Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: choosing a poet, poetry

This topic has 12 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by homeschooltraveler.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

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May 28, 2015 at 8:41 pm
kellywright006
Participant
Hi Everyone:
This was our first year studying poetry. We did 3 poets, (A.A. Milne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lewis Carroll). We started off with AA Milne, and love loved it! The second term, we were doing Stevenson, we like it ok, but everything was compared to our wonderful Milne experience. We did Carroll the last term! EEK. That was not good. His poems are so strange, and we did not enjoy it, at all.
When looking into next year, what poets would be good for new poetry learners (me, 8th, 6th, 5th, 2nd, and K) to enjoy? I don’t know poetry, at all. So to spend lots of time looking up poets and reading several poems for several poets, might be overwhelming. How do YOU go about choosing a poet? Do you have any suggestions? I know some are known as dark, some are known as looney (probably Carroll 🙂 What would you recommend?
Thanks for listening.
May 28, 2015 at 8:42 pm
kellywright006
Participant
Oh BTW, we liked the series ‘Poetry for Young People’–it’s on one specific poet. Just have to pick one ya like!
May 28, 2015 at 8:57 pm
missceegee
Participant
I own many of the Poetry for Young People books and like them. Do be aware that some are abridgements, if that matters to you. You might try an anthology for a while instead of a specific poet. Favorite Poems Old and New is a good one. That way you can get a taste for many different ones. We liked Kipling, Dickinson, Angelou.
May 28, 2015 at 9:03 pm
RobinP
Participant
We enjoyed those Christie mentioned as well as Robert Frost, James Whitcomb Riley and Longfellow. I also like to break it up with a poetry anthology.
May 28, 2015 at 9:18 pm
kellywright006
Participant
That is a great idea to read Favorite Poems Old and New, I do have that. We haven’t read it yet, bc I was thinking I *should* study a certain poet, rather than a collection. With choosing one poet a term, I feel like I am ‘covering my bases.’ If I did the anthology, what would a term look like? Just read and enjoy, noticing different poets? Just wondering if you read w different purpose…..than if you read a book about one poet? Sorry for all the specific questions, just trying to learn (I guess re-learn!) 🙂
May 28, 2015 at 9:35 pm
Karen
Participant
I treat poetry randomly. I read poetry randomly and pick which poems to read based on which child is the loudest! *L*
I admire that you picked one poet and stuck with it for an entire term. I hope to use the Tennyson book from SCM next school year – it will be our first exposure to Tennyson and our first time sticking with one poet.
I’ll be watching the responses, too! I’ve thought about picking a poet based on our history studies — it’d be interesting to see what impact current events had on the poetry produced during a certain time period. (But that would be a study for older children. Mine are 10, 9, 7 and 5.)
May 29, 2015 at 12:51 am
crazy4boys
Participant
I’m all over the place with poetry. We will study a specific poet for a while (love the Poetry for Young People series). Then we’ll read from an anthology for a while. Just open and read a few poems, put the bookmark in, and start from there the next week. After a few weeks/months of that we’ll study a poet. Sometimes we align it with the time period we’re studying, sometimes not. Sometimes we read from Favorite Poems Old and New (or other anthology) and other times we’ll read silly poetry or more modern stuff like Shel Silverstein. My weirdo kids loved the excerpt of Hiawatha so much we’re actually reading the whole thing. For fun.
We WILL do a poetry study in high school for a semester, but mostly we read for enjoyment and exposure.
May 29, 2015 at 5:01 am
RobinP
Participant
We basically just read a poem or two a day whether we’re focusing on a particular poet just just a random selection. I rarely comment. We also memorize a poem now and then. We just say it until we know it however long it takes. Very easy and informal. I HATED poetry in school. We picked it to death. I love poetry now and often have a poem rolling through my head…which is what it’s all about, IMO.
May 29, 2015 at 5:35 am
Melanie32
Participant
I am another one who just reads poetry with my daughter. We schedule poetry once a week and I read two poems aloud and she reads one poem aloud.
I may try picking a particular poet to study this year. We will see how it goes. My biggest goal is for my daughter to enjoy poetry so I don’t want to make it a drudgery for her.
May 29, 2015 at 7:30 am
HollyS
Participant
My post disappeared!
We pick one poet to study for the year, but we read poetry from many poets. I add in a book of poetry (or two) from that poet to read from sometime during the year. Poetry For Young People and Dover Thrift Classics are my usual books for the poet study.
For mixed poet books, our favorites are Favorite Poems Old and New, Random House Book of Poetry, and AO’s Year One poems. I printed out the AO Year 1 poems several years ago and I love how they are arranged by month. We’ve read through these poems several times! Sometimes we read silly poems like Shel Silverstein. Joyful Noise is a great one for two or more readers.
You might like Robert Frost or Christina Rossetti. They are two of our favorites and fun to memorize!
May 29, 2015 at 8:56 am
smartypants
Participant
If you are wanting guidance, The Harp and Laurel Wreath might be what you are looking for.
Robin
May 29, 2015 at 4:22 pm
kellywright006
Participant
Thank you very much for all the wonderful comments! 🙂
Excited to get planning…..(sort of!) ;0
May 29, 2015 at 11:03 pm
homeschooltraveler
Participant
We did Stevenson this year as our poet to study, and enjoyed it, but we also were able to explore a lot of different types of poetry through Tuesday poetry tea parties. The kids absolutely LOVE Tuesday tea, and it has been fun to see how it has made poetry a lot more accessible to them. I usually just look for a variety of poetry books from the library, and watch to see which ones are more popular with each child.
Here’s a link to where we got the idea for poetry tea, if you are interested 🙂
http://www.bravewriter.com/bwl/poetry-teatimes/