Poetry

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I have been in love with poetry since I was a young child. I love a clever rhyme, but I also love a beautiful metaphor.  Poetry has so many devices and involves so many senses that it is the ultimate use of language.

"Language is the greatest achievement of culture;

Poetry is the greatest achievement of language."

-Vladimir Alexadrov-

"Something well said is something well said, but something superbly said is a poem."      -Lewis Putnam Turco-  

"Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable."             -Louis Untermeyer- 

It is for this reason that I believe more time should be spent learning poetry. My analytical, mathematical husband says he doesn't "get" poetry; it's true that not all minds are wired poetically. But if it's good for a poet to learn math (and it is), then it's good for a mathematician to learn poetry.

Olivia Binfield is a young girl in the United Kingdom who has a passion for both poetry and animals and she bravely put both together on a world stage. She aptly demonstrated the power poetry has to move people.

Rhyme

Of course poetry does not have to rhyme, and contrary to what many youth misunderstand, some of the best poetry in fact does NOT rhyme. Rhyming is an essential skill to learn, however, and for many reasons it's the best place to start learning about poetry.

I grew up on Nursery Rhymes. When my oldest child was born, I overheard some other mothers saying that they didn't believe in teaching Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes to their children; they felt they were violent and maybe even evil.  I thought about that and came to the conclusion that these mothers obviously didn't know very many of the rhymes.

Actually, there is substantial research stressing the educational value and importance of children learning Nursery Rhymes. Just one example is from KBYU's Rhymers are Readers: The Importance of Nursery Rhymes (which includes a wealth of suggestions and activities):

"Tony Stead, senior national literacy consultant for Mondo Publishing in New York, described 

research showing that in 1945, the average elementary school student had a vocabulary of 10,000 words. Today, children have a vocabulary of only 2,500 words. 

"'That is disastrous,' Mr. Stead said. 'So many parents are not reading to their children anymore.' A lot of problems, he added, come from children not memorizing rhymes, the bread-and-butter of traditional early children’s literature. 

"'Listening comprehension precedes reading comprehension,' Mr. Stead said. 'In order for a child to understand what they are reading, they have to be able to hear the language first. A lot of the traditional rhymes, such as ‘Jack and Jill’ and ‘Humpty Dumpty,’ were repetitious and allowed us to memorize basic structures and patterns in the English language, then put it together. It’s important that young children learn to memorize through verse.'"

Mother Goose was the focus of Rutgers University's Project ECLIPSE.  Mother Goose: A Scholarly Exploration is a huge resource.  The following is from the introduction.

"Mother Goose is a staple of American childhood. The verses attributed to this mythical matriarch represent the sheer joy of young children playing with sound, language, rhythm and rhyme. They also introduce young listeners to the characters, simple plots and literary conventions that are entrees into more complex stories and poetry. Thus, Mother Goose shares with all great literature that sense of joy in its experiencing and the potential of learning about life, about oneself and about others in reflecting upon that experience.

"This body of literature in important in studies of emergent literacy, as one of the first stages in helping the youngest children develop language skills and appreciate and understand, at least intuitively, the rich possibilities of literary experiences. Indeed it is the very richness and enjoyment of such experiences at an early age that help to encourage in children the desire to read on their own. The availability of many pictorial interpretations of Mother Goose rhymes may also be one of a child's first encounters with the visual arts. Looking at many images of a particular rhyme in the illustration galleries reinforces the notion that there is no one right way to interpret a literary work and may even stimulate a child's own imaginative recreation or response."

All of this is to say that Nursery Rhymes are the perfect place to start children on literacy... and poetry.

Many, many books for children use rhyme to tell a story, and that is a good thing. Of course, Dr. Seuss books are very good for experimenting with rhymes and the sounds of language. (Except for The Cat in the Hat, a book I hate, Hate, HATE! It rhymes, yes, but the whole idea of kids being left home alone, who then let a stranger come in and break every house rule and the only conscience in the house is a fish and then they keep it all a secret from their mother--well, look, I'm so worked up just thinking about it that I wrote an improper run-on sentence.)

A series I love to read WITH my children is 2008 Children's Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman's You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series.  These are rhyming twists on Mother Goose, Fairy Tales, Fables, and more that are split so two people read them together. There is also an educator's guide with ideas for other interactive ways to use these books.

There are other ways to play with rhymes besides reading. The internet is full of ideas for rhyming games and activities.  Keep an eye out, too, for neat things like the Retro Rhymo Dominoes.