Growing up, our home was full of poetry. As kids, our dad made it a point to recite some of his favorites to us, picking out ones he thought we’d be most likely to appreciate at a young age. There is something about the way a poem gets into your mind and memory that fiction cannot replicate, and these poems are all still with me today.
Here are a few childhood favorites, all four of which practically insist on being read out loud:
1) Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling: Probably not the most PC poem to recommend these days, but still great.
2) The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes: This poem is so vivid in its description and so persistent in its tone that you’ll feel like you’re watching the story unfold as you read it.
3) The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred Lord Tennyson: everything you need know about human infatuation with war and bravery in a few verses.
4) Casey at the Bat by Ernest Thayer: proof that sports and poetry do mix
Feel free to share any of your own favorites in the comments.
