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...
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,...
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 27, 2023 · Last modified November 20, 2023
In this lovely poem by English poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld, an expectant mother speaks to her unborn baby, that “little invisible being” soon expected. To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become...
E2-Resources / E4-Resources / Poetry
by EILeditor · Published November 20, 2023 · Last modified November 27, 2023
Poem by Mrs. Anna Letitia Barbauld, 1743-1825. London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1791. Epistle To William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
The earliest Roman poetry (actually Latin poetry) dates back to the second century B. C. It is often understood as an adaptation of models originally designed by the Greeks. One of the most spectacular and...
by Janice Campbell · Published February 10, 2021 · Last modified February 8, 2021
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (gaol is the British spelling of jail) narrates the story of an execution that occurred while Oscar Wilde was imprisoned in the late 1890s. It does not attempt to...
by Janice Campbell · Published February 9, 2021 · Last modified February 6, 2021
Robert Burns (1759 – 1796), a Scottish poet and lyricist is not only the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, but he has long been considered the national...
by Janice Campbell · Published February 8, 2021 · Last modified February 6, 2021
Much of Sir Walter Scott’s poetry reflects the stories and themes of courage, justice, and romance found in his novels. Here are three of his shorter poems, “Lochinvar,” “Breathes There the Man,” and “Old...
Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812 – 1848) was an American poet and member of the Transcendental Club, and widely regarded as one of the most gifted among the New England Transcendentalist poets. She and her...
“A Poison Tree,” which explores the dangers of anger and revenge, was first published in Blake’s Songs of Experience in 1794. It has been set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams in his Ten Blake...
Louisa May Alcott, best known for her novel Little Women, admired her Transcendentalist neighbors, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. During Louisa’s elementary school years, Thoreau was her teacher, and in Moods, one...
Poets write about so much more than landscapes, lovers, and flowers — they write about war, conflict, justice, and striving for virtue. One quote that I have heard many times is “Once to every...
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...
Barbara Frietchie John Greenleaf Whittier Up from the meadows rich with corn, Clear in the cool September morn, The clustered spires of Frederick stand Green-walled by the hills of Maryland. Round about them orchards...
Morality By Matthew Arnold We cannot kindle when we will The fire which in the heart resides; The spirit bloweth and is still, In mystery our soul abides. But tasks in hours of insight...
As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swung...
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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