Introductory Note

The theme of my anthology is the four seasons. The poems move from spring to summer
to fall to winter. I began with spring because it is the first seasons of the year by the start date in
March. The first poem in my anthology is The Months by Sara Coleridge because it begins to
set the tone of the entire book. Following this poem is, Spring Is by Bobbi Katz. This light
piece draws the reader in simply by the way it appears on the page and the imagination it brings
forth. The last poem in this anthology is Winter Moon by Langston Hughes because the moon
calls end to each day and I thought it made sense for the moon to bring an end to the book.
Reading children poetry is an important aspect of the classroom. Poems can help children
read due to the often rhyme scheme, natural flow, descriptive language, etc. Regardless of age
children, adolescents, teens or adult, poems are a way to expressive oneself. Not all poetry is
good poetry; there are key aspects that must be addressed to formulate good poetry. In becoming
a childrens poet one must remember that audience they are trying to reach, theme, rhythm or
rhyme, descriptive imagery, word choice, tone, and if illustrations are necessary.
Like any other author, poets have to keep in mind the audience they are trying to reach.
This is the most important aspect because it is decided before the poem is written. When
addressing children in poetry, the author needs to write in a language that children will
understand, using appropriate language for the desired age range. Childrens poetry includes
poems for beginning readers and goes up through much more sophisticated readers. The theme
of the poem is also important because it should be apparent what the poem is about, where it is
taking place and if there is a message for the reader to grasp. Theme encompasses a lot because it
is different from poet to poet and poem to poem. Once a theme is decided upon, an author has to
consider the rhythm of the poem and if rhyme is necessary. The rhythm or flow of the poem is

important because it makes it easier for a reader to understand. Rhyme can be an important
aspect depending on the poem, it can enhance it or the poem may be more fit with no rhyme
scheme. Descriptive language and word choice are essential because the audience needs to be
able to read the words and the poem needs to be descriptive in order to make the poem come
alive. Good poems can be vividly imagined by the reader. The tone of the poem is the underlying
feeling of a poem. If the poem is meant to be happy, sad, angry, humorous, or sarcastic portrays
the tone throughout the piece. Illustrations are not always necessary for a poem, but they can
enhance the comprehension, purpose or tone of the poem. A poet could include illustrations with
slightly more difficult words because the reader can follow the piece through the pictures. Good
poetry is directed towards a specific audience and is put together through tone, rhythm and word
choice.
The poem I choose to analysis is Fall Has Begun by Sabrina Ryans (page 8). The title
gives way the theme of the poem and the word choice is descriptive throughout the piece. As the
reader I can picture the leaves, I can feel the cool breeze and hear the crunch. This poem has a
rhyme scheme of ABAB until line 9, then lines 10-15 rhyme ABAB, and the last line then
rhymes with line 9. The change in the structure of the lines in lines 10-15, it makes the poem
move faster showing how quickly things change in the fall. In some areas, like around my home
and here in Virginia it sometimes seems like we jump from summer to winter, making this poem
relatable to me. Lines 10-15 talk about the plants dying, dark nights coming earlier, animals
going into hibernation, and the lack of people outside. All of these things come rather abruptly
once it gets colder and they come abruptly in this poem. The tone of the poem in the first stanza
is happy and cheerful whereas in the second stanza it is somber and gloom. This is accurate
because although fall is a wonderful season and a lot of people look forward to summer changing

into fall, it inevitably causes life to seem slower and gloomier. Illustrations are not necessary for
this piece because of the vivid description, being able to picture the fall scene in ones head.

Table of Contents
The Months (Sara Coleridge)

Spring Is (Bobbie Katz)

Daylight Saving Time (Phyllis McGinley)

Smells (Kathryn Worth)

A Moment in Summer (Charlotte Zolotow)

August (John Updike)

Bed in Summer (Robert Louis Stevenson)

Fall Has Begun (Sabrina Ryans)

Autumn (Eddie Dulian)

Gathering Leaves (Robert Frost)

10

This is Halloween (Dorothy Brown Thompson)

11

Harvest Home (Arthur Guiterman)

12

Thanksgiving Day (L. Maria Child)

13

Autumn is Over (Rukiye Henderson)

14

I heard a Bird Sing (Oliver Herford)

15

From: A Christmas Package (David McCord)

16

Light the Festive Candles (Aileen Fisher)

17

January (John Updike)

18

Groundhog Day (Lilian Moore)

19

Beyond Winter (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

20

Winter Moon (Langston Hughes)

21

Bibliography

22

Gathering Leaves
By: Robert Frost
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?

