Flashback Friday - Rhyme Time

What poems do you remember from your childhood? Did you have to memorize many poems for school when you were growing up? Did you learn any just for fun? Do you remember which ones they were--and can you still recite them? Did you have a poetry book that you liked to read? Do you enjoy poetry today? Do you prefer rhyming poetry or free verse? Whimsical poetry or epic poems that tell a story? Do you have a favorite poem or poet? Have you ever written any poems?

I have always loved poems. My first poetry book that I remember having was Poems for Little Ears. We had several poetry books and one of my favorites to read was My Poetry Book, which was originally published in 1934, but we had the red one, which was a subsequent printing. But it looked just like the picture on the right. I remember sitting in my dad's chair in the corner of the living room many, many times and reading through the various sections of poems. I also liked Best Loved Poems of the American People, although it was a much bigger and thicker book and harder for me to handle as a child.

I got my love for poetry from my mom. All through my childhood, I remember her reciting poems that she had learned in her school days. My favorite for her to say was The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service. I eventually memorized it and loved telling it to my kids when they were little.

I do have a fairly specific taste in poems. I like them to rhyme! And preferably, to make sense as well. The rambling free verse of modern poetry doesn't do a thing for me and makes me feel restless and unsettled most of the time. I suppose my affinity for the other is because I like the cleverness of the wording and I like the structure and the order and organization. And for the most part, I don't like exceedingly long poems. The Cremation of Sam McGee is unusually long for me. Poems that go on for several pages and relate a saga wear me out. I remember trying to read Casey at the Bat when I was younger and I thought the poem lasted as long as the game! The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere affected me that way too.

and e e cummings drove me nuts

I had to memorize several poems in elementary school, which unfortunately seems to be something that is no longer required. Several that I learned immediately come to mind, and I can still say parts of them: Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening by Robert Frost (always one of my favorites!), Trees by Joyce Kilmer, Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt, Fog by Carl Sandburg. I'm sure there were more.

In high school English, the focus was on analyzing rather than memorizing poetry. Iambic pentameters and other poetic terms swirled around in my head and drove me crazy! One particular poem is indelibly etched in my brain. We didn't have to memorize it but we spent so much time identifying and marking the meter that it was inevitable that I learned at least part of it. And I could hardly read it or say it without stressing every other syllable. My friend and I used to laugh as we'd read the first lines of The Man with the Hoe by Edwin Markham, emphasizing every other syllable:

Bowed BY the WEIGHT of CEN-tu-RIES he LEANS
UpON his HOE and GA-zes ON the GROUND
The EMP-ti-NESS of A-ges IN his FACE
And ON his BACK the BUR-den OF the WORLD.
I love to write poems. I'm not prolific by any means, and my poetry is generally occasion-driven. I don't just sit down and write a poem because I see a pretty sunset. I played around with writing poetry in junior high and college, but I've done it more in the past 15-20 years. THe first "major" poem I wrote was a thank-you to my doctor after my boy was born. The poem somewhat chronicled the events and issues I had in the pregnancy and the circumstances of his bith and included a tribute to his office nurses. It hung in one of the exam rooms for years. I wrote a few other poems in his first couple of years as he reached various developmental milestones.

When each of my kids finished elementary school I wrote a poem that had a verse for each year with that teacher's name and something about that year as well as a verse for "specials" (music, art, and P.E.). On the day before the last day of school, the principal called all those teachers into a "meeting" at the end of the day and I read them the poem and my boy (or girl, depending on the year) gave each teacher a copy of the poem and a flower. It was a really special time and a fun way to thank their teachers. My last week at that school, because I had been so involved in volunteering and had gotten to know so many of the teachers, I wrote a poem for the entire faculty (but only the principal got mentioned by name!) and was able to read it at their staff brunch the day after school was out as we said good-bye to that school for the last time and my girl headed to middle school.

Just for fun one year, I did our Christmas letter in poem form, and everyone liked it so much it became a tradition. It's been a bit of a challenge but it's fun, and it helps keep the letter fresh and concise and helps curb the "our kids are brilliant" tendency.

There have been serious poems, one of which was for some sweet friends who tragically lost their daughter a few years ago. Like music, sometimes poems convey feelings more eloquently than prose.

Finally, as I sat by my mom's bedside a couple of days before she died in 2008, I spontaneously wrote this poem as I looked at Her Hands and thought about all they had done through the years. I had the privilege of reading it at her funeral a week later.

Serious, inspirational, whimsical, clever - poetry is another way that words delight me.

What about you? Share your love - or disdain! - of poetry from your childhood and link up here!

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