Tuesday Teatime Poetry

We began MCT's The Music of the Hemispheres today. WooHoo! We read pp.4-11 which included a poem by Emily Dickinson. We also read the witches' song (double double toil and trouble) from Macbeth. Mei and Duncan will be memorizing it over the next several weeks.

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

While we read from The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, Mei, Duncan, and Grayson had Pillsbury Cinnabon Rolls. The kids had a good time. We didn't discuss anything, so I have nothing to add to this yummy picture.

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

While we did read poetry yesterday on Tuesday, it wasn't much of a teatime. Mei, Duncan, and I munched on carrots and looked at poetry while Grayson was at his economics class. Mei shared  specific poems from and Duncan and I continued to march through The Random House Book of Poetry for Children.

When we picked up Grayson, we went through the drive thru at Chik-Fil-A and grabbed some milkshakes. At home Mei shared her poems again. This one seemed particularly relevant to the chocolate shake in my hand-

Chocolate
Chocolate
by Arnold Adoff

                i
love
       you so
                i
want
       to
marry
        you
        and
live
   forever
            in the
            flavor
of your
 brown

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children

This is by far my favorite compilation poetry book for young children. It has a ton of poems- 572. They are all appropriate for young children. The arrangement is fabulous. We will be starting MCT's Music of the Hemispheres in week 9, but even then I plan to add in poems from this book.

Today, only Mei and Duncan participated in Teatime Poetry, because Christian and Grayson were out and about. But, Mei's mom Sarah joined us in their place! Mei read Rules by Karla Kuskin and Leave Me Alone by Felice Holman. After Leave Me Alone, Duncan commented that he feels like that sometimes and compared himself to the child speaking in the poem. I love these connections!

Duncan read I'm Glad the Sky is Painted Blue. As he doesn't have a wide selection of favorites, I am just going to have him start at the beginning of the book and read the next short poem that appeals to me.

I am also starting at the beginning of this book. I read The Universe by Mary Britton Miller. Sarah really enjoyed this one and we all discussed it for a little bit before rapping up. 

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

Today Christian, Grayson, Duncan, and Mei shared their favorite poems with each other.


Christian’s favorite is the first six lines of Puck’s epilogue from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream.

Grayson’s favorite is one of my personal favorites as well- Issa’s Snail-ku. This is the same one that inspired the name of this blog. Here is where I blogged about it.

Duncan’s favorite is The Lizard by John Gardner.

The Lizard
John Gardner

The Lizard is a timid thing
That cannot dance or fly or sing;
He hunts for bugs beneath the floor
And longs to be a dinosaur.

Today Mei shared Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog by Judith Viorst.

Mother Doesn’t Want a Dog
Judith Viorst

Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they smell,
And never sit when you say sit,
Or even when you yell.
And when you come home late at night
And there is ice and snow,
You have to go back out because
The dumb dog has to go.


Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they shed,
And always let the strangers in
And bark at friends instead,
And do disgraceful things on rugs,
And track mud on the floor,
And flop upon your bed at night
And snore their doggy snore.

Mother doesn't want a dog.
She's making a mistake.
Because, more than a dog, I think
She will not want this snake.

Teatime Tuesday Poetry

Is anyone else having cabin fever? I think it is time to be silly!

Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
long time the manzome foe he sought--
so rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
he went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Was that silly enough? Gotta love nonsense poems.

Teatime Poetry

Well, I know it isn't Tuesday, but I did not post our poem yet. So, here is our Valentine's poem pick to just read for fun.

A Valentine
by Laura Elizabeth Richards

Oh! little loveliest lady mine,
What shall I send for your valentine?
Summer and flowers are far away;
Gloomy old Winter is king to-day;
Buds will not blow, and sun will not shine:
What shall I do for a valentine?

I 've searched the gardens all through and through
For a bud to tell of my love so true;
But buds are asleep, and blossoms are dead,
And the snow beats down on my poor little head:
So, little loveliest lady mine,
Here is my heart for your valentine!

Teatime Tuesday Poetry

White Fields
by James Stephens

In the winter time we go
Walking in the fields of snow;
Where there is no grass at all;
Where the top of every wall,
Every fence and every tree,
Is as white, as white can be.

Pointing out the way we came,
Everyone of them the same--
All across the fields there be
Prints in silver filigree;
And our mothers always know,
By our footprints in the snow,
Where the children go.

