Since April is National Poetry Month, it seems fitting that I share some of the poetic paths Max and I traveled. I primarily read poetry aloud to her when I visited on Monday afternoons in the early months of her life. I wanted her to hear the rhythm and rhyme of the words.
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,/And sorry I could not travel both.”—Robert Frost
BTW, April is also National School Library Month, so I hope you will take a moment to stroll through the stacks with Max and me and read some good books this month.
While I have always enjoyed reading poetry, I never really enjoyed overanalyzing it in my studies or in my teaching.
According to the textbook in my college poetry class, “Poetry might be defined as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language.”
For that reason you might think poetry would be my favorite genre. However, when I taught my high school poetry unit and when I shared poetry with Max and her brother, I simply wanted them to enjoy the language.
Since some of my own teachers required me to memorize a little poetry, I wanted to share that same privilege with my students and with Max and her brother.
I still recall much of Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride” and Poe’s “The Raven” from having to memorize them in school. Since Mrs. St. Clair required me to memorize one of Shakespeare’s sonnets, I did not want to deny my own students that same experience. I hope many of them still recall “When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes.”
I also required my students to memorize and recite all thirty-three lines of Marc Antony’s funeral oration in Julius Caesar. Because I thought my niece and nephew might not have teachers who shared that same passion for poetry, I required them to learn some poetry from the book of Psalms as well as a few lines of Shakespeare.
These videos show Max and her brother reciting a little Biblical poetry and some famous lines from Shakespeare. I honestly think these kids had almost as much fun memorizing these words as I had working with them. I also believe their minds were expanded!
According to Ken Ludwig in his book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, he had several goals in mind for his own children. One was “to expose them to literature in such universal depth and worth that it would inspire them to want to achieve great things as they marched forward into maturity.”
While Max and Her Stacks does not specifically mention poetry books or Shakespeare, it does include many early books with rhyming patterns, all of which I believe help develop a child’s learning skills and inspire a love of learning.
Since Tennyson is my favorite author and poet, I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Poetry for Young People, edited by John Maynard and illustrated by Allen Garns.
You might wonder what led Tennyson to become a storyteller. “His mother was a warm lover of English poetry and used to read it aloud to him.” Ah, yes! It couldn’t hurt to do this with the children you know!
I also recommend One Hundred and One Famous Poems, an anthology compiled by Roy J. Cook and a book well-loved by my father. From the Brownings to John Greenleaf Whittier, this collection should be in every home library.
This book contains “Little Boy Blue” by nineteenth century American poet Eugene Field. I remember snuggling next to my mother in our little den as she routinely read these rhyming words.
The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
I didn’t realize this was a sad poem about the death of a child until I was an adult. My mother didn’t traumatize me with analyzing the poem; she simply shared the beauty of the words. Those words and that snuggle time remain a treasured memory.
Finally, at the end of each day, I hope you will take the road less traveled and read a devotion with your family. Laura Sassi’s My Tender Heart Devotions not only contains prose passages but sweet little poems as well. From “The Cross,” based on 1 John 4:9-10:
High upon a steeple,
Or in a windowpane,
Waving from a banner,
Or hanging on a chain—
All around me, crosses,
Each looking like a “t,”
Remind me that King Jesus
Died and rose again for me.
My personal roadside reading suggestions for this month include The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner, a wonderful historical fiction read about the Salem Witch Trials, and Kissing the Sky by Lisa Patton, a must-read for music lovers and fans of Woodstock. For children I once more recommend The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Hunt. https://joycemccullough.com/who-you-are-and-whose-you-are/
“Instead of worrying if you’re on the right or wrong road, go to God. Ask Him to come up behind you and tell you which way to turn, if turn you must. Rest easy, knowing He’s guiding you and won’t let you go down any rabbit holes.”—from Pray More, a Daily Devotional Journal for Women
“I would define the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.”—Edgar Allan Poe
“The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it.”—Dylan Thomas
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”—T. S. Eliot
1 John 1:4; Psalm 45:1; Psalm 23; Job 19:23-24
