Poetry by the Month
Enjoy these poems with themes about a particular month of the year: January February March April May June July August September October November December *** New Year’s Poems *** More on Poetry: How to...
Audio / Video / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published March 1, 2024 · Last modified February 10, 2024
Enjoy these poems with themes about a particular month of the year: January February March April May June July August September October November December *** New Year’s Poems *** More on Poetry: How to...
Memorizing it has become a lost art in the age of the iPhone, but it can still awaken us to a deeper understanding of our world. *** It’s Time to Rediscover the Power of...
A Calendar of Sonnets: February by Helen Hunt Jackson Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white; And reigns the winter’s pregnant silence still; No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill, And...
E3-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published January 30, 2024 · Last modified February 10, 2024
Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language; for his gayer hours She has a voice of gladness,...
E3-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published January 23, 2024 · Last modified February 10, 2024
by William Cullen Bryant To a Waterfowl Whither, ‘midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way? Vainly the...
Stanzas by Mary Shelley Oh, come to me in dreams, my love! I will not ask a dearer bliss; Come with the starry beams, my love, And press mine eyelids with thy kiss. ’Twas...
January can be a very cold month in the northern hemisphere, and many poets have reflected upon this! A Calendar of Sonnets: January by Helen Hunt Jackson O Winter! frozen pulse and heart of fire,...
E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published December 30, 2023 · Last modified January 9, 2024
From “In Memoriam” by Alfred Lord Tennyson Ring Out, Wild Bells Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out,...
E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published December 6, 2023 · Last modified December 13, 2023
by John Addington Symonds The Renaissance RENAISSANCE—The “Renaissance” or “Renascence” is a term used to indicate a well-known but indefinite space of time and a certain phase in the development of Europe. On the...
DECEMBER by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Riding upon the Goat, with snow-white hair, I come, the last of all. This crown of mine Is of the holly; in my hand I bear The thyrsus, tipped with fragrant cones of pine. I celebrate the birth of the Divine, And the return of the Saturnian reign;– My songs are carols sung at every shrine. Proclaiming “Peace on earth, good will to men.” *** A Calendar of Sonnets: December by Helen Hunt Jackson The lakes of ice gleam bluer than the lakes Of water...
E2-Resources / E4-Resources / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published November 13, 2023 · Last modified November 27, 2023
In this imaginative farewell poem from Roman poet Ovid to his wife, English poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld writes of aging. OVID to his WIFE: Imitated from different Parts of his Tristia. Jam mea cygneas...
He Said He Had Been a Soldier by Dorothy Wordsworth He said he had been a soldier, That his wife and children Had died in Jamaica. He had a begger’s wallet over his shoulders,...
E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published November 4, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet by Alfred, Lord Tennyson At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a flutter’d bird, came flying from far away. ‘Spanish ships...
NOVEMBER by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Centaur, Sagittarius, am I,Born of Ixion’s and the cloud’s embrace;With sounding hoofs across the earth I fly,A steed Thessalian with a human face.Sharp winds the arrows are with which I chaseThe leaves, half dead already with affright;I shroud myself in gloom; and to the raceOf mortals bring nor comfort nor delight. *** A Calendar of Sonnets: November by Helen Hunt Jackson This is the treacherous month when autumn daysWith summer’s voice come bearing summer’s gifts.Beguiled, the pale down-trodden aster liftsHer...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published October 23, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
GEOFFREY CHAUCER (? 1340–1400), English poet, is most famous for his great work “The Canterbury Tales.” His own age delighted in stories, and he gave it the stories it demanded invested with a humanity,...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published October 16, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616), English poet, player and playwright, was baptized in the parish church of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire on the 26th of April 1564. The exact date of his birth is not known. Birth...
The crisp chill of autumn has inspired more than just pumpkin spice — it has inspired poets through the centuries to capture it in all its leaf-bright glory. Here are a few October poems...
by EILeditor · Published September 25, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
Helen Maria Hunt Jackson (1831-1885) was an American poet and novelist and advocate for improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. She is best known for Ramona, a novel about the plight...
Biography / E4-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published September 12, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
FRANCIS THOMPSON (1859–1907), poet and prose-writer, was born on 18 Dec. 1859 at 7 Winckley Street, in Preston, England. His father, Charles Thompson (1824–1896), a native of Oakham, Rutland, practiced homoeopathy at Preston and...
Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published September 1, 2023 · Last modified October 6, 2023
One of my favorite September poems is a story by Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. Barbara Frietchie by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892) Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September...
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878), American poet and journalist, was born at Cummington, a farming village in the Hampshire hills of western Massachusetts, on the 3rd of November 1794. He was the second son of...
Biography / E4-Resources / E5-Resources / Excellence in Literature: The Curriculum
by EILeditor · Published August 18, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE (1564–1593), English dramatist, the father of English tragedy, and [the establisher] of dramatic blank verse, the eldest son of a shoemaker at Canterbury, was born in that city on the 6th of...
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), America’s “Quaker poet” of freedom, faith and the sentiment of the common people, was born in a Merrimack Valley farmhouse, Haverhill, Massachusetts, on the 17th of December 1807. Family Ancestry &...
Poetry / Resources for Teaching
by Janice Campbell · Published July 5, 2022 · Last modified October 6, 2023
We in the northern hemisphere may be melting in the July heat, but there are compensations. July poems from poets such as Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, Amy Lowell, and Lewis Carroll remind us...
by Janice Campbell · Published December 31, 2020 · Last modified January 15, 2024
How better to mark the close of an old year and the coming of a new than with poetry or song? Here are a few favorite classic New Year’s Eve poems to help you...
John Clare CLARE, JOHN (1793–1864), an English poet, was born 13 July 1793, at Helpstone, a village halfway between Peterborough and Stamford. Early Life John Clare had a twin sister who died before him....
Poets can be inspired by many things, but honestly — bugs? I guess if you’re writing about the month of August, it’s almost inevitable that some variety of insect will appear. You’ll find bugs...
The beauties of springtime have inspired poets for centuries. As I thought about what poems to include in this post, I realized how many May poems there are! Here are seven poems by some...
February A poem from The Shepherd’s Calendar by John Clare (mini-bio at end) The snow is gone from cottage tops The thatch moss glows in brighter green And eves in quick succession drops Where...
by Janice Campbell · Published April 30, 2018 · Last modified December 7, 2020
Robert Louis Stevenson, in addition to his famous prose works, also wrote poetry ranging from children’s nursery rhymes to poems of travel and adventure. Here are a few samples for your enjoyment. From A...
Here’s the Everyday Educator — our annual newsletter handout. It has book lists and helpful articles about homeschooling topics. We’d rather be sharing it in person, but for now, you can download the Everyday Educator here. I hope you enjoy it!
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