All poems are about God, love or depression.–Susan Wise Bauer
This pronouncement is another one of those statements that I’m not sure is true, but it does sound true–or at least useful for classification purposes.
Then, again, is Jabberwocky about God, love or depression? Birthday by Rossetti obviously falls into the love category. The psalms are about God, love, and depression. My favorite poem, Annabel Lee by Poe, is a love/depression poem that hints at an unjust God. But this one that I memorized in sixth grade doesn’t seem to fit any of those three categories:
THE RAGGEDY MAN by James Whitcomb Riley
O the Raggedy Man! He works fer Pa;
An’ he’s the goodest man ever you saw!
He comes to our house every day,
An’ waters the horses, an’ feeds ’em hay;
An’ he opens the shed — an’ we all ist laugh
When he drives out our little old wobble-ly calf;
An’ nen — ef our hired girl says he can —
He milks the cow fer ‘Lizabuth Ann. —
Ain’t he a’ awful good Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!W’y, The Raggedy Man — he’s ist so good,
He splits the kindlin’ an’ chops the wood;
An’ nen he spades in our garden, too,
An’ does most things ‘at boys can’t do. —
He clumbed clean up in our big tree
An’ shooked a’ apple down fer me —
An’ ‘nother ‘n’, too, fer ‘Lizabuth Ann —
An’ ‘nother ‘n’, too, fer The Raggedy Man. —
Ain’t he a’ awful kind Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!An’ The Raggedy Man, he knows most rhymes,
An’ tells ’em, ef I be good, sometimes:
Knows ’bout Giunts, an’ Griffuns, an’ Elves,
An’ the Squidgicum-Squees ‘at swallers the’rselves:
An’, wite by the pump in our pasture-lot,
He showed me the hole ‘at the Wunks is got,
‘At lives ‘way deep in the ground, an’ can
Turn into me, er ‘Lizabuth Ann!
Er Ma, er Pa, er The Raggedy Man!
Ain’t he a funny old Raggedy Man?
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!The Raggedy Man — one time, when he
Wuz makin’ a little bow-‘n’-orry fer me,
Says “When you’re big like your Pa is,
Air you go’ to keep a fine store like his —
An’ be a rich merchunt — an’ wear fine clothes? —
An’ nen he laughed at ‘Lizabuth Ann,
An’ I says “‘M go’ to be a Raggedy Man! —
I’m ist go’ to be a nice Raggedy Man!”
Raggedy! Raggedy! Raggedy Man!
On second thought, I guess it’s about love. Enjoy.
I wrote here last summer about memorizing poetry. I believe it’s a very useful exercise, but we haven’t done enough of it in our homeschool. Scripture, yes; poetry, no. What poetry have you memorized? Is memorization of poetry a good thing to require of elementary and secondary students? If so, what should they memorize?
I’ve memorized a bit for school. I do think it is important to do so, but I would *not* say memorizing “Casey at the Bat” (6th grade) should be a priority; neither should William Blake’s “The Tiger” be required in 7th grade (we had no idea what we were saying). My sophomore year was good, though – we memorized Mark Antony’s famous speech from “Julius Caesar” and also did some Wordsworth (“I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” became one of my favourites). I love memorizing poetry, but it takes me a while and then I forget it fairly quickly. :-/
Robert Service… oh, that brings back memories. My grandfather used to recite Service poems like “The Cremation of Sam McGee.” Apparently, he memorized them when he was young and sickly. My mom used to make me memorize poems to recite for him and I never enjoyed that much. But the poems I had to memorize were never as cool as his.
Yeah “Sam McGee” is a lot of fun! I think a lot of the old folks memorized it ‘way back when.