Poetry - where do I begin??

[lovelaughs_times_three]

For some reason, I feel overwhelmed. I want to read my kids poetry every week this year, but I don't know where to start. There are so many poetry books, but I don't know which ones are the good ones. ANY help you can give me on books that you would recommend would be great! Also, any recommendations on how you teach poetry in your homeschool would be great to know as well. Basically, anything you want to say about poetry and homeschool, I'm all :bigear:! I'm completely lost! :confused:

[SnegurochkaL]

Two years ago my daughter who was 7 used Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization. She did 2 levels and we were pleased with the result. She memorized 40 poems and was able to recite all of them withing nearly 2 hours. One year later she remembers half of them but we are thinking about repeating them this summer. Some poems were small,others were quite long.

 

We are planning to continue with the current book and add MCT Poetry and CW Poetry for Beginners.

 

There was a discussion regarding poetry nearly 2 month ago. If I find the thread I will post a link to it.

[morosophe]

Hey, there's nothing wrong with most anthologies of classical poetry, whether it's the buying-them-cheaply-at-Goodwill part or the flipping-through-them-to-find-a-poem-you-like parts. Do you (or your children) have a favorite poet? Robert Frost, John Donne, either of the Brownings, e. e. cummings, Langston Hughes, Lord Tennyson? Get an anthology of his (or her) poetry! That way you can weed through their works for the ones more appropriate for children. Or A. A. Milne, Shel Silverstein, Calvin Miller, and Robert Louis Stevenson have books specifically for children--for most of those poets, it constitutes their entire poetic oeuvre!

 

For your younger children, Sonlight uses Surprises, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Megan Lloyd, as a reader in their "second grade-level" reading curriculum. It's a "Level 3 I Can Read Book," and probably not terribly unique, but I liked it, and it let my six-year-old read some poetry to me, for a change. (It looks like you use Sonlight, but you may have missed this little gem.)

 

In my opinion, the "point" of poetry, unless you're doing a unit specifically on poetry, is just to enjoy it as much as you can. Appreciate poetry for what it's good for: using the musicality of language; expressing things (such as emotion or concrete physical experience) better than prose or in ways that prose never can; using the ambiguities of language to allow the reader a deeper understanding; or whatever other aspect of poetry you can appreciate. Save talking about meter or alliteration or the names for common poetic tropes (such as the various types of metaphorical language) until you feel like you need to discuss them when talking about a particular poem, preferably a poem your child has liked (or maybe really, really hated).

 

To make a poem you're reading to your child more interesting, check to see if you can leave off the title and make it a riddle--"Who do you think is clasping the crag with crooked hands? What's a crag? Well, later in the poem it's equated with 'mountain walls'... Why is he watching the 'wrinkled sea'?" Then, when your child has come up with some sort of answer ("an animal that eats fish?" "a bird?" "a space monster!"), you can show him or her the title and see how well he or she did. (This could be good training for some of the more advanced poetry, where even well-respected literary scholars can't always agree on what the poem is really about.)

Edited May 31, 2011 by morosophe

[SnegurochkaL]

To make a poem you're reading to your child more interesting, check to see if you can leave off the title and make it a riddle--"Who do you think is clasping the crag with crooked hands? What's a crag? Well, later in the poem it's equated with 'mountain walls'... Why is he watching the 'wrinkled sea'?" Then, when your child has come up with some sort of answer ("an animal that eats fish?" "a bird?" "a space monster!"), you can show him or her the title and see how well they did. (This could good training for some of the more advanced poetry, where even well-respected literary scholars can't always agree on what the poem is really about.)

 

Good point:)

It reminds me my childhood when my mom would use riddles to bribe me to eat my meal. I love them and it was the only way to get food in my stomach when I was 3-4 years old.

For example: What vegy has 40 layers of "clothes" and non of them have any buttons. The answer was a cabbage or lettuce.

 

Here is a link to the memorization thread:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=262199

[WeeBeaks]

We like Sonlight's recommendation in core 3:

 

A Child's Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll

 

We got ours at Costco actually. It is a book with a CD. It gives a bit of intro about the poet or genre and then the audio CD has the poem of that genre read aloud, with the text in the book to follow along. I really love it, and prefer it over the just read a poem a day type of method, probably because I myself am not strong in poetry.

 

Our library also has several books now with poems and CDs of the poems read aloud, including one that had modern poems set to hip-hop music [child friendly lyrics]! That is such a fun intro for the very young or poetry phobic.

