5 Classic Poems for Children

Poetry is food for the soul, and early exposure to it can give children a greater capacity for spirituality. (Alla Bielikova/Getty Images)

Poetry puts us in touch with the wisdom of the past. One of those pieces of bygone wisdom is the importance of exposing children to good poetry. There was a time when every child studied and even memorized classic poems. It was an essential part of education.

Little William Shakespeare at the King’s New School in Stratford-Upon-Avon studied the poetry of the pillars of civilization, the Roman poets. Arguably, without that steeping in Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and the like, his own poetic genius would never have flowered.

From the days of the ancients themselves until recently, such poetical formation for children was considered non-negotiable. Poetry is food for the soul, and a child who grows up without exposure to it may wither and waste away spiritually.

C.S. Lewis explains in “The Abolition of Man” that the healthy emotional development facilitated by poetry and other art forms ensures that our young men and women have big hearts, a goal of education that ought to stand side-by-side with fostering intelligence and knowledge. A lack of such artistic nourishment results in “men without chests,” to use Lewis’s term, human beings whose hearts have been stunted in their growth. Their eyes have not been opened to the sacred song of reality surrounding us, and their emotions are not tuned to that song.

The benefits for children of reading and, especially, memorizing poetry extend to all aspects of the human person. Working to memorize a poem sharpens a child’s memory and teaches them how to memorize, a skill quickly dissolving in an age in which Google offers the temptation of an electronic memory to store all one’s knowledge. Reciting poetry improves self-confidence and poise as a public speaker, offering an opportunity for children to learn about eye contact, posture, gestures, pauses, dynamics, and cadences in the voice, the rhythm and beauty of language, and the rhythm of the body.

Finally, perhaps most importantly, memorizing poetry improves character and provides emotional training. Good poems teach children to notice things as a poet does, with an appreciative eye, and attune them to the recesses of beauty that surround us and the noble sentiments they ought to inspire. All this beauty can become part of the child, particularly if they memorize the poem, for when they memorize it, it enters into the body, can be tasted on the tongue, can be felt in muscle memory, and heard on the breeze. It becomes part of them.

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The subject matter of these poems can vary, but some of the best children’s poetry deals with the simple, primary, and timeless things—subjects such as cows, trees, little rivers, grandparents, siblings, imaginary games, and the passage of seasons. Educators John Senior and Dennis Quinn discuss the importance of children’s literature that fosters a love of the past and remains rooted in the things of the past. This is because, they say, those realities that our grandparents and great-grandparents would recognize—apple orchards, wells, shepherds, ships at sea—are the timeless things of human existence.

Here, then, are a few suggestions of poems that can nourish children’s minds and hearts.

1. ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year ...”

I was required to memorize this one as a child, and certain lines and stanzas still echo inside my head with their pounding beat and driving energy, propelling forward the poem’s exciting story. It is a retelling of Paul Revere’s famous ride to warn the Americans about a British attack during the Revolutionary War. This poem has the added advantage of teaching children about history and instilling in them a respect for our national heroes—a virtue increasingly rare today. The fact that it tells an exciting story will make the poem easier for kids to understand and enjoy.

2. ‘A Good Play’ by Robert Louis Stevenson

“We built a ship upon the stairs All made of the back-bedroom chairs, And filled it full of sofa pillows To go a-sailing on the billows ...”

This little poem describes the imaginary adventures of two brothers who have created a “ship” out of furniture. In a few lilting lines, it celebrates wholesome play, brotherhood, and the joy of the imagination.

It’s difficult to choose for this list just one poem from Stevenson’s collection “A Child’s Garden of Verses,” which offers a lovely array of poems that capture something of what it means to be a child while celebrating the commonplace features of a child’s world. When I was a child, we had an edition of this book illustrated by Tasha Tudor. The charming paintings complemented and enhanced the poems.

3. ‘The Brook’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“I come from haunts of coot and hern, I make a sudden sally, And sparkle out among the fern, To bicker down a valley ...”

In this ballad by Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a personified brook describes in first person perspective its wanderings through the countryside. The poem contains an even, satisfying rhyme scheme and many lively, bubbling sounds that mimic the chattering of a stream, while giving glinting, golden vignettes of the subtle beauty of brooks and rivers. The refrain, “For men may come and men may go, / But I go on forever,” awakens in the reader a sense of the timelessness of streams, as well as the transience of human life by comparison.

4. ‘The Kitten at Play’ by William Wordsworth

“See the kitten on the wall, Sporting with the leaves that fall, Withered leaves, one, two and three Falling from the elder tree...”

This simple little poem by seminal Romantic poet William Wordsworth describes the antics of a kitten playing with leaves. Wordsworth teaches us to pay attention to details and to enjoy this common but endlessly entertaining sight. Most kids like kittens, and this poem would be especially enjoyable for cat-owning children to memorize.

5. ’Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost

“Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow...”

Although some of the poems on this list are written specifically for children, others, such as this one, are not. It’s important to expose children to more advanced poetry early on. They need not understand all of it in order to enjoy it, nor do they need to be able to enter into deep analysis of theme and form. They will sense the mystery and beauty, and that is enough. By exposing children to poems that are a little beyond them, you will encourage them to grow and pique their curiosity about what undiscovered poetic realms lie in their future. We shouldn’t underestimate young readers and what they may be capable of.

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is a good transitional poem into adult poetry. It is simple, rhythmic, and easy to understand, but also contains deeper themes—such as the recesses of the forest itself—that go beyond the simplicity of some of the other poems in this list.

The closing lines of the poem have haunted me—in a good way—ever since I read them as a child: “But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep.”