7. It is a mistake to use too much poetry at one time. Children, as well as grown people, tire of it more quickly than they do of prose.
The mind seems soon to reach the saturation point where it is unable to take in any more.
Frequent returns to a poem rather than long periods of study give the best results.
8. Encourage children to read poetry aloud. By example and suggestion help them keep their minds on the ideas, the pictures, the characters. Only by doing this can they really read so as to interpret a poem. No one can read with a lazy mind, or merely by imitation.
Encourage them to croon or recite the lines when alone.
9. It is not necessary that children should understand everything in a poem. If it is worth while they will get enough of its meaning to justify its use and they will gradually see more and more in it as time pa.s.ses. In fact it is this constantly growing content of a poem that makes its possession in memory such a treasure. Neither should the presence of difficult words be allowed to rule out a poem that possesses some large element of accessible value. Many words are understood by the ear that are not recognized by sight.
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING
Books such as Woodberry"s _Heart of Man_ and _Appreciation of Literature_ are of especial value for getting the right att.i.tude toward poetry. The most illuminating practical help would come from consulting the published lectures of Lafcadio Hearn, explaining poetry to j.a.panese students. His problem was not unlike that faced by the teacher of poetry in the grades. These lectures have been edited by John Erskine as _Interpretations of Literature_ (2 vols.), _Appreciations of Poetry_, and _Life and Literature_. The whole philosophy of poetry is treated compactly in Professor Gayley"s "The Principles of Poetry," which forms the introduction to Gayley and Young"s _Principles and Progress of English Poetry_.
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Mrs. Follen (1787-1860) was a rather voluminous writer and adapter of juvenile material. Her verses are old-fashioned, simple, and child-like, and have pleased several generations of children. While they have no such air of distinction as belongs to Stevenson"s poems for children, they are full of the fancies that children enjoy, and deserve their continued popularity.
THE THREE LITTLE KITTENS
ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
Three little kittens lost their mittens; And they began to cry, "Oh, mother dear, We very much fear That we have lost our mittens."
"Lost your mittens!
You naughty kittens!
Then you shall have no pie!"
"Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
"No, you shall have no pie."
The three little kittens found their mittens; And they began to cry, "Oh, mother dear, See here, see here!
See, we have found our mittens!"
"Put on your mittens, You silly kittens, And you may have some pie."
"Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r, Oh, let us have the pie!
Purr-r, purr-r, purr-r."
The three little kittens put on their mittens, And soon ate up the pie; "Oh, mother dear, We greatly fear That we have soiled our mittens!"
"Soiled your mittens!
You naughty kittens!"
Then they began to sigh, "Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
Then they began to sigh, "Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
The three little kittens washed their mittens, And hung them out to dry; "Oh, mother dear, Do not you hear That we have washed our mittens?"
"Washed your mittens!
Oh, you"re good kittens!
But I smell a rat close by; Hush, hush! Mee-ow, mee-ow."
"We smell a rat close by, Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow."
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THE MOON
ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
O look at the moon!
She is shining up there; O mother, she looks Like a lamp in the air.
Last week she was smaller, And shaped like a bow; But now she"s grown bigger, And round as an O.
Pretty moon, pretty moon, How you shine on the door, And make it all bright On my nursery floor!
You shine on my playthings, And show me their place, And I love to look up At your pretty bright face.
And there is a star Close by you, and maybe That small twinkling star Is your little baby.
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RUNAWAY BROOK
ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
"Stop, stop, pretty water!"
Said Mary one day, To a frolicsome brook That was running away.
"You run on so fast!
I wish you would stay; My boat and my flowers You will carry away.
"But I will run after: Mother says that I may; For I would know where You are running away."
So Mary ran on; But I have heard say, That she never could find Where the brook ran away.
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DING DONG! DING DONG!
ELIZA LEE FOLLEN
Ding dong! ding dong!