[morosophe]

We like Sonlight's recommendation in core 3:

 

A Child's Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll

 

We got ours at Costco actually. It is a book with a CD. It gives a bit of intro about the poet or genre and then the audio CD has the poem of that genre read aloud, with the text in the book to follow along. I really love it, and prefer it over the just read a poem a day type of method, probably because I myself am not strong in poetry.

 

Our library also has several books now with poems and CDs of the poems read aloud, including one that had modern poems set to hip-hop music [child friendly lyrics]! That is such a fun intro for the very young or poetry phobic.

 

See now, that's very interesting, because I would never, never deprive myself of the chance to read poetry (or at least poetry I like) to a captive audience. My poor, long-suffering husband will back me on this one, based on the number of times he's had to listen to me read Gerard Manley Hopkins. The only exceptions would be the poems meant to render a particular regional accent, such as "Little Orphant Annie" or "Cuddle Doon" since I'm hopeless at accents. If I could find a version of poems like those in the "proper" accent, I'd buy it in a shot!

[lovelaughs_times_three]

Hey, there's nothing wrong with most anthologies of classical poetry, whether it's the buying-them-cheaply-at-Goodwill part or the flipping-through-them-to-find-a-poem-you-like parts. Do you (or your children) have a favorite poet? Robert Frost, John Donne, either of the Brownings, e. e. cummings, Langston Hughes, Lord Tennyson? Get an anthology of his (or her) poetry! That way you can weed through their works for the ones more appropriate for children. Or A. A. Milne, Shel Silverstein, Calvin Miller, and Robert Louis Stevenson have books specifically for children--for most of those poets, it constitutes their entire poetic oeuvre!

 

 

 

The only poetry my children have been exposed to is the limited poetry that was in our Abeka Spelling & Poetry several years ago, and the little children's poetry book I have here at home. I have not read poetry as an adult, so, I am embarrased to confess, I have NO IDEA who my favorite would be! :confused: This is why I feel so helpless to begin. For example, are all poetry books created equal? Is there a "classic poetry" book out there? Do I just pick up any book that says "poems" on the front and start? It seems like the little poetry I've read is young for my oldest daughter. Is there a better poetry book for her? (she's entering 7th grade this year).

Do we just read the poetry? I like your suggestions for discussion. What other things do we discuss about the work? Or do we just soak it in?

 

Thanks so miuch for your help! I need it!!!! :D

[lovelaughs_times_three]

Thank you for all the wonderful recommendations and suggestions so far! It gives me a place to start to look! :)

[WeeBeaks]

See now, that's very interesting, because I would never, never deprive myself of the chance to read poetry (or at least poetry I like) to a captive audience. My poor, long-suffering husband will back me on this one, based on the number of times he's had to listen to me read Gerard Manley Hopkins. The only exceptions would be the poems meant to render a particular regional accent, such as "Little Orphant Annie" or "Cuddle Doon" since I'm hopeless at accents. If I could find a version of poems like those in the "proper" accent, I'd buy it in a shot!

 

But you don't sound like you are weak in poetry so that you are feeling overwhelmed and asking for help. ;)

 

I think CDs are a great way to ease into it and give it a fun feel for mamas who might not be feeling strong in poetry.

 

The hip-hop one ... I could have never done it justice. :lol:

[KrissiK]

I got a couple of children's poetry anthologies from the library and paged through them. Basically, my goal was to find authors who were familiar to me, poems that were familiar, things that my kids should know. I didn't want to find a bunch of obscure poems for my kids to memorize. I wanted them to memorize poems from authors who people know about. Some of them, too are poems I just liked. The kids are going to memorize a poem a month (we also memorize Scripture and other stuff, so this is not their only memory work). They are going into 2nd & 3rd grade next year. Here is what I've chosen:

August: "Five Eyes" by Walter de la Mare

September: "Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

October: "From a Railway Carriage" by Robert Louis Stevenson

November: "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorow" by William Shakespeare

December: "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Moore

January: "A Bird" by Emily Dickinson

February: "All the World's a Stage" by William Shakespeare

March: Sweet and Low by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

April: "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes, "Until I saw the Sea" by Lilian Moore

May: "Nurse's Song" by William Blake

[morosophe]

The only poetry my children have been exposed to is the limited poetry that was in our Abeka Spelling & Poetry several years ago, and the little children's poetry book I have here at home. I have not read poetry as an adult, so, I am embarrased to confess, I have NO IDEA who my favorite would be! :confused: This is why I feel so helpless to begin. For example, are all poetry books created equal? Is there a "classic poetry" book out there? Do I just pick up any book that says "poems" on the front and start? It seems like the little poetry I've read is young for my oldest daughter. Is there a better poetry book for her? (she's entering 7th grade this year).

