Poetry is exceedingly beautiful – how words that seemed simple and dull, now have a cadence full of life.

~Julie Hodos

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Is not poetry just complicated structures of sentences?

When was the last time you read a poem? Was it for school? Immediately after reading it did you get to dissect it – tear it apart to see what each line and stanza was made of? The meters, the rhythm, mood, tone, enjambment, & form. Did all this help you appreciate it more? It certainly didn’t for me. I grew to hate poetry. I saw no appeal, just complicated sentence structures that added up to a whole lot of analyzing and frustration.

With all the scrutinizing that traditional school required, I lost the ability to see the forest through the trees. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I began appreciating poetry for what it is. 

Finding an appreciation for poetry

My husband, Travis, and I would read books together in the evenings, a chapter a night. After we had kids we missed that time together but knew fitting in an entire chapter before bed wasn’t an option so instead we “settled” to read poetry. I chose The Illustrated Treasury of Poetry for Children. It may sound ridiculous for adults to read children’s poems but it seemed like a good starting point since I had never appreciated poetry or fully understood it. I chose what I thought of as simpler poems. If a child can enjoy them, then I should be able to as well.  

He and I took turns, and we probably only read three or four that first night but it was as though a light switch had been flipped. I was enchanted by the way the words melded together to convey something more than what they could sitting simply by themselves on a page. But most importantly, I wasn’t attempting to dissect the poem to write a paper on it. I was able to appreciate it for itself with no analysis, no ulterior motive. From that moment I knew that our kids would be immersed in poetry from a young age.

Why parents should read and recite poetry. 

Here is a brief list of how listening to poetry will benefit your child.

• Extends attentiveness
• Develops language skills
• Provides a base for lyrical prose
• Increases vocabulary
• Establishes beautiful language patterns
• Builds reading comprehension
• Evokes emotions
• Creates connections
• Provides confidence in communication skills

How to integrate poetry into your child’s life.

1. Read poetry

Take the time, whether it’s during morning time or before bed to only read from a treasury of poetry. Here are some great ones we love. 

2. Be the example: commit poetry to memory and recite

This can seem daunting but it’s truly a wonderful way to enrich your life and your children’s lives. Here are tips to make it work:

• Choose the poems wisely –I choose poems that speak about things that naturally occur in our daily lives. Poems that point to the sun, moon, changing seasons, weather, play. I do not over complicate it. Most of the poems are from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson or are nursery rhymes. 

• Stanzas are enough.  A little is better than not at all. A few poems I have not been able to fully memorize so I have only a few lines memorized from it that speak to the object I am reciting about. I am sure to choose the stanza that speaks most acutely to the topic I am drawing attention to.

• Be okay with failure. When I am attempting to memorize a new poem I will try to recite it in front of my boys. I fail, often. It’s good for them to see me struggle but also to observe me check the poem later and correct my mistake, or fill in the part I could not remember. 

3. Child memorization and recitation

I only encourage my children to repeat after me when we are in formal lessons during morning time. Otherwise, I simply recite the poem for them when the occasion calls for it.

During formal time the kids, aged 3-5, are expected to recite several short poems or stanzas. I read it through then go back and have them repeat after sizable chunks until the entire stanza or very short poem is complete. Over the course of a few weeks the sizable chunks become longer until my 4 year old is hushing me and saying “I got this Momma.” 

Beginning Poems to Memorize

The following are poems/stanzas including topics that my kids and I enjoy committing to memory during formal study and I recite if we’re doing something relevant. I have chosen poems all from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses so that you need only one book to begin. Try memorizing these one at a time so as not to become overwhelmed. 

Rain 
We memorize this poem in the spring and use it whenever it’s raining.

The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree.
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.

Summer Sun 
(Stanza 1 of 5)
We memorize this poem in the summer and use it whenever it’s a hot, sunshiny day.

Great is the sun and wide he goes,
Through empty heaven without repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Autumn Fires
(Stanza 3 of 3)
We memorize this poem in the fall and use it when we have a campfire.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Winter-Time
(Stanza 1 of 5)
We memorize this poem in the winter and recite it throughout that season, especially when my children complain about it getting dark early.

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

The Moon 
(Stanza 2 of 3)
If my children memorize a seasonal poem quickly we begin practicing this one and recite it when we see the moon.

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse;
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.

As you can see, I tailor poems that I memorize to what is around us. Poetry does not need to be forced into recitation if you can preselect poems that will weave seamlessly into your life. A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson is a great book to begin with as well as Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. Many illustrators have their own adaptation, choose your favorite. I enjoy Kate Greenaway’s and Mary Engelbreit’s illustrations and selections.

Poetry will adapt with the changing seasons of life.

Poetry recitation and memorization will look different as my children grow. In first grade my eldest will read, memorize and recite a collection of poems throughout the year. By second grade, I will begin allowing him to choose the poems he recites. One day my children will dissect a poem but that won’t be for many years and they will have already developed an appreciation for it well before I ask them to study it formally.

There are seasons when I’m memorizing an entire poem and other times I’m glad to be reciting what I do know. But in every season I know my children are benefitting in other areas of their life by our family reading poetry out loud and reciting.

My boys are currently memorizing Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson, because it is spring. and I am currently memorizing the first stanza of Escape at Bedtime by Robert Louis Stevenson because I wish to know a poem about stars. What are you memorizing?

Escape at Bedtime
(Stanza 1 of 2)

The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars looked down upon me,
And that glittered and winked in the dark.