“Don’t you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back?”
Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables
Poetry is an integral part of Charlotte Mason homeschooling. So many of us struggle with it, though. My personal experience growing up in government schools exposed me to many teachers who took the joy and beauty right out of the study of poetry. It’s a shame.
Poetry is like painting a symphony with words. It can convey things in a way that prose simply cannot. Memorable phrases will stay with you for the rest of your life. Poetry is a dish in the great feast of Charlotte Mason learning that is meant to be enjoyed and savored, not picked apart and examined!
Anne of Green Gables had an incredible appreciation for poetry and a flare for the dramatic. So today we are exploring poetry read with the gusto it should be!
The first selection has to be Anne, reciting The Highwayman, from the beloved Anne of Green Gables series so many of us grew up watching in the ’90s. I admit to having the original 2 on DVD and enjoying them in the autumn. But it is delightful at any time of year!
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Anne of Green Gables – The Highwayman
Poetry Collections Our Family Loves!
If you are looking to begin adding poetry study to your homeschool, anthologies are a great place to begin. So are well-illustrated single poems. These are some of our family’s favorites. My 11-year-old loved doing very dramatic readings of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner over several afternoons and it might be one of my favorite homeschool memories now.
*Please note that Poems Every Child Should Know is compiled by a Catholic and published by a Catholic publisher. There are a few of the many wonderful poems in it that include Marian theology. My children are 11 and 13 and we can discuss the differences in what we believe. I include this caveat because the last time I promoted this book I got some unkind comments.
Poems Every Child Should Know
A Book of ComfortJulie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs and LullabiesThe Random House Book of Poetry for ChildrenA Child’s Book of PoemsThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Poems Alluded to in Anne of Green Gables
For further study of the poems alluded to by Anne or in phrases used in the Anne of Green Gables book, here is a list of a few referenced:
- Pippa Passes, a Drama and Evelyn Hope by Robert Browning
- Palace of Art, The Brook, and Lancelot and Elaine by Alfred Tennyson
- The Lady of the Lake, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, and Marmion by Sir Walter Scott
- Cobbler Keezar’s Vision by John Greenleaf Whittier
- Lady Geraldine’s Courtship by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Maidenhood, and The Reaper and the Flowers by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Additional Dramatic Poetry Readings to Enjoy
The Raven read by Christopher Walken
The Wreck of the Hesperus read by D. Anthony Fahy
The Village Blacksmith read by Alan Morris
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