Do we just read the poetry? I like your suggestions for discussion. What other things do we discuss about the work? Or do we just soak it in?

 

Thanks so miuch for your help! I need it!!!! :D

 

Well, Sonlight 1/B uses the Dover edition of Favorite Poems for Childhood. It's cheap--both in price ($2.00) and in printing quality--but the contents are nothing to sneer at. I used it according to the Sonlight schedule, which did two or three poems a week, and it worked pretty well. Dover does a lot of cheap editions, sometimes in box sets--if you want a reintroduction to poetry and Goodwill isn't helping you out, you could certainly go with those.

 

There are much more highly regarded anthologies, of course, like the Oxford Book of English Verse or the Norton anthologies I got in college. But for the most part, those aren't all that important for anyone under high school age. In contrast, there are plenty of children's anthologies out there, many of them similar--I think I saw several at our last library book sale, in fact. If you see an anthology you're interested in, flip through it, read a poem, see if there is any commentary and what it's talking about. Often people, and particularly poets, have an agenda, and it might not be one you agree with--if it's all anti-capitalism or paeons in praise of nature and in hatred of man, I'd have trouble with it. If the poems are eleven pages long, they're probably not going to interest your kids. And if the book smells too badly of mildew or cigarette smoke or anything, neither you nor your kids will be all that interested in sticking your nose in it for the length of time it'll take to really unwrap a good poem. (Hey, the strangest things can impact our thinking about a particular subject! I'm convinced that half the reason I hate science is that the science room always smelled of formaldehyde.)

 

You can also wander around online to find poems you like. Here's a site I found just by googling "children's poetry." I recognize some of them, but many of them were new to me. (I liked the ones I checked out, particularly the prayer ones.)

 

As for your daughter, as long as you're not strictly reading When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six-ish poems, she should still be plenty challenged. (Those two anthologies are A. A. Milne's poetry books, by the way, and I definitely recommend them for your youngest. In case you don't recognize the author's name, he also wrote Winnie the Pooh. Some of the poems do get a bit long for little kids, but most are pretty good, and they've been in print forever.) The poem I referred to above, since it looks like you may not have had enough exposure to recognize it, is "The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I read it to my son this year, but I remember reading it myself for middle school.

 

Then, if there is a poem she particularly enjoys, you could see if that poet has a book available at your library, or check the internet for more of his or her work. If she seems more drawn to a particular type of poem than any one author, look around for those, too. I remember being drawn to melodramatic claptrap in middle school--"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes, "The Glove and the Lions" by Leigh Hunt, etc. ad nauseum. Basically, if Loreena McKennitt put it to music, I probably loved it in middle school. Now my husband loves Loreena McKennitt, and I can't stand to listen to her!

[Clear Creek]

My children have thoroughly enjoyed the Poetry for Young People series (this is one of the books in the series). Each book has a short bit about the author and a collection of poems (some are just excerpts). I don't use them to teach, but simply to ignite my children's interest in poetry and to help them find it enjoyable.

[2_girls_mommy]

One suggestion I haven't seen on here is the What Your X Grader Needs to Know series. Each book has a poetry section. There are online lesson plans to go with some of them if you are interested.

[LittleIzumi]

I started my littles with Shel Silverstein and things like the Cricket magazine, to give them the feel for poetry & imagery. This week there was a haiku section in Cricket so we clapped & counted syllables, and then dd started counting syllables on a song she made up on the spot.

[Homemama2]

Ambleside online has poems you can print. Year one is a collection of all different poets and there is one for each day of the month. (other years concentrate on certain poets). We just read one or two each morning (2 or 4 days per week) and talk about it a little (explain vocab they don't understand, etc.) It had been really laid back and simple but they love 'poetry time.'

[Jeanne in MN]

I LOVE the Poetry for Young People Series!! This one is on my wish list: http://www.amazon.com/Treasury-Poetry-Young-People-Longfellow/dp/0806919566/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306879083&sr=1-3 The pictures in these books are lovely, there are biographies of the poets and footnotes for hard words.

