Table of Contents

Introduction (3)
The Little Turtle (4)
Bare Feet and Dog (5)
The Tyger (6)
Unnamed (7)
A Mouse In Her Room (8)
The Lion (9)
Polar Bear (10)
The Chickens (12)
The Woodpecker (13)
The Cat of Cats (14)
Dogs and Cats and Bears and Bats (15)
To a Squirrel at Kyle-Na-No (16)
The Rabbit (17)
Beside the Line of Elephants (18)
Buffalo Dusk (19)
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Polar Bear (20)

Grandpa Bears Lullaby (21)
Seal (22)
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (24)
Bibliography (26)

Introduction
Childrens poetry is one of the many forms of literature that bring joy into reading! Not only do children
enjoy them, but adults do too because they bring so much excitement. This anthology contains a specific collection

of childrens poetry that I believe to contain qualities that must be present in a good childrens poem. Childrens
poems should contain at least one of the following qualities: filled with imagination, relatable, exciting, age
appropriate words, appealing to the eye, and readable. It is important that childrens poems are filled with
imagination because when children read they need to become interested and invested in the reading, so if the author
has let his/her imagination run wild it comes to life to the child. The poems need to be relatable because children
have had very few life experiences so if the poem is talking about something that has most likely not occurred in the
childs life, they may not be able to grasp the concept. The poems need to be exciting and use age appropriate words
in order to keep the reader invested and not reach a frustration level. The poems also need to be appealing to the eye
and readable, the author should be mindful of what sized font is used and whether or not the poem flows easily. In
my anthology I include the poem There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly this poem is overflowing with
imagination and it is exciting! This poem doesnt necessarily ring textbook relatable to children because I doubt they
have ever swallowed a dog or cat, but it is fun , exciting, and word appropriate for a pretty wide audience of children.

The Little Turtle

There was a little turtle.
He lived in a box.
He swam in a puddle.
He climbed on the rocks.
He snapped at a mosquito,
He snapped at a flea.

He snapped at a minnow.
And he snapped at me.
He caught the mosquito.
He caught the flea.
He caught the minnow.
But he didnt catch me.
- Vachel Lindsay

Bare Feet and Dog

Lovey, my chocolate Lab,

Swims in the creek
Shakes water on my feet
Thumps her tail on my feet
Steps on my feet
Tangles up her leash in my feet
Slurps water from her bowl then
Licks my feet.
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She has beautiful eyes and a loud bark

Shes afraid of thunder but not the dark
Lovey is there for me and always sweet
I love her from my head down to my
sore, wet feet.
- Susan Moger

The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
- William Blake

Unnamed

Oh, cat
are you grinning
curled in the window seat
as sun warms you this December
morning?
- Paul B. Janeczko

A Mouse In Her Room

A mouse in her room woke Miss Dowd.

She was frightened and screamed very loud.
Then a happy thought hit her
To scare off the critter
She sat up in bed and meowed.
- Anonymous

The Lion
Oh, weep for Mr. and Mrs. Bryan!
He was eaten by a lion;
Following which, the lions lioness
Up and swallowed Bryans Bryaness.
- Ogden Nash

Polar Bear
The Polar Bear never makes his bed;
He sleeps on a cake of ice instead.
He has no blanket, no quilt, no sheet
Except the rain and snow and sleet.
He drifts about pn a white ice floe
While cold winds howl and blizzards blow
And the temperature drops to forty below.
The Polar Bear never makes his bed;
The blanket he pulls up over his head
Is lined with soft and feathery snow.
If ever he rose and turned on the light,
He would find a world of bathtub white,
And icebergs floating through the night.
- William Jay Smith

The Chickens
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Said the first little chicken,

With a queer little squirm,
I wish I could find
A fat little worm.
Said the next little chicken,
With an odd little shrug,
I wish I could find
A fat little slug.
Said the third little chicken,
With a sharp little squel,
I wish I could find
Some nice yellow meal.
Said the fourth little chicken,
With a small sigh of grief,
I wish I could find
A green little leaf
Said the fifth little chicken,

With a faint little maon,

I wish I could find

A wee gravel stone.
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Now, see here, said the mother,

From the green garden patch,
If you want any breakfast,
Just come here and scratch.
- Anonymous

The Woodpecker

The woodpecker pecked out a little round hole

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And made him a house in the telephone pole.

One day when I watched he poked out his head,

And he had on a hood and a collar of red.

