This poem is a lovely piece about Bradstreet’s husband. In it, she declares how strongly they are bound, “If ever two were one, then surely we.” What I find interesting is how at points she is almost bragging about her husband, like he is a prize won that other woman could not hold, “If ever wife was happy in a man,// Compare with me, ye women, if you can.” It’s funny because it’s objectifying the man to a degree when this was an age where women were like objects. It places the woman is a position of ownership, which wasn’t something exactly smiled upon at the time. Then she starts comparing her love of her husband to great treasures, like “whole mines of gold” and “all the riches the East doth hold.” Afterward, she pulls back, trying to show that yes, her love is great, but obviously her husband’s love is more. The husband is the superior being, “The love is such I can no way repay,//The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” This shows her concession not only to her husband, but to the male poets of her times as well, however ironic it might be. In the end, she says she hopes that they’ll forever live through the love they have for one another. I find Bradstreet to be exceedingly human and a beautiful crafter of words. I feel they show her great passion and humanity well.

While Nichol’s works from what’s she’s experienced in the Caribbean, her poems I feel still hold a lot of fun and interesting stories for all children. I loved “Banana Man” personally. Lots of kids love bananas and this is a silly way to talk about it, referring to bunches of bananas as hands. Here the rhyming isn’t a regular line by line pattern. The rhymes themselves are repeating still and they show another sort of rhyming instead of the classic ABAB or AABB styles. The language is more relaxed, less formal and as many of Nichol’s poems, it’s almost a sort of slang that can be relaxed into. Kids can have fun reading these! For a fun activity after, you can discuss favorite fruits and maybe how different fruit looks like different body parts or different things in general.

See mt comment above on the language/culture thing, but cute idea with this poem.

Any (brief) idea for a poetry month exhibit in the children's section of a library?

Something I found significant an interesting about Clifton’s poetry is that she kept to one main character, Everett Anderson. While none of the previous poetry we touched on here made specific mention of race, these ones make specific mention of Everett and his family being African American. I think this adds to the character and gives us as teachers and parents something significantly different from the heavily British lot we had just been reviewing. The introduction says that Clifton wishes to express the “pain and fear experienced by a young African American child” but at least in these excerpts, I feel these poems could relate to many children regardless of race.
“Tuesday All Day Rain” is a silly poem about Everett Anderson leaving his umbrella at home instead of taking it out to protect himself from the rain because he doesn’t want to lose it. The idea is so child-like, the best way to keep yourself from losing your umbrella is to simply leave it at home. The rhyming here is a little different; the lines are choppy, but this adds to the flow of things, the quick movement of the words.

“Rain or shine,
he doesn’t whine
about ‘catching cold’ or
‘summer showers.’

Sad or merry
he doesn’t carry
the thing around
for hours and hours”

We see it’s carried into the next stanza at times instead of all being self contained in one stanza and merely carried over into the next one. I think this pulls the poem together nicely and makes you feel like you need to finish the poem and say it all together. Of course, this leads you to think I normally don’t read poems all together as one piece, which no, I don’t always. Kids can talk about times they’ve left their things at home instead of taking them with them and what happened in the end.

Good reading of this poem, and nice realization of your own tendencies when reading poetry. There are other collections that focus on one character. On the race thing, coudn't these poems also be used, like the Mora (missing these) and Nichols, to introduce kids to other cultures?

These poems are all rather interesting. Something I find might be a hindrance at times is when poetry comes off as too British and too old fashioned. This doesn’t hurt the sound or the meaning, but it makes it unrelatable to the children that might be learning about it. This is just my feeling though, I feel like more updated writing would work better in schools and teachings today. While these are more up dated than others, I feel that these are still a bit too British. “Mrs. McPhee” I think would be a fun read for kids. This woman eats duckling, ducklings! That’s scandalous to a child, who would likely never eat a duckling. The women’s transformation is fun though, like a punishment for eating poor little baby ducks. The poem even plays with the sounds, especially at the end, “Said Mrs. Mac, Mrs. Quack,//Mrs. MacPhee.” It’s a fun poem and for a learning exercise, perhaps they could try to think up silly or not silly names that rhyme with duck sounds, like Mark Bark or something like that. With a more fun thing, maybe try cutting out paper feathers to glue to a cape so mommy or teacher could become Mrs. or Mr. MacPhee.”