 

My children have thoroughly enjoyed the Poetry for Young People series (this is one of the books in the series). Each book has a short bit about the author and a collection of poems (some are just excerpts). I don't use them to teach, but simply to ignite my children's interest in poetry and to help them find it enjoyable.

[lovelaughs_times_three]

Are there certain poets I need to be sure to introduce my kids to in order to have a well-rounded education?

[lovelaughs_times_three]

(Hey, the strangest things can impact our thinking about a particular subject! I'm convinced that half the reason I hate science is that the science room always smelled of formaldehyde.)

 

 

:lol::lol::lol: I can STILL smell that smell! Brings back the shudder I felt for science in Middle School! I didn't start liking science until later!

[funmamacita]

The Poetry Out Loud project (http://poetryoutloud.org/poems/browsepoems.html) has a great selection of poems online if you don't want to buy a book yet. If you click around, it also has some ideas for teaching poems. (They're classroom-focused but may still be helpful.)

[ELaurie]

A Child's Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll

 

We got ours at Costco actually. It is a book with a CD. It gives a bit of intro about the poet or genre and then the audio CD has the poem of that genre read aloud, with the text in the book to follow along. I really love it, and prefer it over the just read a poem a day type of method, probably because I myself am not strong in poetry.

 

 

This is what we used this year. We listened to it in the car; having a CD helped my actually get our poetry lessons done :tongue_smilie:

[HeidiKC]

We like Sonlight's recommendation in core 3:

 

A Child's Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll

 

We got ours at Costco actually. It is a book with a CD. It gives a bit of intro about the poet or genre and then the audio CD has the poem of that genre read aloud, with the text in the book to follow along. I really love it, and prefer it over the just read a poem a day type of method, probably because I myself am not strong in poetry.

 

Our library also has several books now with poems and CDs of the poems read aloud, including one that had modern poems set to hip-hop music [child friendly lyrics]! That is such a fun intro for the very young or poetry phobic.

 

Wow - this sounds great! Did you get it recently at Coscto?

[HeidiKC]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but we recently discovered the "Poetry for Children" series. LOVE it. Each book focuses on a different poet, with a 4-page bio in the front. And in the margins of the pages they define any archaic or difficult words (such as "runcible" spoon). Speaking of runcible spoon, Edward Lear would be great poet to start with! Anyway, the books are fairly thin and I like the size of them. Just right. Beautiful illustrations. There must be at least a dozen of them, the more popular poets. We have Carl Sandburg and Rudyard Kipling, both might be good for you. I found both of their bios so interesting. Never knew Carl Sandburg was a hobo for a time! And of course it gives so much meaning to the poetry when you understand where the poet is coming from.

 

You can get these books at the library or cheap on Amazon.

[HeidiKC]

My children have thoroughly enjoyed the Poetry for Young People series (this is one of the books in the series). Each book has a short bit about the author and a collection of poems (some are just excerpts). I don't use them to teach, but simply to ignite my children's interest in poetry and to help them find it enjoyable.

 

Yes! This the series we love!

[lovelaughs_times_three]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but we recently discovered the "Poetry for Children" series. LOVE it. Each book focuses on a different poet, with a 4-page bio in the front. And in the margins of the pages they define any archaic or difficult words (such as "runcible" spoon). Speaking of runcible spoon, Edward Lear would be great poet to start with! Anyway, the books are fairly thin and I like the size of them. Just right. Beautiful illustrations. There must be at least a dozen of them, the more popular poets. We have Carl Sandburg and Rudyard Kipling, both might be good for you. I found both of their bios so interesting. Never knew Carl Sandburg was a hobo for a time! And of course it gives so much meaning to the poetry when you understand where the poet is coming from.

 

You can get these books at the library or cheap on Amazon.

 

Several people have mentioned the Poetry for Young People series. Is this the same one that you are talking about?

[HeidiKC]

Several people have mentioned the Poetry for Young People series. Is this the same one that you are talking about?

 

Yes, sorry, that's the one!

[WeeBeaks]

Wow - this sounds great! Did you get it recently at Coscto?

 

No, unfortunately not recently, but I did see it about 6 months after I got mine so perhaps they have it periodically? I notice some types of books seem to recur in cycles.

