Children's Literature

PERFORMANCE POETRY

Kennedy, Caroline. Poems to Learn by Heart. Illustrated by Jon J. Muth. 2013.

In the anthology, Poems to Learn by Heart, Caroline Kennedy has chosen over 175 poems and placed them into ten chapters.  The chapters encompass self, family, friendship, fantasy, nonsense, school, sports, war, and nature, followed by an extra credit chapter and all of the poems are listed by title in the table of contents.  Each chapter begins with an introduction by Ms. Kennedy, providing a brief overview of what to expect in the section. 

Poetry ranges from the classic works of William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Langston Hughes to the contemporary works of Nikki Grimes, Naomi Shihab Nye, Janet Wong, and Jack Prelutsky.  Individual poems cover a gamut of emotions happy and cheerful to sad and despondent.  Some of the poems are utter nonsense, thus the chapter titled “Where Can a Man Buy a Cap for His Knee?” 

Many of the poems have distinct rhyme schemes, as seen in “My Shadow” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall.  “Voices Rising” by the DreamYard Prep Slam Team and “Liberty” by Janet Wong are two examples of poems written in free verse style.  Personification is the basis of “The Toys Talk of the World” by Katharine Pyle, with a vase, plaster bird, and toy top talking about the world. 

Similes, found in “Casey at the Bat” in the line “there went up a muffled roar, Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore” and “You are soft as the nesting dove” from “Invitation to Love” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, are scarce throughout the book, as are metaphors.  Many poems rely on similes and metaphors to create pictures in the readers’ minds, but they are plainly absent in post of the poetry found in this book.

Caroline Kennedy includes two indexes at the back of the book; the first has poems indexed by first lines and the second by author.  This is helpful when looking for works by a particular author or when a reader might remember how a poem begins but not the title or author.

Dr. Sylvia M. Vardell wrote a teaching guide as a companion to this book.  It is available for free download at:

http://books.disney.com/content/uploads/2013/09/Poems_to_Learn_Teacher_Guide.pdf

“First They Came for the Jews”

by Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Jews

and I did not speak out –

because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists

and I did not speak out –

because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists

and I did not speak out –

because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me –

and there was no one left

to speak out for me.

Before reading this poem:

As a class, discuss bullying and how it affects them and the people around them. 

            Some discussion questions:

                 1.     Do you bully others?

                 2.     Do you tease others and the say, “I’m just kidding.” Or “I’m just playing around.”

                 3.     Do you stand up for victims being bullied by other people?

Follow-up:

             What is the connection between this poem and bullying?

              As a class, each person writes one phrase about bullying.  Work together to arrange the phrases in a rhythmic way.  Use this class poem to create a movie (using, for example, iMovie, SloPro, or Action Movie FX).  Find pictures and sounds at copyright free sites (possible sites - Freeplaymusic.com, Soundbible.com/royalty-free-sounds-1.html, www.freeimages.com, public-domain-photos.com, www.imageafter.com/index.php, www.publicdomainpictures.net/hledej.php?php?hleda=free&x=0&y=0

             Once the movie is complete, share with other classes or the school.