| What is the Charlotte Mason approach to the | | | | encourages us to give children contact with the |
| study of poetry? Our first step is to see that our | | | | minds of thinkers. Education is mind to mind, |
| children enjoy it. Much later they will probably take | | | | thought to thought, person to person. |
| the second step for themselves, reading those | | | | Notes, commentaries, lectures, long lists of |
| poets whose work needs some preliminary study | | | | questions, and other middlemen are not needed. |
| and background explanations in order to be | | | | Let the poets speak and the children do the |
| appreciated. | | | | thinking. |
| In Our Present Society Poetry is Almost Invisible | | | | Biographical backgrounds on the poets serve to |
| These days poetry seems to have been boiled | | | | widen a child's curriculum and add to his cultural |
| down to the popular "jingle" or an advertisement's | | | | heritage. |
| "catchy phrase." Does poetry only belong to | | | | For a lighter dose, or to tempt a child who doesn't |
| bygone days when the average person spent | | | | think he will like poetry, try the nonsense poetry |
| what little leisurely time he did have reading and | | | | of Lewis G. |
| reciting? Consider the life of ancient Athens at its | | | | Carroll or Edward Lear. Slightly older children won't |
| best-its peace and learned leisure and poetry. | | | | be able to resist the humor of Ogden Nash. While |
| Compare this to the restless, artificial, luxurious | | | | "nonsense" poetry is not full of great insights, it |
| existence of Rome. | | | | does train the ear to delicious sounds and |
| Like ancient Rome, today is a day of bigger and | | | | rhythms. What fun just to repeat, "Jabberwocky" |
| better things-interstate highways, 100-acre | | | | or "The Owl and the Pussycat!" Humorous poetry |
| amusement parks, huge hotels, super | | | | can be just as much fun to repeat ("Telephony" |
| supermarkets and bigger and bigger newspapers | | | | by Ogden Nash is a good example), and has a |
| (so that whatever is hideous in life may reach our | | | | sharper tang, great for developing those critical |
| ears within a few hours of its happening). | | | | thinking skills! Develop Your Inner Ear A calm |
| Poetry is one of the things that can't be made | | | | stately voice echoes from the past, "Take your |
| bigger and better. It must remain quietly and | | | | time." Poetry will speak wonderful things to those |
| unobtrusively and forever itself. Vulnerable, it may | | | | who give it time and attentiveness. As reading |
| drop unnoticed out of the running, leaving us to | | | | requires an inward eye, poetry requires an inward |
| our steel-girded world of material things without | | | | ear. Unencumbered by modern media, our |
| its pleasure. But despite its invisibility many people | | | | great-great-grandparents had both. They read |
| still read poetry for pleasure today. I'd like my | | | | poetry for pleasure and made a regular meal of |
| children to be among them. | | | | their favorites. |
| Poetry is Serious Business Poetry is not just a | | | | A really good poem can be read many times |
| school subject. It is the deepest expression of | | | | over. Your readings increase in pleasure over the |
| thought and feeling of which certain exceptional | | | | years. This is an old-time method of "studying" |
| minds have been capable. It includes the full gamut | | | | poetry that deserves mentioning. |
| of all human experiences, from war poems and | | | | From Shorter to Longer Works In the days |
| epics, to psalms of worship, to love sonnets, to | | | | before workbooks, young children in Miss Mason's |
| delightful nonsense verse that trips off the | | | | schools had copy books. Children were to choose |
| tongue, to nursery rhymes-anything people think | | | | some favorite verse and copy it neatly into these |
| about or sing about. We can read it as though we | | | | personal books. Thus the study of poetry also |
| ourselves shared in those thoughts and those | | | | yielded better penmanship, spelling, and vocabulary. |
| emotions. | | | | After years of a relationship with poetry, built on |
| Poetry has been helping men and women from all | | | | the shorter poems, children will be capable of |
| backgrounds and cultures share deep emotional | | | | enjoying and comprehending longer and more |
| experiences and insights throughout all recorded | | | | abstract works. High school students can become |
| history. Hearing a translation of a remarkably | | | | familiar with the longer works of traditional classic |
| beautiful poem written by King Tutankhamen to | | | | poetry just by checking out books of poetry |
| his wife, I was astounded! Chaucer, Shakespeare, | | | | from the adult section of a public library. This is |