[SnegurochkaL]

We enjoyed this one a lot:

Poems Every Child Should Know by Mary E. Burt http://www.mainlesson.com/display.ph...tory=_contents

[cjbeach]

We've memorized the poetry from FLL. The only other poetry we've really read is from A Child's Garden of Verses.

 

For mini lessons on poetry for the younger crew I really love R is for Rhyme from Sleeping Bear Press. IMO it's a gentle introduction to various forms of poetry. We had borrowed it from the library and loved it. It's on my Amazon wish list now, to purchase it.

Edited June 1, 2011 by cjbeach

[cjgrubbs]

This was our first year homeschooling so I am by no means an expert but this is what we did. I chose a poet and got a book of his poetry. I chose Robert Louis Stevenson bc I have 3 sons so I wanted to start with poems that would appeal to them. There is a book, A Child's Garden of Verses, that consists solely of poetry he wrote. I had my older children pick a poem and memorize it. After a few months they chose another one. We read a biography about the author during the year (I pre read and edited it to keep it reasonable in length and leave out things I didn't want to discuss.)

 

April is National Poetry Month so for one of the weeks, we took a break from our IEW Writing curriculum and focused on Poetry. I bought the series mentioned on here a bunch of times Poetry for Young People(Scholastic offered the whole set in one of the March or April book clubs and I still have bonus points leftover from when I taught preschool). I used a Evan Moor book and we learned about some different rhyming patterns, poem types, etc. The kids wrote several poems and it was a fun unit.

 

Next year I think we are going to use Emily Dickinson as our poet.

 

Additionally, I bought a book called Book of 1000 Poems. There is an index in the back and you can look up poems by subject or author. We used some of these to write poety in our nature notebooks when we could find one about something we had drawn. This made for some REALLY nice Nature Notebook pages!

[lovelaughs_times_three]

Just a quick update. I found a couple copies of Poetry for Young Children at our library. They were wonderful!!! I love the suggestions made by others as well to study one poet at a time. I think this will give meaning to the poetry we read. I also purchased MCT "A World of Poetry" as a way of introducing my kids to the "lingo" of poetry and what it means. Thanks so much for ALL of the suggestions! I'll be referring to this thread again in the future... :001_smile:

[Aubrey]

Are there certain poets I need to be sure to introduce my kids to in order to have a well-rounded education?

 

I just googled "famous poets" & got this site: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/. At a glance, it looks pretty good. I'd give you a list of famous poets, but I'd leave someone out & be embarrassed. WTM has suggested reading lists & those include a little bit of poetry.

 

My favorite kid poetry books are A Box of Peppermints & Sunflakes. The book I most often read from for poetry, though, is just the Norton Anthology. I love poetry, & sometimes we lay in their beds reading it until late in the night if dh is working late.

 

I'm not sure if I've answered your questions very well. If I had to choose one book, it would be Norton. The greats will be represented there, & you can just work your way through chronologically. Not everything in it is enjoyable, but you can mark & come back to what you like.

 

Some are better read aloud--Gerard Manley Hopkins, for ex, cannot be done justice silently. The syllables in "To the Windhover" make the sound of a bird's wings rustling the air as it rises, but you miss that entirely if you don't read it aloud.

 

MCT also has poetry books that I think are excellent for developing appreciation, but I may be biased: I already love both MCT & poetry. :lol:

[lovelaughs_times_three]

Some are better read aloud--Gerard Manley Hopkins, for ex, cannot be done justice silently. The syllables in "To the Windhover" make the sound of a bird's wings rustling the air as it rises, but you miss that entirely if you don't read it aloud.

 

Oohhh! That sounds beautiful! I can't wait to find that and read it!!! :001_smile:

[helena]

I keep expecting to find a poetry curriculum..... year after year. :lol:

Here's what I've done for the last 4-5 years while waiting for the right thing to come along :001_smile::

 

I have a little board I put our poetry on. We memorize two per month. I find that's long enough to ease the pressure of getting it done. On a lazy poetry day (many days of the week) they only need to read to themselves.

On a busy poetry day I add in things like dramatic readings, acting out the poems, watching you tube readings of the poem:

 

 

reading from poetry books and our collection of past poems memorized.

 

Poetry for Young People series and Random House have been our favorite books.

In the car we listen to: http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Speaks-Children-Book-Read/dp/1402203292/ref=pd_sim_b_5 (great way to sneak it in :001_smile:)

 

I buy most of our poetry books second hand, at yard sales and library bookstores. It's an affordable way to build a collection, and a great way to find vintage poetry books (where you'll find some real gems).

