Celebrate National Poetry Month with this Pot Pourri of Poems
Celebrate National Poetry Month with this fun pot pourri of poems including The Vulture, Some One, Will there really be a Morning, and Fidgety Philip. (duration 9 minutes) An episode from Journey with Story a storytelling podcast for kids.
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Transcript
Do you like poems? Do you have a favorite poem? Do you know any poems “by heart?”
Hello everyone, I ‘m Kathleen Pelley. Welcome to Journey with Story. A very famous Irish writer, Frank McCourt once said when he first heard the words of William Shakespeare (who of course is one of the world’s most famous and beloved poets and playwrights) that he felt as if he had “jewels in his mouth.” Isn’t that a wonderful description? I love poems – not just because of their lovely, language, but also because of how they make my heart sing – often times a poem can make me feel safe or glad or brave or fill me with wonder at the gift of life – in a way that nothing else can.
So, since this month is National Poetry Month here in America, I thought I would share with you a pot-pourri of poems. Do you know what a pot-pourri is? Yes, I am sure some of you have seen your mums buy some pot-pourri – a mixture of spices and scents and dried flower petals – it is made up of two French words – pot – pot and pourri – well that just means smelly–
But we can also use this phrase to mean just a mixture or a– medley of anything – songs or music or….poems
Thanks again to all of you who have been signing up for our free fairy tale colorings sheets and becoming a subscriber to my email where you can get all kinds of storytelling resources, news of upcoming episodes and updates on my own up coming published picture books – and there is one coming very soon, and indeed it might even be released by the time you listen to this episode. So go to www.journeywithstory.com to learn more.
Let’s take a journey with… a
Pot-Pourri of Poems
The Vulture by Hillaire Belloc
The Vulture eats between his meals
And that’s the reason why
He very, very rarely feels
As well as you and I.
His eye is dull, his head is bald,
His neck is growing thinner.
Oh! what a lesson for us all
To only eat at dinner
Will there really be a Morning by Emily Dickinson
Oh, there is a word here the poet uses – pilgrim – and that just means a person who is traveling to another land, but can also mean as it does in this poem – a person like you and I who are simply traveling through this world on our own journey of life.
Will there really be a “Morning”?
Is there such a thing as “Day”?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?
Has it feet like Water lilies?
Has it feathers like a Bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?
Oh some Scholar! Oh some Sailor!
Oh some Wise Men from the skies!
Please to tell a little Pilgrim
Where the place called “Morning” lies!
Someone by Walter De La Mare
Some one came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Someone came knocking;
I’m sure-sure-sure;
I listened, I opened,
I looked to left and right,
But nought there was a stirring
In the still dark night;
Only the busy beetle
Tap-tapping in the wall,
Only from the forest
The screech-owl’s call,
Only the cricket whistling
While the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all, at all.
Fidgety Philip by Heinrich Hoffman
“Let me see if Philip can
Be a little gentleman;
Let me see if he is able
To sit still for once at table.”
Thus spoke, in earnest tone,
The father to his son;
And the mother looked very grave
To see Philip so misbehave.
But Philip he did not mind
His father who was so kind.
He wriggled
And giggled,
And then, I declare,
Swung backward and forward
And tilted his chair,
Just like any rocking horse;-
“Philip! I am getting cross!”
See the naughty, restless child,
Growing still more rude and wild ,
Till his chair falls over quite.
Philip screams with all his might,
Catches at the cloth, but then
That makes matters worse again.
Down upon the ground they fall,
Glasses, bread, knives forks and all.
How Mamma did fret and frown,
When she saw them tumbling down!
And Papa made such a face!
Philip is in sad disgrace.
Where is Philip? Where is he?
Fairly cover’d up, you see!
Cloth and all are lying on him;
He has pull’d down all upon him!
What a terrible to-do!
Dishes, glasses, snapt in two!
Here a knife, and their fork!
Philip, this is naughty work.
Table all so bare, and ah!
Poor Papa and poor Mamma
Look quite cross, and wonder how
They shall make their dinner now.
So, did you have a favorite poem from all of these? Maybe you can draw your favorite part and send it to us on IG at JWS. And I do hope you find a poem you love this month that you can memorize – learn by heart (don’t you love that expression – by heart) You are storing those beautiful words inside your heart tucked away just for you when you might need them – if you feel sad or afraid or worried –you can recite that poem and make your heart feel bigger and better and bolder.
You already know what one of my favorite poems is that I keep tucked in my heart…yes…all will be well, all will be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Cheerio then – join me next time for Journey with Story.