The first stanza of this poem contains some visual imagery, but we talked about the hyperbole in the 3rd verse- “Where there is no grass at all.” A hyperbole is an exaggeration for effect. (I could eat a whole horse.) We know that there is grass under the snow. Instead of saying that you can’t see the dead grass because it is covered with snow, it creates a more effective visual image of a winter snowfall to say that there is no grass.

In the second stanza the footprints are personified in the first verse where they are said to be pointing. It is then followed by another hyperbole. “Every one of them the same.” Logically, we know that this is not true, but we can understand that when we view many little footprints heading in the same direction we don’t make a distinction between them.

“Prints in silver filigree” is a lovely metaphor in the second stanza. The edges of a footprint in the snow glitter like silver filigree. We know that the footprint isn’t literally silver filigree, but keeping the comparison as a brief metaphor creates an attractive image, flows smoothly, and is in better keeping with the poem than a longer simile or analogy would be.

Can you rewrite the second stanza in prose without the personification, hyperbole, and metaphor?

Our mothers can deduce where we children are by looking at the footprints we left in the snow.

Humph! That doesn’t create a visual image and therefore certainly isn’t as interesting to read. As my 16yo said, “Compared to the poem, that is one lame sentence.”

Where the top of every wall,
Every fence and every tree,
Is as white, as white can be.


And our mothers always know,
By our footprints in the snow,
Where the children go.

Duncan and Mei leaving plenty of footprints!

Teatime Tuesday Poetry

Stars
By Sara Teasdale

Alone in the night
On a dark hill
With pines around me
Spicy and still,

And a heaven full of stars
Over my head,
White and topaz
And misty red;

Myriads with beating
Hearts of fire
That aeons
Cannot vex or tire;

Up the dome of heaven
Like a great hill,
I watch them marching
Stately and still,

And I know that I
Am honored to be
Witness
Of so much majesty.

We discussed the imagery in the first two stanzas. Imagery is when an author appeals to one or more senses.

Then, we looked at the third stanza and I asked what had the beating hearts. We discussed the personification, a figure of speech where human qualities or abilities are given to inanimate objects or abstract notions, of stars.

In the fourth stanza we discussed the paradox of stars that march and are still. A paradox is a statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. Stars are still in that they continue to occupy the place in space and yet because the earth turns on its axis they appear to march across the night sky.

After discussing literary terms, we briefly discussed how this poem can mean different things. On the surface, this poem is about stargazing and well suited for reading aloud to young children. However, a mature person may see the night as dark as dark periods in a person’s life and the stars as hope, reassurance, or divine guidance.

Teatime Tuesday Poetry

Onomatopoeia is when a word name imitates or suggests the sound associated with it. Frankly, I just like to say onomatopoeia. Isn’t it a fun word? onomatopoeia, onomatopoeia, onomatopoeia! he-he-he! Oh, wait he-he-he is an example of onomatopoeia, because it means laughter and imitates the sound of the laughter.

Can you find onomatopoeia in this poem?

Chickadee
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Then piped a tiny voice hard by,
Gay and polite, a cheerful cry,
"Chick-a-dee-dee!" a saucy note
Out of sound heart and merry throat
As if it said, "Good day, good sir!
Fine afternoon, old passenger!
Happy to meet you in these places
Where January brings few faces."

When I think of onomatopoeia, cartoons always come to mind. Actually, the image that comes to mind is Roy Lichtenstein’s two panel work Whaam! My boys play an online video game where a player’s name is an example. His name is lasersgoPEWPEW!

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

Good Grief, I'm cold! Come in and enjoy some muffins while you read this rhyming couplet month poem.


A Calendar
by Sara Coleridge

January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes, loud and shrill,
To stir the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,
Scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs
Skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the childrens hands with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn,
Then the harvest home is borne.

Warm Septemper brings the fruit;
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasant;
Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast;
Then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,
Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

A Serenade for New Year's Eve, author unknown

The old year departed, how swiftly it flew,
'Tis gone, and with rapture we welcome the new;--
We trust a bright morning will dawn on your eyes,--
And sun beams unclouded illumine the skies.
Then wake from your slumbers, our serenade hear,--
We wish you a happy, a happy New Year!

After you read this you could discuss couplets or the em-dash, but we just read and enjoyed it! Happy New Year!

