Why Poetry?

Last fall I met a fellow homeschooling mom who had her children memorizing poetry.  When our children were performing their weekly presentations for Classical Conversations, her son would recite large volumes of poetry.  I was floored, how could this 8 year old be reciting these incredibly difficult poems and seem to comprehend them.

I decided right away in addition to memorizing scripture, we would start to memorize poetry.  I was entering into a world I knew nothing about.  Poetry has always seemed like a foreign language to me.  So as I ventured into the unknown territory, someone told me about the Excellence in Writing Poetry Memorization curriculum.  I immediately bought it and we started. (I didn't buy the disk, just the book and I don't feel like the cd was necessary and am glad I saved the extra money)  

So why memorize poetry.  It is beautiful, helps build vocabulary and my kids love reciting it for people.  It's funny how after you memorize a difficult poem you can understand it easily.  Here is a quote from Christine Perrin and her book The Art of Poetry,


"When you read a poem, you must take time and learn to be observant. Like sea diving, there are fathoms of depth. You go to one level for awhile, then deeper, then deeper. You discover there is a vast ocean to explore in any piece of art, that continues to deliver something new and unexpected with each encounter."
 

I haven't seen my friend Christine Perrin in over 10 years yet, I've know her since I was a child.  I found out today that she wrote a Poetry Curriculum called, The Art of Poetry.    And she is planning on coming out with poetry put to music cd, which all of my fellow Classical Conversations moms will appreciate.    My kids can learn anything put to music!  Here is a link to her  poetry curriculum  that you can check out.  And she has a  blog called The Art of Poetry.