What's your favorite childhood poem?
Jun. 26th, 2007 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sugarplumkittyIn fifth grade, we had to memorize a poem. The teacher said it had to be at least four lines long. I got out my trusty book of poetry for children and found one that touched my soul. It was a bit longer than the requirement but I didn't care. It was perfect for me. It reminded me of the quiet mornings when we camped at Pismo beach and I rose with the sun while all the other campers still slept. It's still a favorite of mine.
A Summer Morning
I saw dawn creep across the sky,
And all the gulls go flying by.
I saw the sea put on its dress
Of blue mid-summer loveliness,
And heard the trees begin to stir,
Green arms of pine and juniper.
I heard the wind call out and say:
“Get up, my dear, it is to-day!”
- Rachel Field.
Then I found out we had to memorize more poems of preferably longer lengths. No other poem spoke to me like this until I started writing my own.
Heh, it's my birthday. I'm so very tempted to skip work and go to the beach. Nah. We need the money.
A Summer Morning
I saw dawn creep across the sky,
And all the gulls go flying by.
I saw the sea put on its dress
Of blue mid-summer loveliness,
And heard the trees begin to stir,
Green arms of pine and juniper.
I heard the wind call out and say:
“Get up, my dear, it is to-day!”
- Rachel Field.
Then I found out we had to memorize more poems of preferably longer lengths. No other poem spoke to me like this until I started writing my own.
Heh, it's my birthday. I'm so very tempted to skip work and go to the beach. Nah. We need the money.
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Date: 2007-06-26 04:59 pm (UTC)My favourite was "She Walks In Beauty" by Lord Byron.
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Date: 2007-06-26 05:30 pm (UTC)i hope that you get everything you wish for when you blow out your candles. ;)
xoxoxo
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Date: 2007-06-26 06:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 06:54 pm (UTC)Happy Birthday!
Date: 2007-06-26 05:48 pm (UTC)By Shel Silverstein, found in "Where the Sidewalk Ends"
SICK
"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay,
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash, and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more--that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue--
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is---Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"
Re: Happy Birthday!
Date: 2007-06-26 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-06-26 06:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 09:48 pm (UTC)Don't worry, I forgot April's too. *shames self*
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Date: 2007-06-27 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-26 10:46 pm (UTC)The only poem I remember at all as a kid was a Swede poem my father and his father used to sing while bouncing toddlers on their laps. I only remember the first verse but it was:
Rida, rida ranka,
hästen heter Blanka.
Liten riddare så rar
ännu inga sporrar har.
När han dem har vunnit,
barndomsro försvunnit.
Which means:
Rider, rider, rocker*,
Horse is named Queen Blanka**.
Oh, little knight, sweet and dear,
Riding spurs, still to appear.
When you've won them at last
Childhood's peace shall be past.
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Date: 2007-06-27 01:38 am (UTC)Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady on a white horse
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She will make music wherever she goes.
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Date: 2007-06-26 11:24 pm (UTC)My favorite poem as a kid was one I learned in elementary school called "Eletelephony"--it's a nonsense poem and it cracked me up so much that I couldn't read it without giggling. I found it on Google a few months ago!
As an adult/English teacher, my favorites are Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and a poem by Walt Whitman that I saw as part of an art display in the Tate Gallery in 2000 and haven't been able to find again since. It was part of a David Hockaday exhibit that I can't find online, and it was so lovely that it made me cry.
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Date: 2007-06-27 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-06-27 12:28 pm (UTC)My favorite childhood poem was winkin, blinkin and nod. My mom used to read it to me.
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Date: 2007-06-27 04:21 pm (UTC)That's a lovely dreamy poem. :)
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Date: 2007-06-27 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
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