Middle School Mondays - Poetry

I've been a bit slow in getting around to memory work for the current school year, but I finally managed to put together the following poems for the girls to memorize this year.  I'm only listing 7 poems at this point to give the girls the opportunity to make some of their own selections in the spring when they'll reach the poetry section of their grammar books and move into the poetry books for Classical Writing as well.

1.  Kind Words
by Longfellow

Kind hearts are the gardens
Kind thought are the roots
Kind words are the flowers,
Kind deeds are the fruits.

Take care of the gardens,
And keep them from weeds,
Fill, fill them with flowers,
Kind words and kind deeds.

2.  Faithfulness
-author unknown

Though a task may seem quite small,
Hardly worth your time at all,
Do it promptly, do it well;
Who is watching, none can tell.
Faithfulness in little things.
Sure promotion with it brings.

3.  Morning Thoughts
by A. Amstutz

I went outside this morning
And touched the morning air.
Its fragrance spread around me
Like flowers blooming fair.

It gently rose about me,
And sunlight sifted through;
I felt its arms surround me-
It brought me life anew.

God's promises are with me,
Just like the golden air.
I only need to grasp them
In simple, fervent prayer.

4.  Helpfulness
-author unknown

Watch for ways to help another
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother;
Loads that hardly one can bear
Grow much lighter when we share.

5.  Hope
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.

6.  Little Things
by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
Thus the little minutes,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.

7.  Step by Step
by James Dillet Freeman

A hill is not too hard to climb,
When taken one step at a time.
One step is not too much to take,
One try is not too much to make.
One step, one try, one song, one smile
Will shortly stretch into a mile.
And everything worthwhile was done
By small steps taken one by one.
To reach each goal you've started for,
Just take one step- then one step more.