Poetry Friday: Oldies but goodies

Ever since the kids have each been four or five years old, they’ve been reciting poems at the speech arts part of the annual spring arts festival.

This year, the boys have one Rudyard Kipling poem and one Canadian poem each, and Laura one poem and her 4H speech. I gave the kids a small stack of books from the Poetry for Young People series, and the boys ran off with the Rudyard Kipling one, and Laura with the Lewis Carroll one.

Here are their selections.

Davy, my monkey child, chose

Road-Song of the Bandar-Log (the monkeys’ song from The Jungle Book)
by Rudyard Kipling

Here we go in a flung festoon,
Half-way up to the jealous moon!
Don’t you envy our pranceful bands?
Don’t you wish you had extra hands?
Wouldn’t you like if your tails were — so —
Curved in the shape of a Cupid’s bow?
Now you’re angry, but — never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

Here we sit in a branchy row,
Thinking of beautiful things we know;
Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do,
All complete, in a minute or two —
Something noble and wise and good,
Done by merely wishing we could.
We’ve forgotten, but — never mind,
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

All the talk we ever have heard
Uttered by bat or beast or bird —
Hide or fin or scale or feather —
Jabber it quickly and all together!
Excellent! Wonderful! Once again!

Now we are talking just like men!
Let’s pretend we are … Never mind!
Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!
This is the way of the Monkey-kind.

Then join our leaping lines that scumfish through the pines,
That rocket by where, light and high, the wild grape swings.
By the rubbish in our wake, and the noble noise we make,
Be sure, be sure, we’re going to do some splendid things!

Daniel, who would rather be outdoors digging than indoors doing just about anything, selected this excerpt from

How the Camel Got His Hump (from Just So Stories)
by Rudyard Kipling

The Camel’s hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.

Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
If we haven’t enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump —
Cameelious hump —
The hump that is black and blue!

We climb out of bed with a frouzly head
And a snarly-yarly voice.
We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl
At our bath and our boots and our toys;

And there ought to be a corner for me
(And I know there is one for you)
When we get the hump —
Cameelious hump —
The hump that is black and blue!

The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
Or frowst with a book by the fire;
But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
And dig till you gently perspire;

And then you will find that the sun and the wind,
And the Djinn of the Garden too,
Have lifted the hump —
The horrible hump —
The hump that is black and blue!

I get it as well as you-oo-oo —
If I haven’t enough to do-oo-oo —
We all get the hump —
Cameelious hump —
Kiddies and grown-ups too!

And Laura is having great fun with

Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Our memorization method is about as easy as it gets. Even when the kids get old enough to read and reread a poem themselves, I first read it aloud to them with the emotion, intonation, stresses, line breaks, and so on that I’d like them to have. That amounts to my reading each poem aloud several times a day for about a week, and each child reading the poem aloud several times a day.

For Laura, I was able to find a nice mp3 version of Jabberwocky at Librivox (Version 11 by David Barnes here); I get picky about voices, free and paid — for example, I find Cherry Jones’s Tennessee tones all wrong for the Little House books but perfect for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I made it into a CD for her, which she listens to at bedtime.

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For more poetry fun and today’s Poetry Friday round-up, head over to jama rattigan’s alphabet soup, for some soup, poetry, and Bob Dylan (I’m not a big Dylan fan, since I appreciate the lyrics much better without the voice). Thanks for hosting, jama!