When the streams of rain pour out of the sky,

And the sparkles of lightning go flashing by,

And the big, big wheels of thunder roll,

He can snuggle back in the telephone pole.
- Elizabeth Maddox Roberts

The Cat of Cats

I am the cat of cats. I am

The everlasting cat!
Cunning, and old, and sleek as jam,

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The everlasting cat!

I hunt the vermin in the night
The everlasting cat!
For I see best without the light
The everlasting cat!
- William Brighty Rands

Dogs and Cats and Bears and Bats

Mammals are a varied lot;
some are furry, some are not;
many come equipped with tails;
some have quills, a few have scales.

Some are large, and others small;

some are quick, while others crawl;
they prance on land, they swing from trees;
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theyre underground and in the seas.

Some have hooves, and some have paws;

some have fangs in snapping jaws;
some will snarl if you come near;
others quickly disappear.

Dogs and cats and bears and bats,

all are mammals, so are rats;
whales are mammals, camels too;
Im a mammal so are YOU! anonymous

To a Squirrel at Kyle-Na-No

Come play with me;

Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though Id a gun
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go.
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- William Butler Yeats

The Rabbit

When they said the time to hide was mine,

I hid back under a thick grape vine.

And while I was still for the time to pass,

A little gray thing came out of the grass.

He hopped his way through the melon bed

And sat down close by a cabbage head.

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He sat down close where I could see,

And his big still eyes looked hard at me,

His big eyes bursting out of the rim,

And I looked back very hard at him.
- Elizabeth Madox Roberts

Beside the Line of Elephants

I think they had no pattern

When they cut out the elephants skin;
Some places it needs letting out,
And others,taking in.
- Edna Becker

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Buffalo Dusk

The buffaloes are gone.

And those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
Those who saw the buffaloes by the thousands and how they
pawed the prairie sod into dust with their great hoofs,
their great heads down pawing in a great pageant
of dusk,
Those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
And the buffaloes are gone.
- Carl Sandburg

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Polar Bear

The secret of the polar bear

Is that he wears long underwear.
- Gail Kredenser
-

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Grandpa Bears Lullaby

The night is long

But fur is deep.
You will be warm
In winter sleep.

The food is gone

But dreams are sweet
And they will be your winter meat.

The cave is dark

But dreams are bright
And they will serve
As winter light.

Sleep, my little cubs, sleep.

- Jane Yolen

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Seal
See how he dives
From the rocks with a zoom!
See how he darts
Through his watery room
Past crabs and eels
And green seaweed,
Past fluffs of sandy
Minnow feed!
See how he swims
With a swerve and a twist,
A flip of the flipper,
A flick of the wrist!
Quicksilver-quick,
Softer than spray,
Down he plunges
And sweeps away;
Before you can think,
Before you can utter
Words like Dill pickle
Or Apple butter,
Back up he swims
Past Sting Ray and Shark,
Out with a zoom,
A whoop, a bark;
Before you can say
Whatever you wish,
He plops at your side
With a mouthful of fish!
- William Jayn Smith
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There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

I dont know why she swallowed a fly perhaps shell die!
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There was an old lady who swallowed a spider,

That wriggled and wiggled and tiggled inside her;
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I dont know why she swallowed a fly Perhaps shell die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a bird;
How absurd to swallow a bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I dont know why she swallowed a fly Perhaps shell die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a cat;
Fancy that to swallow a cat!
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I dont know why she swallowed a fly Perhaps shell die!
There was an old lady that swallowed a dog;
What a hog, to swallow a dog;
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I dont know why she swallowed a fly Perhaps shell die!
22

There was an old lady who swallowed a cow,

I dont know how she swallowed a cow;
She swallowed the cow to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly;
I dont know why she swallowed a fly Perhaps shell die!
There was an old lady who swallowed a horse
Shes dead, of course!
- Simms Taback

Bibilograpgy

Janeczko, Paul B., and Christopher Raschka. A Kick in the Head:

An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms. Cambridge, MA:
Candlewick, 2005. Print.
Moger, Susan. A Poem for Everyday an Anthology of 180 Poems
with Activities to Enhance Your Teaching. New York:
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Scholastic, 2006. Print

Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane Dyer. Talking like
the Rain: A Read-to Me Book of Poems. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1992. Print.
Mattingly, Virginia, and Nicky Cooney. The Classic Book of Bestloved Children's Poems. Philadelphia: Courage, 1997. Print.
Prelutsky, Jack, and Arnold Lobel. The Random House Book of
Poetry for Children. New York, NY: Random House, 1983.

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Print.