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

A Christmas Carol, by G.K.Chesterton

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast,
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world's desire.)

The Christ-child stood at Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown.
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.

As a “carol,” this poem like last week’s has nice stanzas and repetition, but that isn’t what we discussed today. We discussed similes and metaphors. In A Christmas Carol, by G.K.Chesterton the second line of each stanza is a simile. These lines compare Christ’s hair to something else.

A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared and usually connected by the words like, as, or seems.

"Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep."
Carl Sandburg

In a metaphor two things are implicitly compared by using a word or phrase that typically denotes one thing to denote another in order to show that these two things have something important in common. Unlike similes that use the words as, like, or seems to make a comparison, metaphors state that something is something else.

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
William Shakespeare, As You Like It

This contains two metaphors. The world is said to be a theater stage and people are said to be actors.

Here are some similes and metaphors from my children and me.

Similes
First, use these simple formulas almost like madlibs and you can have fun making some similes of your own.

(verb) + like + (noun)
Christian, verb- munched
Duncan, animal- vulture

He munched like a vulture.

as + (adjective) + as + (noun)
Grayson, adjective- stinky
Christian, noun- road kill

He is as stinky as road kill.

as + (adjective) + as + (noun)
temperament donated by Mom
Christian, adjective- volatile
Grayson, noun- dynamite

His temperament is as volatile as dynamite.

Metaphors
Now rewrite the similes as metaphors by eliminating like and as. This can be fun and yield some really good descriptive metaphors. Here is how my big guys changed our similes to metaphors.

During dinner, the hungry teenager was a vulture scavenging off other people’s plates.

He smells awful: his cologne is road kill!

His volatile temperament is dynamite waiting to be lit.

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

Christmas Carol
by Sara Teasdale

The kings they came from out the south,
All dressed in ermine fine,
They bore Him gold and chrysoprase,
And gifts of precious wine.

The shepherds came from out the north,
Their coats were brown and old,
They brought Him little new-born lambs--
They had not any gold.

The wise-men came from out the east,
And they were wrapped in white;
The star that led them all the way
Did glorify the night.

The angels came from heaven high,
And they were clad with wings;
And lo, they brought a joyful song
The host of heaven sings.

The kings they knocked upon the door,
The wise-men entered in,
The shepherds followed after them
To hear the song begin.

And Mary held the little child
And sat upon the ground;
She looked up, she looked down,
She looked all around.

The angels sang thro' all the night
Until the rising sun,
But little Jesus fell asleep
Before the song was done.

Not only is this poem appropriate to the season, but it is wonderful for discussing poetry!

Stanzas are to poems as paragraphs are to essays. In a poem a stanza is a unit of two or more lines that usually have a pattern of meter, rhyme, and number of lines. This poem is just lovely for explaining this due to the fact that the meter, rhyme, and number of lines in each stanza never changes throughout the poem. Also, at seven stanzas it is long enough to drive home this point without being so long that a younger child would become distracted.

This consistent metrical pattern throughout the poem means that it is really easy for young children this to clap out the number of syllables in each line. This is a nice way to introduce meter without getting too technical. (However, in the sixth stanza be sure to say looked as two-syllables.) Even young elementary school children can see the 8-6-8-6 pattern of syllables in each stanza.

Each stanza has the same ABCB rhyme pattern that can easily be seen with Legos.
South- red lego
Fine (Does fine rhyme with south? No, so let’s use a different color lego.)- green lego
Chrysoprase (Does chrysoprase rhyme with south? No. Does chrysoprase rhyme with fine? No, so let’s use a different color lego.) - yellow lego
Wine (Does wine rhyme with south? No. Does wine rhyme with fine? Yes, so let’s use the same color lego that we used for fine.) - green lego

It is easy to see that each stanza has four lines of verse. This is a good time for remembering that a line of poetry is called a verse.

In the first four stanzas there is also some nice repetition. The first verse follows a The (blank) from (blank) repetition. Then, the second verse tells what they are wearing and the third tells what they brought. This is nice parallel structure/ repetition to discuss.

With the repetition is a strong sense of imagery. We can visualize these kings, shepherds, wise-men, and angels. The simple descriptions feed into a story that we already know and give us a mental picture of everyone arriving from such different places, wearing such different clothing, bringing such different gifts and yet coming together to see Jesus who is in Mary’s arms as she sits on the ground.

