Three Years with the Poets compiled by Bertha Hazard, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1904, is a collection of poems created:
To be memorized by children during the first years of school.
The idea was to provide an easy means to “train the memory,” by asking children to memorize at least a few lines of poetry each week.
The poems are arranged by year (first to third) and by calendar month, a selected required poem to be memorized each month. Three elective poems are also selected for each month. These are available to the student who has an easy time memorizing the required poem in the allotted time — he gets to choose which elective poem he would like to work on.
To round things out, there is also a list of supplementary poems and rhymes which can be read, enjoyed, and memorized, if desired. And a list of longer poems to be worked on throughout the year is supplied for those interested.
An author index in the back makes it easy to study one poet at a time, if that is your preference.
The selections are those that will be familiar to most homeschool families, from poets such as:
- Robert Louis Stevenson.
- Christina Rossetti.
- William Blake.
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
- Shakespeare.
- Eugene Field.
- Edward Lear.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes.
- Robert Browning.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
- And many, many more!
This is a great little collection and easy to use in a home education setting — all laid out for you and ready to go!
Free eBook
- Read online
- EPUB
- Kindle (recommend converting EPUB version)
Suggestions
- The author suggests penciling in on a calendar the day a poem has been successfully recited.
- Add each poem memorized to a poetry notebook. Alternatively, each poem memorized can be copied, a verse each day, into a copybook while memorizing.
- Use Drawing & Writing Paper to copy a favorite verse or entire poem and illustrate it.
Additional Resources
4 Ways to Incorporate Poetry
We have added this book to our list of poetry selections. You’ll also find other suggestions for “growing your child into poetry.”
Books
Three Years with the Poets by Bertha Hazard
Print edition for those interested.
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