12 Charlotte Mason Poems to Memorize

 Poetry is one of the ways that the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling overflows with beauty. You might encounter a child educated in the CM way beautifully reciting a whole poem with emotion, and you wish your own child can do the same. 

But, before you force your child to memorize a lengthy poem, let’s take a look at what Miss Mason says about poetry and memorization. First, this short passage from Volume 1: 

Memorising.––Recitation and committing to memory are not necessarily the same thing, and it is well to store a child’s memory with a good deal of poetry, learnt without labour. (Vol 1, page 224) 

First off, we want to emphasize that storing poetry in our child’s memory is intended to be a learning that happens “without labour.” How in the world is that possible? Charlotte Mason poetry study is not about rote memorization as it is about enjoying the poems on a daily basis. What we usually do is that everyday, we read aloud one poem—only one poem, and only once! But for our recitation selection, we might have another poem that we read, again only once, but everyday. 

This constant repetition helps to instill the poem, no matter how long, in our children’s minds without much conscious effort. We will discuss this process in more detail in a separate blog. 

Next, from this passage we can tell that she encourages us to feed our children’s minds with lots of poems, and this feeding is not just a passing thing; instead, we are called upon to “store a child’s memory” with these inspiring selections.

How Do We Choose Poems to Memorize for a CM Homeschool? 

Again, before we jump the gun and compile all our favorite poems for our child to memorize, listen to this: 

…Let the poems the child learns be simple and within the range of his own thought and imagination. At the same time, when there is so much noble poetry within a child’s compass, the pity of it, that he should be allowed to learn twaddle! (Vol 1, page 226) 

This tells me that the poems we introduce to our children have to be done according to their range of understanding and imagination. This is why, for younger children, we normally recommend poems relating to play and childhood. 

Favorite Poems to Memorize for Charlotte Mason Form 1:

Here are some of our favoite poems and poets (and suggested books) you can use for children in Form 1 (or ages 6 to 8): 

1. Lines and Squares by A.A. Milne from When We Were Very Young

Whenever I walk in a London street,
I’m ever so careful to watch my feet;
And I keep in the squares,
And the masses of bears,
Who wait at the corners all ready to eat
The sillies who tread on the lines of the street
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, “Bears,
Just look how I’m walking in all the squares!”

And the little bears growl to each other, “He’s mine,
As soon as he’s silly and steps on a line.”
And some of the bigger bears try to pretend
That they came round the corner to look for a friend;
And they try to pretend that nobody cares
Whether you walk on the lines or squares.
But only the sillies believe their talk;
It’s ever so portant how you walk.
And it’s ever so jolly to call out, “Bears,
Just watch me walking in all the squares!”

Poems from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses

2. My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

3. The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
   Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
   Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
   Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
   Over the countryside—

Till I look down on the garden green,
   Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
   Up in the air and down!

4. The Cow

The friendly cow, all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.

5. Little Blue Pigeon by Eugene Field (from Lullaby Land) 

Sleep, little pigeon, and fold your wings–
     Little blue pigeon with velvet eyes;
Sleep to the singing of mother-bird swinging–
     Swinging the nest where her little one lies.

Away out yonder I see a star–
     Silvery star with a tinkling song;
To the soft dew falling I hear it calling–
     Calling and tinkling the night along.

In through the window a moonbeam comes–
     Little gold moonbeam with misty wings;
All silently creeping, it asks: “Is he sleeping–
     Sleeping and dreaming while mother sings?”

Up from the sea there floats the sob
     Of the waves that are breaking upon the shore,
As though they were groaning in anguish, and moaning–
     Bemoaning the ship that shall come no more.

But sleep, little pigeon, and fold your wings–
     Little blue pigeon with mournful eyes;
Am I not singing??–see, I am swinging–
     Swinging the nest where my darling lies.

Charlotte Mason Poems to Memorize for Children in Form 2 (Ages 9 to 11)  

As children grow older, their imagination grows too, so we can recommend more abstract ideas for this age group. 

6. Hope is a Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson 

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

7. The Lamb by William Blake 

Little Lamb who made thee 
         Dost thou know who made thee 
Gave thee life & bid thee feed. 
By the stream & o’er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice! 

         Little Lamb who made thee 
         Dost thou know who made thee 
         Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
         Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb: 
He is meek & he is mild, 
He became a little child: 

I a child & thou a lamb, 
We are called by his name.
         Little Lamb God bless thee. 
         Little Lamb God bless thee.

8. The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

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.

Poems to Memorize for Charlotte Mason Students 12 years and older

For students 12 years old and above, poems that call for deeper contemplation are a great choice. Here are some of our personal favorites: 

9. Forgiveness by John Greenleaf Whittier 

My heart was heavy, for its trust had been
Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellowmen,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
the green mounds of the village burial place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or  late,
Wronged and wrong-doer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!

10. Children by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Come to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.

Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
And the brooks of morning run.

In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
In your thoughts the brooklet’s flow,
But in mine is the wind of Autumn
And the first fall of the snow.

Ah! what would the world be to us
If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us
Worse than the dark before.

What the leaves are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood, —

That to the world are children;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
Than reaches the trunks below.

Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.

For what are all our contrivings,
And the wisdom of our books,
When compared with your caresses,
And the gladness of your looks?

Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said;
For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.

11. If by Rudyard Kipling 

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

12. A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
      “Life is but an empty dream!” —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
      And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
      And the grave is not its goal;
“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”
      Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
      Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
      Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
      And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
      Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
      In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
      Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
      Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, — act in the living Present!
      Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
      We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
      Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
      Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
      Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
      With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
      Learn to labor and to wait.

Enjoying Charlotte Mason Poems to Memorize 

We are excited for you to enjoy these (and many other) poems in your Charlotte Mason homeschool. We hope that as you start to like some of these poems we recommend, it would encourage you to explore the other works of these poets, and share your experience in the comments below!