Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world,
and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.
Percy Bysshe Shelley

"You will never be alone with a poem in your pocket," John Adams told his son John Quincy, as the young man set off  to Russia in 1781.  "Johnny" was just fourteen-years-old, but fluent in French, proficient in Greek and Latin, and precocious enough to be commissioned official secretary to the American minister to Russia on that trip.  If pedagogical practice of the period was any measure, young John Quincy Adams probably had a lot more poems in his head than in his pocket.  Poetry memorization was an important part of any young child's education.

On the Core Virtues site, we're featuring classic poems that sing to the heart and celebrate the virtues. If your students learn them by heart, they will be part of a long and fruitful pedagogical tradition. Literary  critic Brad Leithauser notes “memorized poems are a sort of larder, laid up against the hungers of an extended period of solitude.”  Poems committed to memory can inspire (even save us) in moments of darkness or isolation (just ask Nelson Mandela or Joseph Brodsky, a dissident in the Gulag).  The treasures of memorized verse are not limited to political exiles, though.  Poetry memorization allows students to internalize the quality language, cadence, rhyme, and rhythm that "lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world."  They are a source of wonder.

January

Life is mostly froth and bubble, 
Two things stand like stone, 
Kindness in another's trouble, 
Courage in your own.

Adam Lindsay Gordon

December

With these poems, we celebrate "the reason for the season"!

The First Christmas
by Michael R. Burch

’Twas in a land so long ago . . .
the lambs lay blanketed in snow
and little children everywhere
sat and watched warm embers glow
and dreamed (of what, we do not know).

And THEN—a star appeared on high,
The brightest man had ever seen!
It made the children whisper low
in puzzled awe (what did it mean?).
It made the wooly lambkins cry.

For far away a new-born lay,
warm-blanketed in straw and hay,
a lowly manger for his crib.
The cattle mooed, distraught and low,
to see the child. They did not know
it now was Christmas day!

Chanukah Dreams
Judith Ish-Kishor 

Chanukah I think most dear
Of the feasts of all the year.
I could sit and watch all night
Every twinkling baby light.

Father lights the first one—green;
Hope it always seems to mean;
Hope and Strength to glow anew
In the heart of every Jew.

Jacob lights the blue for Truth.
Pink for Love is lit by Ruth.
Then the white one falls to me,
White that shines for Purity.

How the story of those days
Fills my wondering heart with praise!
And in every flame one sees
The heroic Maccabees.

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November

November
by Margaret Morgan

Now it is November,
Trees are nearly bare;
Red and gold and brown leaves
Scatter everywhere.

Dark now are the mornings
Cold and frosty too;
Damp and misty evenings
Chill us through and through.

Busy are all creatures,
Winter food to hide;
Nests to make all cozy
Warm and safe inside.

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"Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing." Lucille Clifton.

This quote was the inspiration for Out of Wonder. Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander. This month delight in the richness of these poems written by Alexander, Chris Colderley and Marjory Wentworth as they emulate the style of 20 of Kwame's favorite poets. Exuberantly illustrated by Ekua Holmes.

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October

Self-Control
by Edgar Guest

When I have lost my temper
I have lost my reason too.
I’m never proud of anything
Which angrily I do.
When I have talked in anger,
And my cheeks are flaming red,
I have always uttered something
Which I wish I had not said.
In anger I have never
Done a kindly deed or wise,
But many things for which I felt
I should apologize.
In looking back across my life,
And all I’ve lost or made,
I can’t recall a single time
When fury ever paid.

September

The wonder of the monarch butterfly's fall migration inspires us this September.  As we celebrate the labors of hard-working humans (on Labor Day), let us not forget the "tiny tigers" who "work as one, flutter firmly toward the sun."  Half a million butterflies undertake the annual north to south migration, winging their way over three thousand miles to respite in southwestern Mexico.

Monarchs

Monarchs fly to Mexico.
Millions flee from winter snow.
Wings wink quickly to and fro
as monarchs feel which way to go.

They listen to a voice inside
find a wave of wind to ride
stay together
work as one
flutter firmly toward the sun.

Tiny tigers trim tall trees
quiver in a Spanish breeze.
Confetti creatures strong and bright
sleep a season
rise in flight.

They know what they were born to do.
I’d like to be a monarch too.

© Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
See more of Amy's delightful poetry here: http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/

July/August

Bed in Summer
Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at night  
And dress by yellow candle-light.  
In summer, quite the other way,  
I have to go to bed by day.  

I have to go to bed and see         
The birds still hopping on the tree,  
Or hear the grown-up people’s feet  
Still going past me in the street.  

And does it not seem hard to you,  
When all the sky is clear and blue,  
And I should like so much to play,  
To have to go to bed by day?

June

We break with tradition by introducing you, not to a single poem, but to a volume of poetry that completely exemplifies our June virtues of wisdom, wit, and whimsy!