Cute ideas here, but isn't Causley's language a bit more accessible than, say, De La Mare's?

De La Mare brought us another story previously, with his telling of a vane Little Red Riding Hood. Some of his other poems are also sort of dark, which shows a similar voice to what we saw with his previous story. I found his poetry sort of dull, I feel like it lost something in time. The rhyming does flow still, but many of the topics I feel kids would have more of a fun time just saying than actually knowing exactly what it’s about. “The Penny Owing” almost sounds like some sort of reaper or ghost coming with a final penny for blind Tam. Beggars are something we have today as well, so they could understand this enough, but I don’t think they’d see the same meaning as I do, which is fine still. Some of the words aren’t common ones for children, like “abide” and “grudged” so it can work for extending vocabulary as well. Again, maybe this could also introduce children to the idea of money and counting change, suggesting they save their pennies and such.

Aren't some of his poems a little lighter? Good, if general, on the vocabulary benefits and differing interpretations.

For Stevenson, I enjoyed his “Bed in Summer” because I feel that the topic is still very relatable to kids and people today. Many of us, especially children understand what it’s like to go to bed in the summer when it’s still light out when we would rather be outside playing. It’s a fun and easy poem that gives you the impression of a child bored in bed trying to force them to sleep, but not really succeeding at it. Anyone can relate. The flow of the language adds to the whimsy, with each stanza having rhyming pairs, a simple way to introduce kids to poetry because the sounds are so close together. “In winter I get up at night//And dress by yellow candle-light” Then the children could talk about their morning routines, maybe attempt to make up a rhyming couplet about it.

This collection is full of short but sweet poems. The author I’ve met earlier with her “Goblin Market” story that was an interesting and fun read in itself. Rosetti has a fine ear and the short poems have a lovely flow to me. The themes of motherhood and infant mortality mentioned in the introduction do ring true and do give pause, but I feel that for children’s poetry, they don’t always notice or take things as jarringly as we as adults might.

“Our little baby fell asleep,
And may not wake again,
For days and days, and weeks and weeks;
But then he’ll wake again,
And come with his own pretty look,
And kiss Mamma again.”

Here a child sleeps, but does not wake for weeks and weeks. Perhaps this child actually has died and the child that comes “weeks and weeks” later in his place is actually a second child “with his own pretty look”, but then maybe the child is actually terribly ill and returns to health again, which I can’t imagine was terribly common in the Victorian era, or in the least the awakened child would be greatly weaken and not live longer beyond this.
To actually use with children, I’d rather use something like “1 and I are 2-“ because as it also shows language skills, it can help with early math skills too. I recall using poems and rhymes to help with my math skills growing up, and I know those things are often hard for children to pick up. My mother and I were always on the search for pneumatic devices for remembering. Admittedly, some of the terms aren’t exactly commonly used these days, but they’re not entirely obscure. Also numbers are something children learn alongside their letters, so those are words they are already very familiar with. To make it more interactive, you can also insert other phrases. Instead of “3 and 3 are 6-//Barley sugar sticks.” Maybe try something like “3 and 3 and 6-//Sugar coated Kix.” Like the cereal!

Might the reawakening be in heaven? Rossetti WAS a devout Catholic.

Lullabies and Baby Songs

On all, which do you remember from your own childhood? Others?
Which do (or would) you read to/with your own children and/or students and why? What would you want them to learn from these, and how would you help them learn it? (For teachers, again, objectives and activities.)

