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.