 

I can't figure out how to make a photo post right now??? But, here's a photo of an old poetry bulletin board if interested (first pic): http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=252521

hth

:lurk5:

[helena]

Forgot to add favorite websites:

http://www.egreenway.com/months/index.htm

http://allpoetry.com/classics

 

Also, don't forget you can tie in poetry to history and science!

[lovelaughs_times_three]

Forgot to add favorite websites:

http://www.egreenway.com/months/index.htm

http://allpoetry.com/classics

 

Also, don't forget you can tie in poetry to history and science!

 

Interesting! How?

[helena]

Interesting! How?

 

For example this year while doing ancient history, we studied Ozymandias

and On a Stupendous Leg of Granite....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

In addition to memorizing the poems and their story, we talked about the frenzy around Egyptian treasure at that time, stolen treasure, the romanticism of foreign cultures, etc.

 

This year I had a theme for the 2nd poem each month. They were poems about the given month. One we did was January by John Updike: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_can_you_read_the_poem_'January'_by_John_Updike

Next years theme for the 2nd poem is going to based on a year long fairytale study we're planning to do. This will also work well to incorporate Middle Ages poetry. The other poem per month is just random poetry I'd like them to know.

 

Although.... I'm thinking of doing one Middle ages or fairytale poem, and one poem from a Poetry for Young People book series. This way I can get more use out of the series and enjoy those bios at the begining of each book.. Hmmm, now I'm thinking out loud! :tongue_smilie:

 

For science, I've done quite a few that went along with nature studies. Such as In the Shadows: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-shadows/

 

Or while doing astronomy we did Walt Whitman's When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer: http://www.bartleby.com/142/180.html

 

Looking for new poetry over summer vacation has become a fun tradition for me.

[boscopup]

Something I realized to do last night... The Core Knowledge Sequence lists poetry for each grade level. I've been going through that, finding the poem online (I'm halfway through the list and so far all have been freely available), and since it's from the CK list, there are a lot of lesson plans out there for many of the poems! I found some in Lesson Pathways, and others on various school or teacher sites. I'm dealing with the second grade level, so for me it's mostly figuring out what the poem is talking about, or sometimes noticing how something is described... that sort of thing.

 

I will tell you... I hate poetry. So we haven't done poetry except for what's in FLL. Last night, my son pulled out FLL1 (which we finished long ago) just to read the poetry in it, and he said "I love poems!" That's what got me seeking out poetry, and I just happened to see it when looking at the CK Sequence for another topic. Funny how that worked out! :D

 

I hate art too, but I got a couple art books this week to help me do more real art. :tongue_smilie:

 

At least I love music! :D I'm not completely uncivilized. :lol:

[morosophe]

Some are better read aloud--Gerard Manley Hopkins, for ex, cannot be done justice silently. The syllables in "To the Windhover" make the sound of a bird's wings rustling the air as it rises, but you miss that entirely if you don't read it aloud.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I admitted to forcing my husband to hear me read Gerard Manley Hopkins earlier in the thread, (although I occasionally break into Kipling, as well--he's so infectious!,) and then realized that everyone would think I was crazy. It's nice to know there's a fellow poetry-appreciator out there. I must admit that I like "Pied Beauty" and "God's Grandeur" slightly better than "To the Windhover," but that's up there among my favorites, too.

 

Or, actually, you might appreciate it more than I do. I haven't read poetry in bed since college, that I can remember.

[ChrissySC]

Depending on how detailed you want to get ...

 

http://www.poetryteachers.com/poetclass/poetclass.html

 

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/spotlight.htm

[mcconnellboys]

On this page, in the right-hand column, down near the bottom, I have a whole list of children's poetry books that we own, with links so you can see pictures of them, read about them, etc.:

 

http://greenapplesblush.blogspot.com/

 

I think Michael Clay Thompson has some interesting poetry studies available to go along with your readings, too, if you want more of a study. At times, we will discuss the poets and the times they lived in; at other times we will discuss the meter and rhyme, etc. of poetry; but often we just read and appreciate the beauty of the poetry!

[Roxy Roller]

I just received my Rainbow Resource order last night and my copy of The Grammar of Poetry - http://rainbowresource.com/product/sku/001924/1307206979-588535. It looks great.

 

I will be using it with my DD12 in the fall. It seems like a good introduction to poetry and poetry writing.