I've actually heard "All the Pretty Little Horses" in a movie at Busch Gardens, the scary 4D film that was about the children going to the lighthouse. One of the ghosts sang it. I haven't heard any versions of it myself growing up though. If I had any lullabies growing up, it was "Rock-a-Bye Baby" or as they call it, "The Cradle Song".
It seems to me that the heavy repetitions in many of the lullabies, say “Sleep, baby, sleep!” is to help lull the child into a peaceful state. For the matter of storytelling, to show kids different tales I would use this because I like it. It’s a good example of the rhythms you see and the hint of darkness some have in the dog biting. This and “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” because I did actually learn this one when I was in school years and always found it a fun adventurous sort of story. To actually use for my hypothetical child, I’d go with something calmer because honestly I think there’s plenty out there giving kids bits of fear in the media that it’s not as needed to tell a baby to be quiet or they’ll be bit by a dog. Maybe an older child who you could gently pinch and tease, who would find it fun. Not that “Cradle Song” isn’t dark, it’s a falling baby, but I feel like it’s more imaginative, further from the child’s realm of experience. Everyone falls at some point, sure, but eventually you'll learn from it and be less bothered each time. I don't feel like it's the same for dog bites.

Interesting focus here on the content of these (aside from the one remark about the repetition--and also other sounds--as calming to infants) and whether or not they'd scare children. All of these here are or were one time read or sung to infants--even those which made reference to disturbing things. Ay thoughts on this?
Also, any thoughts on how these might help infants with early language development?

Well, it was suggested in the introduction that the darker images were meant to frighten away the nightmares from the child's slumber. This I could believe and even embrace, but these days I'm not sure if it's still needed. Then again, it's the darkness of something that puts a little fear into a child's existence. And considering my term project, maybe I should touch on these as well?

When kids hear things enough, they learn them, pick out sounds and words eventually. I mean, that's part of why kids first words are thins like mama and dada, because it's basic sounds they hear constantly and eventually learn to associate properly with the indicated source.

On the first here, let's remember some of Bettelheim's ideas about the more disturbing situations and characters in fairy tales--the way they objectify fears or issues children already face (even if subconsciously) in a way that makes them safer to confront.

Good on the other, but extend that beyond mama and dada--further along the language development continuum.

Riddles and Wordplay

On all, which do you remember from your own childhood? Others?
Which do (or would) you read to/with your own children and/or students and why? What would you want them to learn from these, and how would you help them learn it? (For teachers, again, objectives and activities.)

I wish they had more in this section honestly. The ones they have are sort of old and not well known I don’t feel. Also I don’t think they make much sense, but riddles and word games are a thing of time. Even things I knew growing up have changed, or at least for kids. “What’s black and white and red all over?” I’d say a newspaper, but a site for kid’s riddles told me it was “a zebra with too much lipstick” But there are still classics like, “Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9! (Seven ate nine)” I wouldn’t use the ones from our book and I wish I could find the books I remember from when I was in elementary school. I’d want fun ones that would get kids thinking. I’d indulge in a little potty humor, “What’s brown and makes a sound like a bell? Dung” but the main purpose would be to get minds moving, maybe even making up their own riddles!

Didn't you like any of the ones here? Yes, most are pretty tiime-bound, but the idea is pretty timeless--the what-am-I type of riddle goes back to Medieval literature.
LOL on those you mention here--especially that humorous twist on the newspaper one. I'll add another: What did the 0 say to the 8? Nice belt!
LOL on the potty humor, too.

Not really. I didn't find them very engaging.

This topic brought out some silly discussion in my house. I asked my mom "What's black and white and red all over?" because the answer I had found when googling was not "A newspaper" as I know it, but "A zebra with too much lipstick" and I had to stop to laugh. A silly answer works better for kids I guess. An old friend of mine told me when I asked her that riddle "A zebra with a sunburn." Now my mom showed her dark sense of humor with it and told me "a nun falling down the stairs" which blew me away. She knew the newspaper answer, but she swore to her that's what it had always been. It's crazy to see things change or get taken to strange and silly extents.

LOL on these. Yes, the silly stuff appeals to kids--a reason why nonsense verse also appeals.
Here's a grodey one: What's green and hangs? Elephant snot. A sillt one (two-parter): What did Tarzan say when he say the elephants coming? "Here come the elephants!" What dod Tarzan say when he saw the elephants coming wearing sunglasses? Nothing. He didn't recognize them.
Too bad you didn't like the ones in the book.

