Poems to Learn by Heart by Caroline Kennedy

Kennedy, Caroline. Poems to Learn by Heart. New York: Disney Hyperion Books, 2013.

ISBN: 9781423108054

I was drawn to “Poems to Learn by Heart” by the title and the author.  I was not disappointed!  This collection of poetry includes a huge variety of poets and topics.  In addition, the artwork which accompanies the poems is absolutely beautiful.  Sometimes the illustrations are full page and sometimes the illustrations are small and understated.  The poems truly dictate the accompanying art and the illustrations simply enhance the beauty of the poems.  The collection has a table of contents which explain the different section’s contents.  The sections are cutely named, for example: the family section is titled “I Dreamed I Had to Pick a Mother Out and other poems about family”.  The poems are all varying lengths and styles.

Invitation to Love

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Come when the nights are bright with stars

Or come when the moon is mellow;

Come when the sun his golden bars

Drops on the hay-field yellow.

Come in the twilight soft and gray,

Come in the night or come in the day,

Come, O love, whene’er you may,

And you are welcome, welcome.

You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,

You are soft as the nesting dove.

Come to my heart and bring it to rest

As the bird flies home to its welcome nest.

Come when my heart is full of grief

Or when my heart is merry;

Come with the falling of the leaf

Or with the redd’ning cherry.

Come when the year’s first blossom blows,

Sme when the summer gleams and glows,

Come with the winter’s drifting snows,

And you are welcome, welcome.

I would absolutely share this collection with a classroom.  It is such a beautiful work; I would choose to use it for Poetry Breaks.  Each day I’d read a poem aloud and ask the students to quietly reflect upon it.  I’d encourage students to volunteer to read aloud!