Poems Every Child Should Know: The What-Every-Child-Should-Know-Library | Page 5

HENRY FRANCIS?Abide With Me, 223
MACAULAY, THOMAS B.?Ivry, 179?Horatius at the Bridge, 193?MACDONALD, GEORGE?Little White Lily, 10?The Wind and the Moon, 111?MACKAY, CHARLES?Song of Life, 48?MARKHAM, EDWIN?The Man With the Hoe, 342?MCCLELLAN, ISAAC?The Death of Napoleon, 131?MILLER, JOAQUIN?Columbus, 169?MILLER, KATHERINE?Stevenson's Birthday, 164?MILLER, WILLIAM?Willie Winkie, 13?MILTON, JOHN?On His Blindness, 304?MONTGOMERY, JAMES?Arnold von Winkleried, 296?MOORE, CLEMENT CLARKE?A Visit from St. Nicholas, 29?MOORE, THOMAS?The Last Rose of Summer, 234?Cupid Stung, 234?The Light of Other Days, 266?The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls, 287?MORRIS, GEORGE POPE?Woodman, Spare That Tree, 222
NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY?Lead, Kindly Light, 224
OSBORNE, SELLECK?A Modest Wit, 165?OSGOOD, KATE PUTNAM?Driving Home the Cows, 160
PAYNE, JOHN HOWARD?Home, Sweet Home, 220?PIERPONT, JOHN?Warren's Address, 63?POE, EDGAR ALLAN?The Raven, 289?POPE, ALEXANDER?Solitude, 273
RALEIGH, SIR WALTER?The Lye, 283?RANKIN. JEREMIAH EAMES?The Babie, 4?READ, THOMAS BUCHANAN?Sheridan's Ride, 68?RILEY, JAMES WHITCOMB?Little Orphant Annie, 54?ROGERS, SAMUEL?A Wish, 272
SARGENT, EPES?A Life on the Ocean Wave, 85?SCOTT, SIR WALTER?Lochinvar, 103?The Gathering Song of Donald Dhu, 126?SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM?Ingratitude, 58?Mercy, 300?Polonius' Advice, 301?A Fragment from Julius C?sar, 301?SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE?Ode to a Skylark, 268?Ozymandias in the Desert, 322?SMITH, SAMUEL FRANCIS?America, 228?SOUTHEY, ROBERT?The Battle of Blenheim, 117?The Inchcape Rock, 145?The Legend of Bishop Hatto, 166?The Well of St. Keyne, 186?STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS?My Shadow, 9
TAYLOR, BAYARD?The Song in Camp, 64?TAYLOR, JANE?The Violet, 27?TENNYSON, ALFRED?Sweet and Low, 27?The Owl, 40?The Bugle Song, 66?Lady Clare, 72?The Lord of Burleigh, 75?The Death of the Old Year, 86?The Charge of the Light Brigade, 107?Crossing the Bar, 124?The Brook, 153?The Lotos Eaters, 231?The REVENGE, 246?Sir Galahad, 253?THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE?Little Billee, 41?THAXTER, CELIA?The Sandpiper, 71?THOMAS, EDITH?Moly, 233?The God of Music, 275?TROWBRIDGE, J.T.?Farmyard Song, 90?TURNER, CHARLES TENNYSON?Letty's Globe, 115
WATTS, ISAAC?Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite, 4?Love Between Brothers and Sisters, 20?WHITMAN, WALT?O Captain! My Captain! 57?Song of Myself, 344?WHITTIER, JOHN G.?The Three Bells of Glasgow, 67?Barbara Frietchie, 96?WOLFE, C.?The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna, 176?WOODWORTH, SAMUEL?The Old Oaken Bucket, 288?WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM?The Rainbow (a fragment), 28?I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, 82?Fidelity, 120?Lucy, 272?The World is Too Much With Us, 304?She Was a Phantom of Delight, 305?WOTTON, SIR HENRY?A Happy Life, 220
PART I.
The Budding Moment
[Illustration]
Poems That Every Child Should Know
THE ARROW AND THE SONG.
"The Arrow and the Song," by Longfellow (1807-82), is placed first in this volume out of respect to a little girl of six years who used to love to recite it to me. She knew many poems, but this was her favourite.
I shot an arrow into the air,?It fell to earth, I knew not where;?For, so swiftly it flew, the sight?Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,?It fell to earth, I knew not where;?For who has sight so keen and strong?That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak?I found the arrow, still unbroke;?And the song, from beginning to end,?I found again in the heart of a friend.
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.
THE BABIE.
I found "The Babie" in Stedman's "Anthology." It is placed in this volume by permission of the poet, Jeremiah Eames Rankin, of Cleveland (1828-), because it captured the heart of a ten-year-old boy whose fancy was greatly moved by the two beautiful lines:
"Her face is like an angel's face,?I'm glad she has no wings."
Nae shoon to hide her tiny taes,?Nae stockin' on her feet;?Her supple ankles white as snaw,?Or early blossoms sweet.
Her simple dress o' sprinkled pink,?Her double, dimplit chin,?Her puckered lips, and baumy mou',?With na ane tooth within.
Her een sae like her mither's een,?Twa gentle, liquid things;?Her face is like an angel's face:?We're glad she has nae wings.
JEREMIAH EAMES RANKIN.
LET DOGS DELIGHT TO BARK AND BITE.
"Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite," by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), and "Little Drops of Water," by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer (1810-97), are poems that the world cannot outgrow. Once in the mind, they fasten. They were not born to die.
Let dogs delight to bark and bite,?For God hath made them so;?Let bears and lions growl and fight,?For 'tis their nature too.
But, children, you should never let?Such angry passions rise;?Your little hands were never made?To tear each other's eyes.
ISAAC WATTS.
LITTLE THINGS.
Little drops of water,?Little grains of sand,?Make the mighty ocean?And the pleasant land.
Thus the little minutes,?Humble though they be,?Make the mighty ages?Of eternity.
EBENEZER COBHAM BREWER.
HE PRAYETH BEST.
These two stanzas, the very heart of that great poem, "The Ancient Mariner," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), sum up the lesson of this masterpiece--"Insensibility is a crime."
Farewell, farewell! but this I tell?To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!?He prayeth well who loveth well?Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best?All things, both great and small:?For the dear God who loveth us,?He made and loveth all.
SAMUEL T. COLERIDGE.
TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE STAR.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star!?How I wonder what you are,?Up above the world so high,?Like a diamond in the sky.
When the glorious sun is set,?When the grass with dew is wet,?Then you show your little light,?Twinkle, twinkle all the night.
In the dark-blue