When I was quite small, my mother used to recite little poems at appropriate moments through the day. Now--especially with the ducklings along--I find the poems springing back up in my head, ready to recite to them. Many of them, I learned later, were by famous poets and showed their craft: deceptively simple, charming, and almost effortless to memorize. When I came across more grown-up poems by the same authors, I already knew them as friends.
So here are some poems to say in wintry and early-spring weather:
Who Has Seen the Wind?
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you;
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I;
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Christina Rossetti
Rain
The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.
Robert Louis Stevenson
The North Wind Doth Blow
The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor Robin do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn,
To keep himself warm
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing.
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