Part Seventeen—Poems of the Week

Throughout our homeschool years we memorized poems.

The tabs of one of my school year binders usually held a space for "Poetry". Later on I put all the poetry under the heading "Accoutrements" along with quotes, etc.

Autumn Heather sitting on Poetry Port--the place to memorize poetry.

I used to type up poems, print them off, then put them inside plastic protectors with the tabs cut off, and put one each week up on the bathroom mirror and in the shower.

At the opening of school--when we sang a song, said a prayer, and saluted the flag--we would also try to recite the poem. The kids and I would say it together and learn a few lines a day. When someone had completely memorized it then he would stand up and perform it for us all. 

Through the years I began calling our poems the Poem of the Week, (along with the Scripture of the Week and the Hymn or Song of the Week).

Here is the well-used book I used to find many of our poems during our homeschool years, especially pre-internet: 

The Best Loved Poems of the American People

Several years ago I realized that instead of throwing away all those poetry papers each week, I should save or keep track of them to have a record of what we had memorized. I don't have a complete list, but I've put some of the ones we memorized here.  

 I can tell how old most of them are by the frames around the poem--

Sometimes I actually put the date on the paper--

 

During the Shakespeare year I used only this frame, (and yes, I know this is not technically a poem--we memorized monologues that year too)--

  

We memorized a lot of Edgar Guest poems-- 

and Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems--

I first read this poem in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town on the Prairie. 
Mrs. Ingalls wrote it in Laura's autograph book after a gossip incident at school went bad--

   

The Pessimist was one of our favorites--

I don't remember when we first learned this poem about the history of England--possibly during the art year when we studied the history of Western civilization through art. I know we learned it during the Knights of the Periodic Table and also during the Shakespeare year and again during our Swords of Honor year. This poem comes in handy when we have a question or dispute about one of the monarchs of England.

England's Sovereigns in Verse or The Kings and Queens of England

usually settles any question about order of succession--

Hal IV wrote and added extra verses to this poem to fill in the blanks all the way to Elizabeth II. I'm not sure what happened to those verses, but they were really good. (Hal IV was always our history buff and could put together the rest of English monarchical history without looking at any references).

Here is a later version of that same poem--

We memorized Invictus--

and then we learned the two rebuttals to Invictus--

If I had been more organized I would have recycled the poem papers ten years later, since the younger kids did end up memorizing many of the same ones their older siblings learned.  

We learned this one a few times--

We memorized Shakespeare poetry during the Shakespeare year-- 

 

Sometimes we just learned facts, like the parts of speech--

Sometimes we learned long poems--


and sometimes very short ones--

One year Hal and I were gone on a company trip for one week. The four youngest kids and I had been memorizing The History of the United States, i.e., "In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue."  It's a long poem and we weren't finishing it very fast. But when I got home the kids had it all memorized, thanks to Amber who was getting ready to leave home. She made sure the kids memorized the poem before we got back home. (I always said she could run my house better than I could. I suppose the same is true about my school!)

I remember Hal IV making up some verses for the history past WWI also. I'm not sure who wrote the two extra ones here.  This is the poem with additional verses by the Bradley Family in blue --the red is what I added to the bathroom poem so my kids would fill in the bare spots during the founding of America:

The History of the U. S.
by Winifred Sackville Stoner

In fourteen hundred ninety-two. Columbus sailed the ocean blue
And found this land, land of the Free, beloved by you, beloved by me.

And in the year sixteen and seven, good Captain Smith thought he'd reach Heav'n,
And then he founded Jamestown City, alas, 'tis gone, oh, what a pity.

'Twas in September sixteen nine, with ship, Half Moon, a real Dutch sign,
That Henry Hudson found the stream, the Hudson River of our dream.

In sixteen twenty pilgrims saw our land that had no unjust law.
Their children here in this day, proud citizens of U.S.A.

In sixteen hundred eight-three, good William Penn stood 'neath a tree
And swore that unto his life's end he would be the Indian's friend.

In 1770 March the five, some Redcoats killed the Boston Five.

This massacre, the first blood shed by British soldiers dressed in red.

‘Twas in December seventy-three, four hundred thirty-two chests of tea

Were dumped into the Boston Bay, and they’re still down there to this day. 
In seventeen hundred seventy-five good Paul Revere was then alive;
He rode like wild throughout the night, and called the Minute Men to fight.

Year seventeen hundred seventy-six, July the fourth, this date please fix
Within your minds, my children dear, for that was Independence Year.

In that same year, on a bitter night at Trenton was an awful fight,
But by our brave George Washington the battle was at last well won.

Two other dates in your mind fix - Franklin was born in seventeen six,
And Washington first said "Boo-Hoo" in seventeen hundred thirty-two.

In seventeen hundred seventy-nine, Paul Jones, who was a captain fine,
Gained our first naval victory fighting on the big, wide sea.

(Need a verse about Cornwallis in 1782 and one about the

Constitutional Convention and James Madison).

And in the year eighteen and four, Lewis and Clark both went before,
And blazed for us the Oregon trail where men go now in ease by rail.

In eighteen hundred and thirteen on great Lake Erie could be seen
Our Perry fight the Union Jack and drive it from our shores far back.

In eighteen hundred and sixty-one an awful war was then begun
Between the brothers of our land, who now together firmly stand.

In hundred sixty-three each slave was told that he was free
By Lincoln with whom few compare in being kind and just and fair.

In eighteen hundred eighty-one at Panama there was begun
By good De Lesseps, wise and great, the big canal, now our ships' gate.

At San Juan, eighteen ninety-eight, our brave Rough Riders lay in wait,
And on the land brought victory, while Dewey won it on the sea.

In nineteen hundred fifteen was shown a panaromaic screen
At San Francisco's wondrous fair; all people were invited there.

But cruel war in that same year kept strangers from our land o' cheer,
And in nineteen seventeen brought here the war that filled our hearts with fear.

Thank God in nineteen eighteen Peace on the earth again was seen,
And we are praying that she'll stay forever in our U.S.A.

During the American Girls year while studying the Civil War
 we memorized the Gettysburg Address--

but we did not memorize this poem about Abraham Lincoln,

though I put it up in the bathroom--

Here a few other favorites--

  

BRADLEY POETRY
From what I can recall, everyone in our family has written at least one poem. Hal wrote many poems, some of them for me and for our children. I compiled them in a Christmas present, The Bradley Family Treasury in 2008. 

Recently Autumn Heather wrote to me and asked if I would send her some poems. She said she hadn't realized how much she missed good poetry and she had only taken a few poems with her.

Good poetry instructs, stirs our hearts, and moves us to action. I always hoped that reading and memorizing the Poem of the Week would do that for my children.