by Casper Reaves

Created on: August 13, 2011

A few children will instantly enjoy poetry.  A few other will always hate poetry.  Most others will be in the middle and their interest in poetry will depend on how it is introduced.  Here are a few suggestions on how to get children interested in poetry.

Find a good source of recorded poetry that may be accessible to children.  Garrison Keillor is an excellent poetry reader.  Get a copy of his “3 doz. poems” so that you can load it on to a computer or MP3 player.  From this collection, child may enjoy starting with “Abecedary” by Thomas Disch and “From Out the Cave” Joyce Sutphen.

Keillor produces a daily public radio show called “The Writer’s Almanac” where he reads one poem after he provides an overview of literary and historical events for that day.  You could make that show, which lasts about 5 minutes, a regular event with your child.  In some places, the show is aired during commute times.  It can also be listened to on-line or downloaded as a podcast.

As you introduce a child to poetry, you will have to deal with the challenges of understanding a poem and liking a poem.  You could compare poetry to animated movies.  Each child may like some movies more and some movies less.  Also, in some animated movies, there are items aimed at adults that children may not understand.  For example, Robin Williams in “Aladdin” and Eddie Murphy in “Shrek” both made jokes that children did not fully understand.  Use these examples to encourage a child that if they find poems that they do not understand or do not like, that is normal and to keep exploring poetry. 

Teach children how to diagram a rhymes scheme and turn it into a game.  Is that poem “a-b-a-b” or “a-b-c-a-b-c”?  Or find other words that work in the rhyme scheme.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways” includes rhymes with height, sight, light, and right.  You could work with a child to come up with other rhyming words.

There are some good poems that overlap with history lessons.  If the child has learn about the American Revolution, you may want to introduce them to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Tales of the Wayside Inn, which included Paul Revere’s Ride and the like “One If by Land, Two If by Sea.”  If the child is learning about animals and nature, you may want to introduce them to Emily Dickinson’s poem “A Bird came down the Walk”.

The key to for teaching poetry to children is to select the works carefully as well as show your enjoyment for poetry. 

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