Poetry Study

This afternoon I was looking for something different to tide the kids over with for Read Alouds, until Abigail receives her birthday present, which will probably be our next longer book to read together. I thought I might use the next few days to read some poetry with the children.

The Lion Children's Treasury of Classic Verse, compiled by David Self, is a wonderful collection of some of the shorter poems by great poets, from John Barbour, Lady Julian of Norwich and Sir Walter Raleigh to Robert Louis Stevenson and Wilfred Owen. It is organised by topic with a thematic flow from "And God Made the World" to "The Voyage of Life".

From the poems we read today (we began at the beginning of the book), I especially enjoyed The Owl, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892).

The Owl

When cats run home and light is come,
And dew is cold upon the ground,
And the far-off stream is dumb,
And the whirring sail goes round,
And the whirring sail goes round;
Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.

When merry milkmaids click the latch,
And rarely[1] smells the new-mown hay,
And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch
Twice or thrice his roundelay,[2]
Twice or thrice his roundelay;
Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.

[1] rarely: remarkably well
[2] roundelay: song

I have printed out this poem. I think I might just have Joshua read it next week and see if we cannot memorise it. He might even use it for copywork. Hmm, maybe a week of poetry might be a good idea, now that we've finished Wind in the Willows.