Playground Verse

On all, which do you remember from your own childhood? Others?
Which do (or would) you read to/with your own children and/or students and why? What would you want them to learn from these, and how would you help them learn it? (For teachers, again, objectives and activities.)

I remember “Shortenin’ bread” but my version is different. The last verse they have I know, but not the rest and I can’t get it flowing as I know it from these words. I feel like this has also changed greatly over time. Playground verse as it’s given here I feel has turned into more like jump rope rhymes and clapping games.

“Cinderella, dressed in yellow
Went upstairs to kiss her fellow
But goodness sake, it was a snake!
How many kisses did he take?”

And then counting out the jumps. Even that’s a little dated in my opinion, but that’s what I associate these with. I was terrible at jumping rope, but I loved watching. I think exposing kids to different versions of these sort of things is fun and could be interesting to them. It shows different cultures and what’s going on in some time periods. One of the clapping songs I still can’t find a good version of has different versions that involved Michael Jackson and King Kong.

If you can find that Michael Jackson/King Kong clapping song, post it.
Brian posted a longer version of the Cinderella song.
Actually, all of these were always jump rope, clapping or other activity-based rhymes, and, as Carrie notes, the activities, tied to the rhymes, get the brain as well as the body moving.
They ARE interesting from a cultural perspective, too--good material for ethnographic research.

I saw that! After googling around, I'm wondering if I'm recalling wrong or if my group of kids was just strange or mixing stuff up themselves. As soon as I posted this, I kicked myself for not bringing up my favorite clapping song, Miss Mary Mack!

I think the version I played was this one:

"Ooooh,
Down by the banks
Of the Hane-key Pan-ky
Where the bull-frogs jump
From bank to bank-key
With a hip, hop, soda pop
East side, west side
KER-PLOP!"

And we sat in this big circle with lots of kids. Everyone would sit cross legged with their hands on their knees touching the other kids hands, all palm up, everyone with a hand over lapping the kid next to them. On each syllable, one kid would clap their hand against the next kid, who would then do the same. When you were the last kid you had to move your hand out of the way, or you would be out. If you succeeded, then the kid that should have slapped your hand would be out. It was fun and got us all laughing and interacting.

The other version I found definitely shows more of the time period this came around. Or at least this version.

"Down by the banks of the hanky panky
Where the bull frogs jump from bank to bank
singin' Eeeps ipes opes oops
silly will ding dong
I pleage aligence to the flag
Michal Jackson makes me gag
Pepsi cola burt my butt
Now were talkin' 7 up
7 up has no caffine
now were talkin billy jean
Billy Jean is out of sight
now were talkin dynomite
dynomite blew up the school
Now were talkin' really cool
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1"

COOL clapping songs! Any thoughts on how they helped you--or might help other kids--develop language skills? See/hear any connections to rap here?

Dulce Et Decorum Est

"Dulce Et Decorum Est" is perhaps the most famous (anti)war poem in English. Read the note on the Latin phrase to get the full irony of the poem. In responding (YOU MUST) to this, consider how the horrors it describes is turned to ironic use at the end. How does the poem affect YOU?

This poem gives us the war with a very honest account, one not concerned with pretty metaphors. These are not happy soldiers, these are real men that have undertaken hardships. “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks” Some had even lost their shoes. They were numb to their surroundings, barely even aware when the bullets flew. One is lost as they neglect to fit on their gas mask quickly enough, “As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.” The dying man comes at the speaker in his panic, a frightening sight, “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,//He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.” An image like this will stay with the speaker, haunt his dreams as he has said. The detail he goes into about the cart where they carry the dead man is disturbing to say the least. For me, this poem is horrifying. It clearly illustrates the reality of war. To me, it’s like the exact opposite of “The Soldier” which speaks of death at war as something to take pride in. There is no mention of pride here.

Good on the horrors presented here, and, yes, very different from the Brooke, but you might, again, compare this to other poems on the horrors of the war.
An easy one (I think): how does the title relate to the poem?

Dead Man's Dump

"Dead Man's Dump" is a very graphic poetic description of its subject. Focus on how the speaker makes us see, hear, and almost feel what the poem describes.

