(#28) Jayme learns to memorize four poems for Ellie's bedtime

When I am putting my daughter to sleep somewhere without access to a favorite book, I like to recite to her Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat." It is a nostalgic favorite of mine, and I love the beautiful ridiculous aspects of it like the made up word "runcible" and and the owl and cat's wedding ceremony performed by "the turkey who lived on the hill."

I love reciting poetry. Like a lot of teens, I spent many years writing poetry as a way of processing my feelings and daydreams and I was lucky to go to a highschool that had a few forums for poetry recitation. Now that I'm part of a rather elaborate baby bedtime ritual, I wanted to get back into poetry and recitation.

Unfortunately, the only poems I still have memorized in completion are "The Owl and the Pussycat" and Langston Hughes' "A Dream Deferred" (stemming from a love affair I had in the sixth grade with the play A Raisin in the Sun).

I wanted to learn two poems that are classically for children, and two poems that can build my baby's "cultural literacy" (Any E. D. Hirsch Jr. fans out there?)- as well as make me feel, y'know,  all literary and smart and stuff!

So I went with "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" by Eugene Field  because I love the image of stars being herring fish, and  "A Pizza the Size of the Sun" by Jack Prelutzky because it reminds me of my husband who makes pizza every Saturday. I also decided to tackle "The Tyger" by William Blake, (read the analysis included in the link, it is fascinating!) and for the ease of memorization "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer.

In his essay, "In Defense of Memorization," Michael Knox Beran talks about the role memorization of poetry and prose plays in the development of children.

"Without knowing it, a child who has learned a scrap of verse has been drawn into the civilizing interplay of music and language, rhythm and sound, melody and word," Beran writes. 

He says, "memorization is a kind of exercise that strengthens the powers of the mind, just as physical exercise strengthens those of the body."

I have to say, it was kind of fun learning these. I may take on a few more as the year goes by.

Here is a great list of poems for children.