| and the author of Beowulf also wrote poetry that | | | | where some background explanation, in the form |
| still speaks to us today on many different levels. | | | | of critical commentaries or even the ever-handy |
| They didn't write it for textbooks either. | | | | Cliff Notes, may be helpful. |
| Early in this century Vermont farmers would read | | | | Along with Beowulf, the works of Chaucer and |
| poetry beside their fires in winter. My husband | | | | Shakespeare are commonly studied in high school. |
| Dean and I once knew a hefty Rolls-Royce auto | | | | They contain more adult themes, so use your |
| mechanic who loved opera and poetry. | | | | discretion. These were included with emphasis in a |
| We would admit a child grows up lopsided if | | | | Charlotte Mason style of education. I am unfamiliar |
| athletic prowess is his only ambition. Let's take this | | | | with more modern poetry, but the usual warnings |
| idea further and say he'd receive a lopsided | | | | apply. |
| education if he could "make the grade" without | | | | Poetry For an Uncertain World It has been said |
| any love or respect for poetry. | | | | by an educator following Charlotte Mason's |
| With Tact and a Tiny Bit of Enthusiasm How can | | | | philosophy, "Literature is the sum total of the |
| we introduce our children to poetry? You can | | | | courage and home, the faith, delight, and despair |
| never make a girl or boy like a poem against his | | | | of the past, and if we deny youth this, and give |
| or her will. You can not bully them into it, or argue | | | | them instead a little pale skepticism of our own, a |
| them into it. Convert them by indirect means. | | | | conscientious distrust of the ideals with have |
| Infect them by your own interest and gentle | | | | sustained other generations and other ages, a |
| enthusiasm. Pick out some poetry that appeals to | | | | belief that the world began yesterday and if we |
| you and simply read it aloud to your children. | | | | are not careful will end tomorrow, because our |
| Eventually they may desire to start reading some | | | | own idealism is unequal to the problems it has to |
| on their own. Don't be surprised if their tastes are | | | | face, then we do them a poor service. All our |
| a bit different than yours! If you do not like | | | | aspirations for the young are likely to be defeated |
| poetry there is an obvious remedy: introduce the | | | | unless we hand them on a certain moral stability, |
| child and the poem and leave them to make | | | | a belief in beauty, truth and goodness for their |
| friends for themselves. They may, or they may | | | | own sake; whereas if we give them these-and in |
| not, but you can never make things better by | | | | giving them these poetry will surely be |
| your interference. | | | | included-we have at least the assurance that we |
| In introducing people it is generally a mistake to | | | | have done our best to equip them adequately for |
| praise too much beforehand. | | | | the certain difficulties of this uncertain world." |
| You may only establish a distaste. In the same | | | | Resources For the Young Lavender's Blue is a |
| way it is a mistake to praise a poem too | | | | book of nursery rhymes compiled by Kathleen |
| eloquently. After all, the child is entitled to form his | | | | Lines with pictures in soft pastel colors by Harold |
| own opinion. To drag a poem into the glare of | | | | Jones. It's published by Oxford University Press. |
| publicity is to lose some of those very qualities | | | | We wore out a copy of The Random House |
| which made it precious. When you share a poem | | | | Book of Poetry for Children (selected by Jack |
| you can simply say with tact "I like this poem, do | | | | Prelutsky and illustrated by Arnold Lobel) in our |
| you?" In the case of younger children, try and | | | | home. It provides a cute and funny commentary |
| create a mood of enjoyment, first by choosing | | | | on life. I suggested it as a "first" poetry book for |
| the sort of poem they are likely to appreciate | | | | kindergarten through second grade. You may |
| and then by throwing yourself into reading it aloud | | | | need to remove the few Halloween pages. |
| with gusto, or better still allowing them to throw | | | | A copy of A Child's Garden of Verse by Robert |
| themselves into it with zest. If you introduce | | | | Louis Stevenson should be available in every public |
| them to really good poetry as Miss Mason | | | | library. We have a copy illustrated by Jessie |
| advocated, suitable for their age, children will do | | | | Willcox Smith. |
| the rest for themselves. | | | | A poetry book with gorgeous full color paintings is |
| Ways to Take a Poetry Break Seasonal Poetry | | | | A Child's Treasury of Poems edited by Mark |
