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.

A Hymn by Jessie

Jesus' Birth

To Bethlehem they came

So very long ago.

They sheltered in a stable while

Outside it did then snow.

Mary and Joseph two;

Then Jesus: he made three.

They laid him in a manger bed

As it was meant to be.

Upon a hillside near

Were shepherds and their sheep,

When angels before them appeared

And sang with joy so deep:

"Your Savior, he is born,

And lies on manger bed."

"There is now peace upon the earth,"

The great Gabriel said.

The shepherds went and saw

What the angels had said.

They bowed and worshiped Jesus on

His lowly manger bed.

Far away a star grew

To brightest of them all.

The wise men knew the King of Kings'

Message within its call:

"Come here, ye wise men three!

To me your gifts now give.

And worship me with holy praise

As long as you do live."

The camel-riding three

Followed the brightest star

Over many a rocky road

To Bethlehem afar.

They came to Jesus' bed

To him their gifts they gave:

Bright Gold, Frankincense, and sweet Myrrh

That is used in the grave.

All there then worshiped him,

The star shone up above,

And all around it angels sang

Of God's unfailing love.

A ballad by Jessie

The Old Woman and the Physician

The woman asked the doctor wise
To bring her back her sight.
At offer of a rich reward,
He worked both day and night.

But, noticing the old lady
Had lots and lots of wealth,
He stole some every time he came
With quietness and stealth.

When blindness left the lady old,
The doctor asked for pay;
The lady saw her riches gone,
And put him off each day.

The doc took the lady before
A law-abiding court.
The lady then did hint at the
Thief doctor's real, true sport

She said that she would pay him
For brining her sight back,
But she didn't believe he had-
She couldn't see the sack

Of riches, beside all the chairs
And costly things she had.
She saw them ere her illness came
And knew the doctor bad!

Poems for 2009-2010

I finally took some time this afternoon to finish selecting poems for the girls to memorize this year and to print them on index cards for their memory boxes. All the poems this year either came from the Rod & Staff 5 English book of Favorite Poems Old and New by Ferris.

Thy Word by Edwin Hodder (Jessie only)
All Things Bright and Beautiful by Cecil Alexander (Violet only)
One Gentle Word by Anonymous
Night by William Blake
Four Leaf Clover by Ella Higginson
Long, Long, Ago by Anonymous
Three Gates by Anonymous
Roads Go Ever On and On by J. R. R. Tolkein
What Robin Told by George Cooper
The Sun's Travels by Robert Louis Stevenson

On our optional extras list if we need more poems...

America by Samuel Francis Smith
We Thank Thee by Anonymous
Little Things by Julia A. F. Carney

Our Poetry Lessons

In making these lessons, I had two goals in mind. I wanted beautiful poems for the girls to memorize and a variety of poetry to read daily as part of our literature time.

For memorizing, I started with the following goals in mind. First, I believe the girls can memorize about 20 lines a month for a total of 180 lines for the school year. Second, I wanted a mix of thoughtful God-centered poetry as well as some more secular poetry. Finally, I decided not too include any poems over 20 lines because I didn't want to overload them the first year. Here are the poems that I selected:

What God Hath Promised by Annie Johnson Flint
Who Has Seen the Wind? by Christina G. Rossetti
An Evening Hymn by Thomas Ken
The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Against Quarreling and Fighting by Isaac Watts
Time to Rise by Robert Louis Stevenson
My Gift by Christina Rossetti
Try Again by William Hickson
Loving Jesus by Charles Wesley
Rain by Robert Louis Stevenson
A Child's Prayer by Margaret Bethan-Edwards
The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson
True Nobility by Edgar Guest
The Coin by Sara Teasdale

I tried to alternate christian and secular prose and vary the length so we didn't tackle two 20 line poems in a row. We'll also use these selections for copywork when the poem is introduced.

For poetry reading, I found a huge collection of online poems at Ambleside Online in their year one section. I copied the poems into a 2 column word document and rearranged them to run August through July. We're reading 1 or 2 poems a day depending on their length.

Why Study and Memorize Poetry?

I must confess that I have never been a big fan of poetry. I'm a math and science person. Give me problems to solve, logic puzzles, or a good hypothesis to test; and I'll be perfectly happy. Poetry is something that I never quite understood. It was just too intangible to me. I didn't really understand it's purpose or usefulness. Slowly God has been changing my heart.

Last spring at church, our women's Bible study worked through several of the Psalms. I had volunteered to teach a couple of lessons the previous year not knowing what the topic would be. When I found out we would be studying the Psalms, I groaned. Give me a narrative or a letter of Paul. I'll even tackle a book of prophesy. Anything but the Psalms, not poetry. I can't teach poetry. Still, I had already given my word that I would teach. So with lots of prayer and trepidation, I began to study Psalms 49 and 103.

I was blown away not only the depth of these 2 psalms but also by how much I learned from them. They seemed so simple, but they were packed with theology and beautiful imagery. Taking time to live with them and meditate on them was a huge blessing to me.

As I started my school planning this summer, I began to research and consider adding poetry into our school. I read an article by Michael Knox Beran entitled In Defense of Memorization. I also found a wonderful blog post entitled Why Poetry by Jessica at Trivium Academy which included quotes from several different sources on the importance of poetry.

Finally, I prayerfully looked at the three beautiful and unique children with whom God has blessed us. Neither Jessie or Violet will ever probably major in math or science. The verdict is still out on Benny, but he is highly verbal. I imagine they will all grow up with a far better vocabulary than I did. So this year, I've decided to take a step out of my comfort zone adding poetry into our curriculum. I'm not sure where the path will lead, but I'm sure it is a path the Lord would have us walk together with Him.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5