Theme · 40 poems

Poems for Kids

Owls and pussycats, jabberwocks and shadows: classic poems children actually enjoy — read-aloud tested for two centuries.

Children are poetry's strictest critics: they have no patience for the merely respectable, and they vote with their whole bodies. What wins them is strong rhythm, clean rhyme, and a story — which is why Lear's owl and pussycat, Stevenson's stubborn shadow, and Carroll's Jabberwock have held the room for over a century, and why Shel Silverstein holds it now.

The stakes are higher than entertainment. Rhyme and meter make language predictable enough for a child to anticipate — that's why kids shout the last word of every line — and anticipation is how reading begins. A memorized poem at six is a lifelong reader's first deposit.

LengthForm

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

Edward Lear · 1871

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to seaIn a beautiful pea-green boat;They took some honey, and plenty of money

23 lines · nonsense

Chapter I

Lewis Carroll · 1871

’Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wade;All mimsy were the borogoves,

28 lines · nonsense

A Visit from St. Nicholas

Clement Clarke Moore · 1823

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the houseNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

56 lines · narrative

Happy Thought

Robert Louis Stevenson

The world is so full of a number of things,I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

2 lines · lyric

August Afternoon

The QuillOak Editors

august afternoon —the garden hose, the shriekingjoy of being eight

3 lines · haiku

Roses Are Red (The Dog Ate My First Draft)

The QuillOak Editors

Roses are red, violets are blue,my hamster can't read, so this poem's for you.I wrote it in marker, I spelled it all right,

4 lines · roses are red

Roses Are Red (Broccoli's Green)

The QuillOak Editors

Roses are red, broccoli's green,and I have a question (don't shout, don't be mean):if flowers are plants, and my veggies are too,

4 lines · roses are red

To My Mother

Robert Louis Stevenson

You too, my mother, read my rhymesFor love of unforgotten times,And you may chance to hear once more

4 lines · lyric

Puppy (a Cinquain)

The QuillOak Editors

Puppywiggly, hopefulchewing, chasing, flopping

5 lines · cinquain

The Sneezing Dragon

The QuillOak Editors

A dragon who started to sneezeset fire to forty-two trees,two barns, and a cart —

5 lines · limerick

Snow Day

The QuillOak Editors

The radio said two words today,the finest ever spoken —no math, no bus, no spelling quiz,

8 lines · lyric

The Smallest Star

The QuillOak Editors

You weigh less than the groceries,you can't control your hands,and yet the whole house orbits you:

8 lines · lyric

From Your Loudest Class

The QuillOak Editors

You taught us fractions, patience,and where the commas go;we taught you that a goldfish

8 lines · lyric

The Santa Stakeout

The QuillOak Editors

I planned my Santa stakeoutwith cocoa, snacks, and cheer;I practiced staying up past nine

8 lines · lyric

An Honest Note About My Homework

The QuillOak Editors

Dear Teacher: here's the honest truthabout my missing sheet.The dog did NOT consume it.

8 lines · rhyming

The Pea Treaty

The QuillOak Editors

I've thought about your offer("eat your peas, then pie")and drafted this agreement,

8 lines · rhyming

The Monster Under My Bed (An Update)

The QuillOak Editors

There IS a monster under my bed —I met him Tuesday night:enormous, fanged, with seven eyes,

8 lines · rhyming

The Tooth Economy

The QuillOak Editors

I lost a tooth on Monday;the fairy paid a buck.I counted nineteen others and

8 lines · rhyming

The Escaped Yawn

The QuillOak Editors

A yawn escaped at dinner(I'd kept it in all day);it leapt from me to Papa,

8 lines · rhyming

Home, My Little Children, Hear Are Songs For You

Robert Louis Stevenson

COME, my little children, here are songs for you;Some are short and some are long, and all, all are new.You must learn to sing them very small and clear,

8 lines · lyric

Autumn Fires

Robert Louis Stevenson

In the other gardensAnd all up the vale,From the autumn bonfires

12 lines · lyric

Bed in Summer

Robert Louis Stevenson

In winter I get up at nightAnd dress by yellow candle-light.In summer quite the other way,

12 lines · lyric

The Moon

Robert Louis Stevenson

The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;She shines on thieves on the garden wall,On streets and fields and harbour quays,

12 lines · lyric

Farewell to the Farm

Robert Louis Stevenson

The coach is at the door at last;The eager children, mounting fastAnd kissing hands, in chorus sing:

16 lines · lyric

The Flowers

Robert Louis Stevenson

All the names I know from nurse:Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,

16 lines · lyric

My Shadow

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

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;

16 lines · lyric

The Land of Nod

Robert Louis Stevenson · 1885

From breakfast on through all the dayAt home among my friends I stay;But every night I go abroad

16 lines · lyric

Foreign Children

Robert Louis Stevenson

Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow,Little frosty Eskimo,Little Turk or Japanee,

20 lines · lyric

Good and Bad Children

Robert Louis Stevenson

Children, you are very little,And your bones are very brittle;If you would grow great and stately,

20 lines · lyric

Picture-Books in Winter

Robert Louis Stevenson

Summer fading, winter comes —Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,Window robins, winter rooks,

20 lines · lyric

Summer Sun

Robert Louis Stevenson

Great is the sun, and wide he goesThrough empty heaven with repose;And in the blue and glowing days

20 lines · lyric

Winter-Time

Robert Louis Stevenson

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

20 lines · lyric

The Lamb

William Blake · 1789

Little Lamb, who made thee Dost thou know who made thee,Gave thee life, and bid thee feed

20 lines · lyric

The Star (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)

Jane Taylor · 1806

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,How I wonder what you are!Up above the world so high,

20 lines · lyric

To My Name-Child

Robert Louis Stevenson

1Some day soon this rhyming volume, if you learn with proper speed,Little Louis Sanchez, will be given you to read.

22 lines · lyric

You Are Old, Father William

Lewis Carroll · 1865

"You are old, Father william," the young man said,"And your hair has become very white;And yet you incessantly stand on your head —

32 lines · nonsense

The Dumb Soldier

Robert Louis Stevenson

When the grass was closely mown,Walking on the lawn alone,In the turf a hole I found

36 lines · lyric

The Children's Hour

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1860

Between the dark and the daylight,When the night is beginning to lower,Comes a pause in the day's occupation,

40 lines · lyric

Envoy For "A Child's Garden Of Verses"

Robert Louis Stevenson

WHETHER upon the garden seatYou lounge with your uplifted feetUnder the May's whole Heaven of blue;

44 lines · lyric

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Eugene Field · 1889

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one nightSailed off in a wooden shoe, —Sailed on a river of crystal light

48 lines · lyric

Common questions

What is a good poem for a child to memorize?

Start with 'The Owl and the Pussy-Cat' or Stevenson's 'My Shadow' — strong rhyme and rhythm do most of the memorizing for them.

Why is rhyme important in children's poems?

Rhyme makes language predictable enough to anticipate — that's why kids shout the last word of every line. Anticipation is how reading begins.