Source: http://www.poemhunter.com

Bed in Summer
by Robert Louis Stevenson
In Winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle light.
In Summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?

Source: http://www.poetryfoundation.org

Fall Has Begun

By: Sabrina Ryans

Golden, orange and yellow leaves glimmer

in the setting sun
this is one of the first signs that summertime
is done
I can hear the soft rustling as they fall from
the trees
soaring and gliding as they are blown
through the breeze
masses of leaves form into one
Source: www.PoetryInNature.com
plants are decaying,
lifeless and swaying
shadows are growing,
less light is showing
animals sleeping,
no sound or peeping
the whole world knows that fall has begun

Autumn
By: Eddie Dulian

Resplendent hues appease my vision,

Fall has fulfilled its yearly mission,
Sporadic breezes blow leaves around,
Forming multi-colored patterns upon the ground.
Sparrows utter subtle sounds,
As frantic squirrels make their rounds,
Brisk weather chases summer's bugs,
Emerald lawns become saffron rugs.
Children pile all the leaves they can muster,
Indian summer provides added luster,
Autumn is a season full of esteem,
It is a time of nature's brightest gleam.

Source: www.PoetryInNature.com

Autumn Is Over
By: Rukiye Henderson

As summer fades away,

The leaves turn from,
Green, to brown, from red, to gold.
Whoosh! The wind carries them away.
And school begins,
As the children run away, to fill their head with the knowledge,
That they themselves could not convey.
All day long they educate themselves, and abbreviate conjugates.
Ding-Ding! Sounds the bell, signaling the end of another school day.
Animals are scurrying and hurrying about,
For after the first frost,
All will be lost.
When the cold winds blow, and the snow falls thick,
That is the sign,
That autumn is over, and winter has begun. Brrrrr!

Source: www.PoetryInNature.com

The Months
By: Sara Coleridge
January brings the snow,
makes our feet and fingers glow.
February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.
March brings breezes loud and shrill,
stirs the dancing daffodil.
April brings the primrose sweet,
Scatters daises at our feet.
May brings flocks of pretty lambs,
Skipping by their fleecy damns.
June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children's hand with posies.
Hot july brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gillyflowers.
August brings the sheaves of corn,
Then the harvest home is borne.
Warm september brings the fruit,
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.
Fresh October brings the pheasents,
Then to gather nuts is pleasent.
Dull November brings the blast,
Then the leaves are whirling fast.
Chill December brings the sleet,
Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.
Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

January
By: John Updike
The days are short,
The sun a spark,
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.
Fat snowy footsteps
Track the floor.
Milk bottles burst
Outside the door.
The river is
A frozen place
Held still beneath
The trees of lace.
The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Groundhog Day
By Lilian Moore
Groundhog sleeps
All winter
Snug in his fur,
Dreams
Green dreams of
Grassy shoots;
Of nicely newly nibbly
Roots
Ah, he starts to
Stir.
With drowsy
Stare
Looks from his burrow
Out on fields of
Snow.
What's there?
Oh no.
His shadow. Oh,
How sad!
Six more
Wintery
Weeks
To go.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Beyond Winter
By: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Over the winter glaciers

I see the summer glow,
And through the wild-piled snowdrift
The warm rosebuds below.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Smells
By: Kathryn Worth

"Through all the frozen winter

My nose has grown most lonely
For lovely, lovely, colored smells
That come in springtime only.
The purple smell of lilacs,
The yellow smell that blows
Across the air of meadows
Where bright forsythia grows.
The tall pink smell of peach trees,
The low white smell of clover,
And everywhere the great green smell
Of grass the whole world over."

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Daylight Saving Time

By: Phyllis McGinley

In Spring when maple buds are red,

We turn the Clock an hour ahead;
Which means, each April that arrives,
We lose an hour
Out of our lives.

Who cares? When Autumn birds in flocks

Fly southward, back we turn the Clocks,
And so regain a lovely thing
That missing hour
We lost last Spring.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Spring Is
By: Bobbi Katz

Spring is when
the morning sputters like
bacon
and
your
sneakers
run
down
the
stairs
so fast you can hardly keep up with them,
and
spring is when
your scrambled eggs
jump
off
the
plate
and turn into a million daffodils
trembling in the sunshine.
Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

A Moment in Summer
By: Charlotte Zolotow

A moment in summer
belongs to me
and one particular
honey bee.
a moment in summer
shimmering clear
making the sky
seem very near,
a moment in summer
belongs to me.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

August
By: John Updike

The sprinkler twirls.