Isn’t it cool that such a short work can lead to so much discussion before you even get into the meaning?!

Tuesday Teatime Poetry

The Duel, by Eugene Field

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;
'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!)
Nor one nor t' other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
(I wasn't there; I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese plate!)

The gingham dog went "bow-wow-wow!"
And the calico cat replied "mee-ow!"
The air was littered, an hour or so,
With bits of gingham and calico,
While the old Dutch clock in the chimney-place
Up with its hands before its face,
For it always dreaded a family row!
(Never mind: I 'm only telling you
What the old Dutch clock declares is true!)

The Chinese plate looked very blue,
And wailed, "Oh, dear! what shall we do!"
But the gingham dog and the calico cat
Wallowed this way and tumbled that,
Employing every tooth and claw
In the awfullest way you ever saw
And, oh! how the gingham and calico flew!
(Don't fancy I exaggerate
I got my news from the Chinese plate!)

Next morning where the two had sat
They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole that pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!
Now what do you really think of that!
(The old Dutch clock it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)

We read this poem and talked about the personification (A figure of speech where human qualities or abilities are given to inanimate objects or abstract notions.) of the clock and plate. We discussed how, even though it is part of the personification, clocks actually do have hands in front of their face and that Chinese plates often are literally blue. We also discussed the nonsense of two stuffed animals fighting.

This poem reminds me of the folk poem about two dead boys.

One bright day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other.

A deaf policeman heard the noise
And came to arrest the two dead boys.
If you don't believe my story’s true,
ask the blind man, he saw, too.

This is how I remember my mom telling it to me. However, there are many versions. Here is a link to The British Columbia Folklore Society’s information and analysis of the poem.

Tuesday Teatime Poetry- Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Comes But Once a Year
by Thornton W. Burgess

Thanksgiving comes but once a year,
But when it comes it brings good cheer.
For in my storehouse on this day
Are piles of good things hid away.
Each day I’ve worked from early morn
To gather acorns, nuts, and corn,
Till now I’ve plenty and to spare
Without a worry or a care.
So light of heart the whole day long,
I’ll sing a glad Thanksgiving song.

This poem is good for discussing rhyming couplets!

Circle the last word in the first two lines in one color; circle the last word in the next two lines in a different color; so forth and so on. Ask your child to look at year and cheer and tell you what he notices about the two words. He should tell you that they rhyme. Then, look at day and away and discuss that they rhyme with each other but not with year and cheer. Explain that when a poem contains a rhyming pair of successive lines, two lines one after another that end with words that rhyme, they are called a rhyming couplet.

You can demonstrate rhyming patterns with legos, colored beads, or little pieces of construction paper. For example, in this poem you could use two white legos (year, cheer), two red legos (day, away), two green legos (morn, corn), two blue legos (spare, care), and two yellow legos (long, song).

If your child is older or you want to move past the simple explanation of a pair of successive rhyming lines, you can discuss how couplets usually form a syntactic unit (phrase, clause, or sentence) and share the same meter (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of a set length).

Tuesday Teatime Poetry- Haiku

Currently, Duncan is memorizing some Emily Dickinson poems. But, I have haiku on the brain. After all, last week I named this blog after a haiku. Also, when we were out looking at the college this past weekend, we stayed overnight with a dear friend who I have known since childhood. Her daughter Moe, not her real name, is currently doing a poetry unit at school and we talked about favorite poems and haiku.

So, I wanted to talk about haiku and share some websites.

http://baetzler.de/poetry/lexa_haiku_def.html
I really like this haiku explanation. It is thorough and clear.

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/book-blog/book-blog/2008/07/what-is-a-haiku-and-what-isnt/
This page gives you a good idea of what isn’t a haiku.

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Haiku-Poem
This is a nice how-to if you are interested in writing a haiku, but don’t know where to start.

I enjoy writing haiku. It is calming to think of an entertaining juxtaposition in nature that also says something about the human condition and then attempting to boil it down to a few syllables devoid of the emotional analysis so common in Western poetry.

Here is one of mine that sticks to a 5-7-5 syllable structure.

Turtle’s jaws snap closed
On water and nothing else.
The fish speeds away.

Have you ever watched a snapping turtle miss its meal? It reminds me of wanting something so badly that I can taste it. I just know I am going to have whatever it is that I am wanting, so much so that I am counting on it. Then, the opportunity slips right past me. oops