Did we know they were poems when we were young?

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are.

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!”

 

Poem by English poet, Jane Taylor (1783-1824), the poem titled “The Star,”

published in 1806 in a collection entitled “Rhymes for the Nursery.” The poem was

later put to a French tune entitled “Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman” (“Ah, will I tell you, Mom”),

1838 being the earliest known publication of the poem and music together.

 

 

“Isn’t it funny

How a Bear likes honey?

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

I wonder why he does?”

 

A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926

 

 

“The sun did not shine.

It was too wet to play.

So we sat in the house

All that cold, cold, wet day. . . .”

 

Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), The Cat in the Hat, 1957

 

In our post prior to this one, we stated: “. . . we are surrounded with and participate in poetry every day.” Now you can not only better see the truth of the statement, but that it has been going on since you were born!

 

Mary and I were finishing up this blog post when we were treated to a last-minute visit from Wilmington NC by our six-year-old granddaughter, Linda Leigh Holt, and her Mom and Dad. We asked Lindi to read the draft post, which she did. Thanks to her Mom and Dad reading to her every day and her reading to them and herself every day, she is very good at it. We asked Lindi what she would write for the last paragraph of this post. Here’s what she said: “Oh, in school, we sang a poem for Valentine’s Day! Do you want to hear it?” As Lindi started to sing her song, my brain flashed—iPhone—Video! With a little help from her Dad, we videoed her singing—see below. We hope we all hang on to those grand memories of singing poems when we were six and keep singing them past a hundred and six!