You can find poetry everywhere.
Bookstores have good anthologies.
There is poetry on the Internet. Dr.
Turner has poetry books you can look through. If you like a
poem she reads aloud in class, you can ask her for it.
Here are some suggestions.
Anthologies:
De Regniers, Beatrice Shenk, et al., eds., Sing a Song of
Popcorn: Every Child's Book of Poems. New York: Scholastic,
1998.
Hall, Donald, ed. The Oxford Illustrated Book of American
Children's Poems. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press,
1999.
Harrison, Michael, and Christopher Stuart-Clark, eds. The
Oxford Treasury of Classic Poems. Oxford, England: Oxford
University Press, 1998.
Keillor, Garrison. Good Poems. New York: Viking Press,
2002.
Philip, Neil, ed. The New Oxford Book of Children's Verse.
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Pinsky, Robert, and Maggie Dietz, eds., Americans' Favorite
Poems. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999
Pinsky, Robert, and Maggie Dietz, eds., Poems to Read: A
New Favorite Poem Project Anthology. New York: W.W. Norton
& Company, 2002.
Prelutsky, Jack, ed. The Random House Book of Poetry for
Children. New York: Random House, 2000.
Please let me know at dturner@haverford.org
if you have any other suggestions.
Internet sources:
Poetry Foundation. This website is incredibly rich in resources and tools, and has many ways to find poems and information about poets.
Poets.org. The Academy
of American Poets web page. You can use it to find a particular
poem. Some of the poems can also be heard (check out the Listening
Booth). http://www.poets.org/
Poetry 180: A Poem
a Day for American High Schools. Billy Collins, Poet Laureate
of the United States, has committed himself to this project.
The poems are chosen because they are brief, clear, and easy
to read aloud. http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/
Favorite Poem
Project. Robert Pinsky was Poet Laureate of the United States
before Billy Collins, and this was his project. People read
aloud poems that are their favorites. You need RealPlayer or
another video viewer to see the videos. http://www.favoritepoem.org/index.html
Representative
Poetry Online. This is hosted by the University of Toronto,
Canada, and includes nearly 3,000 poems from 400 different poets.
You can find them by author, title, or first line. http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/index.cfm.
MPR's The Writer's
Almanac is a companion to a radio show produced by Minnesota
Public Radio and hosted by Garrison Keillor. It features a different
poem every week, along with interesting facts. You can hear
the poem read loud, as well. Requires RealAudio or another audio
player. http://www.writersalmanac.org/
Bartleby.com's Verse
is an enormous free collection of poetry, in copies of books
that are no longer covered under copyright, so the poems are
older. http://www.bartleby.com/verse/
I often forbid Shel Silverstein
poems, Jack Prelutsky poems, Kenn Nesbitt poems, or Bruce Lansky poems, because
I'm tired of them. I have to listen to a lot of poems. Sometimes
I reject poems for other reasons. If I reject a poem, get another
one and submit it to me.
Please let me know at dturner@haverford.org
if you have any other suggestions.
