I'm trying to come up with a set of poems that I can help my grandkids learn before they are done with primary school which they are now just starting. So far I have come up with the following unprioritized list:

A Visit From Saint Nicholas - Clement Moore

Trees - Joyce Kilmer

Casey At The Bat - Ernest Lawrence Thayer

In Flanders Fields - John McCrae

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere - Longfellow

The Raven - Edgar A. Poe

Any additions would be appreciated.

I came across this particularly humourous Thanksgiving poem a long time ago. I'm not sure how well-known it is, so I'll give you the whole thing instead of just the title:

The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven

The turkey shot out of the oven
And rocketed into the air,
It knocked every plate off the table
And partly demolished a chair.

It ricocheted into a corner
And burst with a deafening boom,
Then splattered all over the kitchen,
Completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows,
It totally coated the floor,
There was turkey attached to the ceiling,
Where there'd never been turkey before.

It blanketed every appliance,
It smeared every saucer and bowl.
There wasn't a way I could stop it,
That turkey was out of control.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure
And thought with chagrin as I mopped,
That I'd never again stuff a turkey
With popcorn that hadn't been popped.

I used to love : The Listeners "by Walter De la mare (well I still do and have never forgotten it.) I am really glad I had to learn lots of poetry....like
Barbara Frietchie
Paul Revere
How They brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix
Daffodils
Westminster Bridge
and all of A A Milne's "Now we are 6" and "When we Were very young".Then there's:
The Highwayman
The Night Mail (this is great for children)
Old Possums Book of Practical cats (TSEliot of course)
try "MacCavitÿ's a Mystery Cat"
(Am I 'going on'a bit?? it is my favourite subject... poetry for children...)You also will find great benefit I think from learning great chunks of Shakespeare, Like the Dream and Twelfth Night (honestly!)
"A Child's garden of verses"?? Stephenson, and so very many more......

Thanks Lady, your poem is definitely a keeper.

Geez, Ritch, you better like this, it's taken 3/4 of an hour on a search engine and a phone call to my Mum, (don't worry I like ringing her anyway )! I love this one and good fun for kids.

THE TRIANTIWONTIGONGOLOPE - C J Dennis (1876-1938, Australia)
There's a very funny insect that you do not often spy,
And it isn't quite a spider, and it isn't quite a fly;
It is something like a beetle, and a little like a bee,
But nothing like a wooly grub that climbs upon a tree.
Its name is quite a hard one, but you'll learn it soon, I hope.
So try:
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope

It lives on weeds and wattle-gum, and has a funny face;
Its appetite is hearty, and its manners a disgrace.
When first you come upon it, it will give you quite a scare,
But when you look for it again, you find it isn't there.
And unless you call it softly it will stay away and mope.
So try:
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope

It trembles if you tickle it or tread upon its toes;
It is not an early riser, but it has a snubbish nose.
If you snear at it, or scold it, it will scuttle off in shame,
But it purrs and purrs quite proudly if you call it by its name,
And offer it some sandwiches of sealing-wax and soap.
So try:
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope

But of course you haven't seen it; and I truthfully confess
That I haven't seen it either, and I don't know its address.
For there isn't such an insect, though there really might have been,
If the trees and grass were purple, and the sky was bottle green.
It's just a little joke of mine, which you'll forgive, I hope.
Oh, try:
Tri-
Tri-anti-wonti-
Triantiwontigongolope

Frantically rifling through my filing system to find one that was in a magazine the other day, and I'd kept it because I thought it was a sweet one that I might use in the future.

Nativity Play by Gervase Phin

Oh Miss, I don't want to be Joseph,
Miss, I really don't want to be him,
With a cloak od bright red and a towel on my head,
And a cotton wool beard on my chin.

Oh Miss, please don't make me a shepherd,
I just won't be able to sleep.
I'll go weak at the knees and wool makes me sneeze
And I really am frightened of sheep.

Oh Miss, I just can't be the landlord,
Who says there's no room at the inn,
I'll get in a fright when it comes to the night
And I know that I'll let Mary in.

Oh Miss, you're not serious - an angel?
Can't Peter take that part instead?
I'll look such a clown in a white silky gown,
And a halo stuck up on me head.

Oh Miss, I am not being a camel!
Or a cow or an ox or an ass!
I'll look quite absurd and I won't say a word,
And all of the audience will laugh.

Oh Miss, I'd rather not be a Wise Man,
Who brings precious gifts from afar.
But the part right for me, and I hope you'll agree,
In this play - can I be the star?

(Excuse the typos - I'm having a "can't type" day)

Lewis Carroll, "Twas mimsy and the borogroves did gyre and gimble in the wabe"
Can't remember the reference, but those are perhaps the only poems I remember doing in school.
They taught us like Jean-Jacques Rousseau's wild children!
We have a specialist here, Toebigham!

I learned most of my French as an adult, but the sounds via the Fables de la Fontaine. They are going out of style but most people of a certain age know them by heart.
Yesterday my children's grandfather was explaining them to my kids. My daughter did some upon arriving here and she was the only one to do it, the other parents complained it was outmoded and impossible. The teacher went back on the assignment, after my kid could do it standing on her head.
I maintain that part of their cultural heritage is there...as in Mother Goose.
So I used both of these sorts of rhymes for them.

Great poem Copago and thanks for the extra effort.

Thanks fay_mc. Excellent poem and perfect timing.

[ 12-26-2001: Message edited by: Ritch ]

No worries Ritch, I enjoyed finding it again! The problem was trying to spell Triantiwontigongolope correctly for a search engine

I've spent a few quiet hours finding some of the poems that others have mentioned and I love the "Casey at the Bat" one. I have an obscure question.... was this the poem that was used for a Looney Tunes cartoon? The cartoon didn't have any of the normal Looney Tunes characters in it, but I just remember that it was about a baseball player and it ryhmed. That really is a good fun poem.

And Lady C's one was too funny!!

"All mimsey"is from the JabberWock, Lewis Carroll... how could I have forgotten him as a really rich source of poetry for children.

Hi Copago,
"Casey At The Bat" is included as a cartoon short on Disney's home video "Make Mine Music".

Anything by Shel Silverstein. My two favorites are "Sick" and "I'm A Little Hoarse." I recommend the books: "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "The Light In the Attic"