The summer wanes.
The pavement wears
Popsicle stains.
The playground grass
Is worn to dust.
The weary swings
Creak, creak with rust.
The trees are bored
With being green.
Some people leave
The local scene
And go to seaside
Bungalows
And take off nearly
All their clothes.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Harvest Home
By: Arthur Guiterman

The maples flare among the spruces,

The bursting foxgrape spills its juices,
The gentians lift their sapphire fringes
On roadways rich with golden tinges,
The waddling woodchucks fill their hampers,
The deer mouse runs, the chipmunk scampers,
The squirrels scurry, never stopping,
For all they hear is apples dropping
And walnuts plumping fast and faster;
The bee weighs down the purple asterYes, hive your honey, little hummer,
The woods are waving, "Farewell Summer."

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

This Is Halloween
By: Dorothy Brown Thompson

Goblins on the doorstep,

Phantoms in the air,
Owls on witches' gateposts
Giving stare for stare,
Cats on flying broomsticks,
Bats against the moon,
Stirrings round of fate-cakes
With a solemn spoon.
Whirling apple parings,
Figures draped in sheets,
Dodging, disappearing,
Up and down the streets,
Jack-o'-lanterns grinning,
Shadows on a screen,
Shrieks and starts and laughter
This is Halloween!

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Thanksgiving Day
By: L. Maria Child
Over the river, and through the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way,
To carry the sleigh,
Through the white and drifted snow .
Over the river, and through the wood,
To grandfather's house away !
We would not stop
For doll or top,
For 't is Thaksgiving day .
Over the river, and through the wood,
Oh, how the wind does blow !
It stings the toes,
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go .
Over the river, and through the wood,
With a clear blue winter sky,
The dogs do bark,
And children hark,
As we go jingling by .
Over the river, and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play
Hear the bells ring
Ting a ling ding,
Hurra for Thanksgiving day !
Over the river, and through the wood
No matter for winds that blow;
Or if we get
The sleigh upset,
Into a bank of snow .

Over the river, and through the wood,

To see little John and Ann;
We will kiss them all,
And play snow-ball
And stay as long as we can .
Over the river, and through the wood,
Trot fast, my dapple grey !
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound,
For 't is Thanksgiving day !
Over the river, and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard
gate;
We seem to go
Extremely slow,
It is so hard to wait .
Over the river, and through the wood
Old Jowler hears our bells;
He shakes his pow,
With a loud bow wow,
And thus the news he tells .
Over the river, and through the wood
When grandmother sees us come,
She will say, Oh dear,
The children are here,
Bring a pie for every one .
Over the river, and through the wood
Now grandmother's cap I spy !
Hurra for the fun !
Is the pudding done ?
Hurra for the pumpkin pie !

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Light the Festive Candles

(For Hanukkah)
By: Aileen Fisher

Light the first of eight tonight

the farthest candle to the right.

When the Temple was restored,

rescued from the Syrian lord,

Light the first and second, too,

when tomorrow's day is through.

And an eight-day feast proclaimed

The Festival of Lightswell named

Then light three, and then light four

every dusk one candle more

To celebrate the joyous day

when we regained the right to pray

Till all eight burn bright and high,

to our one God in our own way.

honoring a day gone by

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

From: A Christmas Package

By: David McCord

My stockings where
Hell see it there!
One-half a pair.

The tree is sprayed,

My prayers are prayed,
My wants are weighed.

Ive made a list

Of what he missed
Last Year. Ive kissed

My father, mother,
Sister, brother;
Ive done those other

Things I should
And would and could.
So far, so good.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Winter Moon
By: Langston Hughes

How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!

How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!

\Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

I head a Bird Sing

By: Oliver Herford

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

We are nearer to Spring

Than we were in September,
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

Source: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children: A Treasury of 572 Poems for Todays
Child

Bibliography
"Nature Poems about Our Wonderful World." Poetry in Nature -. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.poetryinnature.com/>.
"PoemHunter.Com - Thousands of Poems and Poets. Poetry Search Engine."Poemhunter.com.
Web. 2 Oct. 2014. <http://www.poemhunter.com/>.
Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.poetryfoundation.org/>.
Prelutsky, Jack. The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. New York, NY: Random
House, 1983. 247. Print.
Silverstein, Shel. A Light in the Attic. New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1981. Print.
Silverstein, Shel. Every Thing on It: Poems and Drawings. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. 194.
Print.