Mr. Mehan's Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals: A Hypothetical Alphabet.  Matthew Mehan.  Illustrated by John Folley. TAN Books, 2018.   (3-6) Wit, Whimsy, Wisdom
We Mere Mammals have been given a treat.  This sumptuous volume of 26 mildly amusing Mythical Mammals pokes fun at our flaws and our excellences, while making us laugh out loud.  Where did these appealing, perplexing, and preposterous creatures come from? The imagination of Dr. Matthew Mehan and the brush of classically trained artist John Folley.  Mehan's poems (one poem for each letter-of-the-alphabet-mythical-mammal) are meant to be read aloud, and are redolent of Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Dr. Seuss, and Ogden Nash. But this is a distinctive voice. Readers of all ages who love poetry will delight in the bumbling Blug ... "slow as a slug...blobular, jolly, gelatinous jug" whose upbeat personality nonetheless lifts him to the air on "the tiniest wings that the world's yet seen: They're both the size of a kidney bean."  The Blug floats through much of the book with his best buddy The Dally (a dodgy dog with ties for ears), who seems to specialize in avoiding suffering.  Many of the poems are about the two friends confronting (and overcoming) sadness.  John Folley has painted the precise medieval inspired letter blocks, and created gorgeous impressionist oil illustrations of such critters as the Sillymede, the Jargontalky,the Innowallah,the Gallant and the Y-It.  This is a family book, and one to treasure from age five to fifty... (and up).  Mehan frankly admits that his goal is to use poetry to uplift and expand the moral imagination.  This volume is a classic and a keeper.

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May

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

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For parents and teachers who are interested in learning more about the value of memorizing poetry please check out these articles: Memorize That Poem! by Molly Worthen and Why We Should Memorize by Brad Leithauser

Poetry Books

Sing A Song of Seasons: A Nature Poem for Each Day of the Year.
Fiona Waters, editor, Illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon.
​Nosy Crow, 2018, (K-6) Wonder
This gorgeous, hefty volume is a great way for teachers and parents to infuse poetry into everyday life. Fun and lively illustrations are the backdrop for relatively short, seasonally appropriate poems for every day of the year. (Great for memorizing.) Old favorites, new poems, serious and silly: each inspires wonder and delight at the beauty of nature.  A poetry anthology, rather than a Morning Gathering read-aloud, and a treasure for the classroom or for family to share.

The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasury. Edited by Jack Prelutsky.
Illustrated by Meilo So (K-6) 
Jack Prelutsky has collected rollicking, fun poems of contemporary poets  – not sugary sweet or moralistic poems of bygone days, but poems about the  feelings of real kids growing up today. Lovely and whimsical watercolors illustrate the 211 contemporary poems.

A Child's Book of Poems. Illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa. Sterling, 2007 (K-2)
Classic children's poems with delightful illustrations. It is unchanged from the original 1970's version you may remember from your childhood.

A Whiff of Pine, A Hint of Skunk. Deborah Ruddell. Illustrated by Joan Rankin. Margaret McElderry Books, 2009. (K-3) Poetry, Wonder
A delightful collection of poems about nature. Consider "Biography of a Beaver" -  Bucktooth Cleaver, Tree Retriever, Building Conceiver, True Believer, Waterproof Weaver, Overachiever, Roll-Up-Her-Sleever – Hooray for the Beaver!  Lighthearted illustrations of the woodland scenes along with the poems make you want to take a walk in the woods.

Read! Read! Read!  Amy Ludwig VanDerwater.  Illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke.
Wordsong, 2017 (K-4)
Twenty three poems about reading by contemporary poet VanDerwater.  Each one simply but eloquently reiterating how and why reading is so important in our lives.  A lovely collection that can be read again and again.

Poetry for Young People. Sterling Children’s Books (3-6)
A wonderful series of individual books on great poets of the English language:  Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, and more. The volumes feature a picture of the poet, several pages of biography, reflections on what may have influenced their poetic style and content, and a selection of poems.  Each poem is fittingly illustrated and accompanied by definitions for words that may be unknown to children. The illustrators have been chosen to complement the style of the poetry. ​

Mirror Mirror. A Book of Reverso Poems. Marilyn Singer. Illustrated by Josee Masse.
Dutton Children’s Books, 2010 (1-4) 
Each poem in this unique collection can be read top to bottom or bottom to top. Charmingly illustrated, each page is split in half with each side matching the up or down poem. This new take on old fairy tales is fun and thoughtful.

The Harp and Laurel Wreath.  Poetry and Dictation for the Classical Curriculum. 
Laura M. Berquist. Ignatius Press, 1999.  Poetry (K-8)
If  you are looking for a marvelous collection of classics by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Steven Vincent Benet, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and many more, this is your (nearly five-hundred-page) volume!   Poetry selections divided into "The Early Years," "The Grammatical Stage," "The Dialectical Stage," and "The Rhetorical Stage."