“Dead Man’s Dump” sure paints a picture. A cart is carrying barbed wire and is rolling over dead bodies, “The wheels lurched over sprawled dead//But pained them not, though their bones crunched”. The fighting continues and the bodies of both sides mix together in death as it unifies them all as human as opposed to fighting forces, “They lie there huddled, friend and foeman,//Man born to man, and born to woman”. The speaker feels that in death, these men’s bodies have returned to the earth, “Now she has them at last!” but possibly not their souls, “Earth! Have they gone into you?” Rosenburg creates some interesting metaphors here, like when he speaks of the dead men getting shot, the speaker says, “When the swift iron burning bee//Drained the wild honey of their youth.” I found this metaphor perfect in how it contrasts the image of war, making it more like nature.

The speaker asks, “What of us?” the men who live and suggests they feel immortal for having lived when others have died, but that there is still a great fear within them that they will join their friends and enemies. Then the speaker goes on to describe the fighting, the metaphors are appropriate and work beautifully to show the harshness of war, “The air is loud with death” I found especially excellent with how simple it was to start off this stanza. What did he mean by death? Not just those dying men receiving their final wounds, but the explosions he goes into detail about further down and the gunshots exchanged between each side. Then the speaker describes seeing a stretcher-bearer taking a body to the load of others. When the man looks back at his dropped load, “The drowning soul was sunk too deep//For human tenderness.” The body was already too dead to warrant sympathy.

Good reading of how this poem presents the horrors of war and fear on the parts of the soldiers.
On the last part of your first paragraph, do you think that, by making death in war seem more natural, the speaker here is diminishing the horror? Why or why not?
You really NEED to see the last two stanzas of this--the closing image/experience.
Might also compare this take on the horrors of war to Owen's in "Dulce."

They

In responding to "They," focus on the two different meanings given to the idea that the soldiers will not be the same when they return from the war.

This poem takes two different points of view that are both true. The Bishop explains to “us” as the speaker puts himself on the level with the reader, that the “boys are changed” in which he means they’ve been changed by the horrors of war. They have seen their friends die and have killed other men. “They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.” They could have easily died, but they have not. “Their comrades’ blood has bought//New right to breed an honourable race” The boys have gone to war and as they have survived where their friends hadn’t, it’s as though they have been given this second great chance and their children will be children of honorable men. The boys see their return differently. Yes, they are changed, but they are changed from injury and illness. “George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind” One man is “shot though the lungs and like to die” while another caught syphilis. So the boys are certainly changed in more ways than one. The soldiers are surely changed as the Bishop suggests, mentally altered by the war, but the fact that the men don’t speak of this and concentrate on their physical changes is pretty understandable. Those are far more obvious.

Good on the differing points of view about the changes, but which change does Sassoon want us to see as the more real (and valid) one? Why? And how can we tell?

The Soldier

Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" was a British patriotic favorite during World War I and remained so long since. Focus in your response on what the speaker says and how he says it about war, glory, and England.

This poem is very nationalistic. The speaker is a young English soldier. He isn’t just proud of what he’s doing, he’d happy to be of service to his country. There is no fear of death, only pride that he had been able to fight for his country and bring his strong English blood to another land. Obviously he feels that if/when he is to die his love for his country will take him to an “English heaven.” He himself carries the country with him in heart and spirit so much so that “If I should die, think only this of me://That there’s some corner of a foreign field//That is forever England.”
Had Brooke survived his dysentery and blood poisoning, then I feel that yes, he would probably not viewed the war and his time within it as positively. Maybe he didn’t have the same experience as other poets because he had died when he did. This poem is positive and like a love poem for the soldiers or perhaps for the English fighting spirit in general. This is not a man jaded by death and war.

VERY nationalistic, and (LOL) you mention England in your response almost as often as the speaker mentions it in the poem!
Agreed on the rest.

I know! He as really drilling that home.

"Drilling" is a good way of describing the repeated references to England and things English.
Beside the naivety about war, this poem is an interesting contrast of the nationalistic thing to Sassoon's "Glory of Women."
Still, I think we all regret, by now, that Brooke didn't live long enough to contribute his takes on the horrors of war.