Introducing children to poetry
By Eloïse Poulton
Theatre & Film Director, Oppidan mentor
Poetry is everywhere.
It’s used to sell to us, to make us pay attention. It’s our favourite song lyrics and the quotes we carry with us for comfort. It can go viral – but sometimes, no one will ever read it at all.
What I love about a really good poem, the kind that rings in your ears long after you’ve read it, is that the ones we connect with find a home with each new reader they encounter. In this way, they live forever. Through offering their truth, they give you something personal. Discovering a poem you like is receiving a gift from the universe.
When I was choosing these poems, I wanted to select across different time periods; from poets writing in English, but not all from the UK; and to bring together distinctly different poetic voices, using different structures to communicate themselves. Perhaps you will find a common thread in the poems’ themes.
My tips for reading poetry
Read it aloud and read it in your head. Each new encounter will offer something different.
Remember that the poem wants to connect with you: it’s not expecting you to understand it straight away, or even at all.
Find one thing you like, then try to describe why. Is it a rhyme? A particular word choice? An image which immediately appears in your mind’s eye?
Pay attention to the line endings, particularly when they end with a word which doesn’t have a rhyme. Why has the poet chosen to end the lines where they have? Are they starting a new thought, introducing a new feeling, creating a movement away from or towards something?
Consider learning a poem you love off by heart. It’s totally worth it: it will live, rent-free, in your head, there to conjure whenever you want.
Try writing your own poem, perhaps inspired by one in this collection. Don’t worry about whether or not it’s good: just be true to yourself, and it will come alive.
Here are three poems to read with your child:
The London Breed
Benjamin Zephaniah (2001)
I love dis great polluted place
world of food displayed on streets
Where pop stars come to live their dreams
Where all the world can come and dine
Here ravers come for drum and bass
On meals that end with bitter sweets
And politicians plan their schemes,
And cultures melt and intertwine,
The music of the world is here
Two hundred languages give voice
Dis city can play any song
To fifteen thousand changing years
They came to here from everywhere
And all religions can rejoice
Tis they that made dis city strong.
With exiled souls and pioneers.
Hope
Emily Dickinson (1891)
‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
Praise Song for My Mother
Grace Nichols (1983)
You were
water to me
deep and bold and fathoming
You were
moon’s eye to me
pull and grained and mantling
You were
sunrise to me
rise and warm and streaming
You were
the fishes red gill to me
the flame tree’s spread to me
the crab’s leg/the fried plantain smell
replenishing replenishing
Go to your wide futures, you said
Questions to ask
Why have I chosen this poem to give to you?
What can you draw from this poem?
What themes can you draw from this poem?
Why do you think the poet has written the poem in this way?
What excites you about this poem?
What do you think of the main character?
How can we relate this poem to our lives today?
What literary technique is being used here and why?
Can you relate this to anything going on in the news at the moment?
Would you rather be a poet or an author? Why?