Children's Poems

Poetry written for children is all about sound and rhythm. Children's poems are usually bright and fun and appeal to the child in all of us. When I think of children's poems, I usually think of authors such as Shel Silverstein and Dennis Lee, but Emily Dickinson and John Masefield have poems that are often in children's poetry anthologies, too.

Children's poems are not always written just for children, in other words. Some poems, because of their language and the rhythm they convey, are more easily enjoyed by the younger ones around us. And their subject matter may not always be just the fluffy type, either. There are poems about death and struggle that are not too dark to find their way into children's hands. After all, these are poems of the human condition, and children are not immune from suffering, sad to say. 

What kind of poems do children like?

Most children respond to poems that have a musical quality to them. That means lots of rhythm and rhyme.

Children tend to feel rhythm with their whole bodies. Watch a young child listening to music and you'll get what I mean. His whole body moves and sways and sometimes leaps. It's harder for him to sit still than it is for us "mature" types. A young child can be less afraid of looking foolish.

I've used the word "can" on purpose because unfortunately many children learn too quickly they'll be laughed at for looking "like a child." How sad for all of us when this happens. A child being a child makes something come alive even in grownups. 

Playing with language and poems in particular is one way we can allow our children to remain children.

Poems are also helpful for children learning to read. Think about the rhymes of Dr. Seuss, for instance. Though not poetry per se, Dr. Seuss' books play with rhymes and nonsense and so teach phonics to young ones.

Poetry can do the same thing. A child who memorizes poems growing up has an advantage linguistically. Memorized poems also sit within the heart and can rise at moments when all other speech fails. Poems can help us think and feel more deeply than other kinds of writing.

For this reason having a treasury of good poems in the house can be priceless for a family. When that treasury is put together with children in mind, then the poems will be chosen based on their ease of entry. This doesn't mean they'll be trivial. A good poem is never trivial. But they will probably roll easily off the tongue and may include different types of poems -- both humorous and serious.

I spent my summers by the sea, so when I first read the poem "Sea Fever," by John Masefield, it stirred some of my feelings for the sea's power and mystery. I remember trying to memorize it and still I can feel the words as if they are waves flowing through me. The rhythm moves the reader forward and back, as if mimicking the pattern of the waves crashing to the shore.

For copyright reasons, I can't quote the poem here, but I've added a link to a page with the poem on it. In case you want a copy of the whole poem, I've included a link below to a book of John Masefield's poems and a vinyl recording of John Masefield reciting "Sea Fever" and some of his other poems.

It's funny how in my memory, and how I've heard others reciting this poem from memory, I have added the word "go" so that the first line becomes "I must go down to the seas again . . . . " There's some evidence that Masefield revised his poem to include the word "go" in a later edition of his poems, but why was it omitted in the first place? It must have a purpose -- maybe for the poem's rhythm, or maybe it reflected the local dialect. Maybe it wasn't the poet's doing at all but that of the original printer! 

Food for thought.

You can hear how the music in these lines can work on you even if you have never sailed a ship. They carry within them the movement of the sea -- something so elemental that even a young child can feel it and be moved by it.

Please share some of your own thoughts about children's poetry in the guestbook below. What was one of the poems that moved you when you were young?

When you read poetry with children, you give a gift to them and to yourself. You don't even need to make the reading of poems a chore where the child has to be forced to memorize and repeat back. The nature of poetry, with its rhymes and rhythms, makes it easy to commit to memory just by repeated readings. Children are great at wanting to hear the same books over and over again. If you introduce poetry with rich language, maybe some of these favorite books may be ones that contain a poem or two.

But reading together is not just something to do while your kids are small. Many families continue to read together before bed even when their kids are teenagers and young adults (if still at home). Poems are fairly short and can be slipped in and shared in the busiest of schedules. Reading enriches all of our lives, and good literature stays with us and helps us grow no matter what our age.