CLASSIC POEMS

Why How
for Kids to Memorize to Make It
&

(while washing their hands)

Successful
Memorizing a poem is as easy as washing your hands! Poem memorization is
incredibly beneficial to a child's development, but it is also simply tons of fun.
Here are some tips and tricks to make the process easy and delightful:

Pair it with a habit . Make it a family thing .

Make poetry memorization practice Get everyone in the family involved!

a daily habit by pairing it with It's much more fun when everyone
something else you do: participates.

Washing Your Hands! Poems memorized all together

become part of your shared family
Tape a poem to the mirror over the culture.
sink. Read it every time you wash
your hands (for at least 20 seconds). When everyone has it memorized,
celebrate and choose a new one.

Read the poem aloud . Start with the classics .

Don't be embarrassed to talk to Begin with classic poems. Why?

yourself at the bathroom sink.
You'll understand references in
Speaking the words aloud is KEY to books, songs, movies, etc.
easy memorization. You'll become familiar with
complex language.
What about non-readers? Work on
memorizing lines at meals or The more you get to know a poem
bedtime routine and encourage (even with complex language), the
practice during hand washing. better you understand it.

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Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
The Swing
by Robert Louis Stevenson
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
Ever a child can do!

A tree that looks at God all day,

Up in the air and over the wall,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
A tree that may in Summer wear
Over the countryside—
A nest of robins in her hair;

Till I look down on the garden green,

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Down on the roof so brown—
Who intimately lives with rain.
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

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The Arrow and the Song
Windy Nights
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
by Robert Louis Stevenson

I shot an arrow into the air,

Whenever the moon and stars are set,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
Whenever the wind is high,
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
All night long in the dark and wet,
Could not follow it in its flight.
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
For who has sight so keen and strong,
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
That it can follow the flight of song?
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
Long, long afterward, in an oak
By at the gallop goes he.
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
By at the gallop he goes, and then
And the song, from beginning to end,
By he comes back at the gallop again.
I found again in the heart of a friend.

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Hope is the thing with feathers
by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,
(Try practicing two stanzas at a time.)
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
by William Wordsworth
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That kept so many warm.
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
A host, of golden daffodils;
And on the strangest sea;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Yet, never, in extremity,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
It asked a crumb of me.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
www.learningthroughliterature.com They stretched in never-ending line
-------------------------------- Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
-
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The Pasture
by Robert Frost The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; A poet could not but be gay,
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away In such a jocund company:
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too. What wealth the show to me had brought:

I'm going out to fetch the little calf For oft, when on my couch I lie
That's standing by the mother. It's so young, In vacant or in pensive mood,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue. They flash upon that inward eye
I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too. Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A song from the play Cymbeline Macbeth's speech from the play Macbeth
by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
And Phoebus 'gins arise, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
His steeds to water at those springs To the last syllable of recorded time;
On chaliced flowers that lies; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
And winking Mary-buds begin The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief
To ope their golden eyes: candle!
With every thing that pretty is, Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
My lady sweet, arise: That struts and frets his hour upon the
Arise, arise. stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

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A song from the play As You Like It Song of the witches from the play Macbeth
by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Under the greenwood tree Double, double toil and trouble;

Who loves to lie with me, Fire burn and caldron bubble.
And turn his merry note Fillet of a fenny snake,
Unto the sweet bird's throat, In the caldron boil and bake;
Come hither, come hither, come hither: Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Here shall he see Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
No enemy Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
But winter and rough weather. Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Who doth ambition shun Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats, Double, double toil and trouble;
And pleased with what he gets, Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Come hither, come hither, come hither: Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Here shall he see Then the charm is firm and good.
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

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