no idea where the prince came from!)

 

Still I Rise. There's something about the imagery of the dust rising that I really like.

 

Cat in an Empty Apartment. Haul out your hanky for this one.

 

Just about any translation of Pangur Ban.

 

There Will Come Soft Rains.

 

And two bonus poems, gleaned from the MTA's Poetry in Motion series. I wasn't too fond of either of them when they first were posted up, but months and years of forced exposure on the train and the bus caused them to grow on me :)

 

The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky

 

Heaven