Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Poetry, a thought

Rainy suggested poetry be read, the classics --
not trivial childish nonsense.

Emily Dickenson wrote some seventeen hundred or so --
not trivial childish nonsense.

Some passages I did read, Dickenson to Drama Girl --
perfect says she, read them at night.

They are the greatest lullabies.

3 comments:

RainyPM said...

We are starting easy, with Mother Goose. Does that count as poetry? I say it does. My daughter is loving our Mother Goose over breakfast time and I hear her throughout the day reciting rhymes. Will the same apply with poetry? Will I someday hear her reciting Robert Frost as she plays?

It doesn't matter to me if she doesn't, but wouldn't it be nice to expose children to this kind of beauty as well as Sesame Street, Dora and Little Einsteins? With all the crazy marketing today of products and books and systems to make our kids smarter, maybe we're overdoing it and completely missing the mark.

I went into Borders today to pick up a poetry book of classics for children and there was a whole wall of children's poetry. And on that whole wall was a single book of the kind of poetry I mean. Everything else was silly, like worm poetry or "my fat cat sat on my hat, drat." Don't get me wrong, I'm not against silly. But let's give our kids a little more credit.

Lahdeedah said...

Okay, so you DID inspire me, fully. I picked up "Where the Sidewalk Ends' for the boys and Poem Stew (Mary had a little lamb you've heard this tale before; but did you know she passed her plate and had a little more? ha ha ha) it's poetry about food.

But my favorite for the boys is "A New Treasury of Chilren's Poetry" and there's one I like "That Was Summer" and "I Heard a Bird Sing"
In fact I like it so much, I may order a copy. It has more of the stuff you mean, so if you can find it I recommend taking a look at i.

As for Drama Girl, I DID read her Robert Frost, The Road Less Traveled, and we talked about it, and she liked it. This summer's poetry theme is New England Poets. We'll hit the Western Poets and British Poets later ;).

I'm SO stealing your idea, because you're right. And I DID try to explain some of Dickenson, but to no avail, but Frost she got.

RainyPM said...

The Road Less Traveled is such a perfect poem for a fringe kid. Good call. :)