| One way is to choose poems that celebrate the | | | | Daniel. It is coffee-table quality. |
| changing of a season. Look in the index of any | | | | Favorite Poems Old and New selected by Helen |
| large poetry anthology for anything that has to | | | | Ferris is a handy anthology that has been around |
| do with the particular time of year. The Book of | | | | since 1957 and is for sale in many homeschool |
| 1,000 Poems lists poems by season in the subject | | | | catalogs. I checked this book out of a library so |
| index. There are over one dozen poems per | | | | many times that I was happy to see it available |
| season with more than two dozen for spring-a | | | | at a curriculum fair and bought a copy. |
| favorite subject with many poets. Whether it be | | | | The Book of 1,000 Poems is an inexpensive |
| winter, spring, summer, or fall, you are certain to | | | | hardcover "no-frills" anthology of over 600 pages |
| find an array of poems. Read a few at a time to | | | | which we use a lot, too. |
| savor the season. In between new readings any | | | | For Older Students Treasury of Best Loved |
| previously read poems can be repeated as often | | | | Poems, illustrated by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, |
| as desired-a painless way to memorize poetry. | | | | is a good introduction to reading weightier works. I |
| Seasonal poems can be copied into greeting cards | | | | have used it to acquaint myself with poems by |
| by the children or onto large paper surrounded by | | | | John Donne, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, |
| children's drawings. | | | | Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Elizabeth |
| By Subject Perhaps a more "schoolish" way to | | | | Barrett Browning, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, |
| incorporate poetry into the curriculum would be to | | | | Robert Frost, and others. |
| ask what the poets have to say about anything | | | | An old book still in print is One Hundred and One |
| with which you happen to be studying. Nature | | | | Famous Poems, compiled by Roy J. Cook. It has a |
| poetry abounds. I counted fifty short poems | | | | black and white photograph or portrait of each |
| about birds in our poetry anthology! There are | | | | poet. The poems do not seem to match the |
| poems about the sea, trees, animals of various | | | | staunch Victorian faces, which leads me to believe |
| kinds, the wind, the moon. There are poems | | | | that in some cases it may be better to read the |
| about the early morning, unusual people; there are | | | | poem without seeing the face. I guess we're |
| patriotic poems and story poems. Poets write | | | | more accustomed to the modern "cover girl |
| about honesty, fortitude, chivalry, decisiveness, | | | | cover guy" look. Charlotte Mason would deem the |
| loyalty, perseverance, hope, faith, and love. Their | | | | poems in this book required reading for every |
| commentary on any subject as well as their | | | | high school student. |
| subtle or profound sentiments are worthy to be | | | | For the Serious Reader of Poetry Five Hundred |
| woven into our homeschools. | | | | Years of English Poetry (edited by Barbara |
| One Poet at a Time Still another way to acquire a | | | | Lloyd-Evans) will satisfy any serious reader. It has |
| taste for poetry is to become familiar with one | | | | 1200 pages of meaty longer (British) poetry |
| poet at a time. Here are a few favorites for the | | | | beginning with word-for-word Geoffrey Chaucer |
| elementary years: William Blake, Samuel Coleridge, | | | | (1343-1400) and ending with Matthew Arnold |
| Eleanor Farjeon, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, | | | | (1822-88). It omits Shakespeare, as the editor |
| Walter de la Mare, Christina Rossetti, William | | | | assumes you already own his works and she felt |
| Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lord | | | | that including works from him would inconveniently |
| Tennyson and John Greenleaf Whittier. | | | | lengthen the already over-sized book (high school |
| This time look in the index under an author's | | | | college level). |
| name. Read all of his or her poems you can put | | | | Biographical Stories for the Young I have included |
| your index finger on in one week. | | | | several biographical stories of famous poets in |
| Poetry is strewn with ideas-saturate yourself in | | | | issues of my Parents' Review, a newsletter for |
| these words that can have an intoxicating effect | | | | home training and culture. A free description of |
| on the intellect. | | | | back issues is available from Charlotte Mason |
| Ideas to the mind are what nutritious food is to | | | | Research & Supply Company |
| the stomach. Remember, Charlotte Mason | | | | |