Poetry for kids -Types, elements, and 9 examples of poetry for kids

Poetry as a diverse literary form of expression can be ranked for every caliber of the individual in life, it subsists to suffice the interest of the reader as pertaining to the atmosphere-the current situation at hand, and which condition it is most applicable to.

Note: The various aspect of literature have been grouped into 3 genres, which is as we all know, Drama, poetry, and prose each genre has been divided into series of element serving a singular purpose but with a different definitive, the poetry on everyone’s favorite hand has been broken down into types.

A poem is created when the continuity of emotions are flowing unimpeded whilst accompanied by figures of speech and a few other stipulated features the likes of stanzaic divisions, meter, rhymes e.t.c a perfect example of what I mean is the “Rime of the Ancient mariner” by  S.T. Coleridge. You get my point.

Poetry for kids

A poet attempts to stir a reader’s imagination or emotions by carefully choosing and arranging languages for their meaning, sound as well as rhythm to be achieved, some recommended poems which over the year have been recognized as nursery rhymes are expected to be simple and humorous.

This kind of poem tries to engulf the human thought with happiness as well as build the vocabularies of the tender ones at a mild stage so the use of words and literary devices has to appear simple. It captures the essence of childhood, the laughter joy hope, and the inquisitive nature of exploring new words. It makes reading fun as it exposes children to new words both written and spoken, helps them fit expressions into written words, and builds character.

Like every other poem what distinguishes kiddies poetry from other write-ups and literary works is still the structure-mode of arrangement- .the words of a poem are placed in lines, these lines when grouped are called a stanza.

Types of poetry for kids

–Acrostic: this is are short poems, the word was first applied to the prophecies of the Erythraen sibyl, which were written on leaves and arranged so that the initial letters of the leaves always formed a word. This very much spanned all over Greece as it was one of the most dominantly applied writing techniques that even fellow Latin writers such as Enough and Platus had to adopt.

This type of poetry details out, a sobriquet, a word, phrase, or message with its first preceding letter of each line. Whether the lines rhyme or no depends on the writer the most unusual thing this style of poem shares with others is that the theme is determined through the words spelled out.

–ode: an ode is a meditative poem that addresses itself to a person or thing in which the good qualities of the entity in context are being highlighted and commended. Examples of such are, Williams Wordsworth’s “ode of duty” and  John Keats’s”Ode on a Grecian urn”, etc.

This kind of poem originally talks about the good aspect of a person or a thing it might be one of God’s many distinct creations or the hand made of man ranging from complex ideas and moods like “Ode of melancholy” to a simple object like a lollipop.

–Villanelle:

This is a very advanced poem with an origin that dates back to the late 16th century and a history that expands without crossing the boundary of its beginning. The term was used in France to designate a short poem of popular character favored by poets, the likes of Du Bellay’s “vanneur de ble” and Phillippe Desportes “Rozette” are examples of its early type.

Presently, before this type of poem is created a lot of rules have to be heeded, it is made up of 19 lines, five stanzas of three lines( tercet), and a first stanza of four lines(quatrain), this poem posses only two rhyming sounds and a lot of repetition as imposed by one of Passerat’s very popular villanelles- one of which set the standard and pattern for all villanelle.

The rigorous and somewhat monotonous form that was imposed by Jean Passerat literally killed this form of poetry. It was later revived in the 19th century by Philoxène Boyer and J.Boulmier.

–Haiku(hokku):

This is an unrhymed Japanese poetic form comprising of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables respectively.

This form of poem is so renowned that it has been written in different languages, its expansion began significantly after world war 2.

Originally, the central subject and subject matter as pertaining to object description were basically for evoking a definitive and emotional response. But later on around the 17th century, the form gained a distinction after the great master Basho elevated it thus broadening its subject range nonetheless the literary form still remained an art of expressing much in fewer detailed words.

–Limerick:

A limerick Is an unserious brief poem of five lines mostly filled with babbles, jabberwocky. Its language is usually indecent but characterized by wit. This type of poem has a rhyme scheme of aabba. most authors of limericks are always ghostwriters due to the unseriousness that surrounds the poem and the excessive use of rude words as well as indecent humor the need for the author’s identity is more or less irrelevant.

An example of such is “the book of nonsense” composed by Edward Lear the author of the first collection of limericks in English. He confessed he had drawn the idea from a nursery rhyme.

A typical example from Lears collection

-precepts are drawn from Britannica-

 There was an old man who supposed that the street door was partially closed; But some very large rats      Ate his coats and his hats, While that futile old gentleman dozed.

–Free verse: some culture alludes to it as blank verse, but the unrhymed nature of this poem contributes greatly to its sobriquet, it’s a freehand type of poetry where rhythm and a rhyming scheme aren’t needed. It was originally scribbled in iambic pentameter.

–Ballad: This is an anonymous narrative in verse passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth and meant to be sung and danced to before a crowd. Its subject often centers on tragic events such as sudden death by accident, treachery against a friend in love or war, or during hunting expeditions. The stanzas of a ballad are often short and concise. Examples include Williams Wordsworth’s “the idiot boy and “old martins is dead” Africa traditional poem.

Element of Poetries for kids

-Sonnet: a sonnet is a fourteen-line poem with a rhythmic pattern of an iambic pentameter. Each line of the fourteen lines bears five alternative beats of the unstressed syllable which is succeeded by five lines of stressed one.

-Alliteration: it is the repetition of consonant sounds in a sequence of words in a poetry line e.g

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew The furrow followed free we were the first that burst into that silent sea

-percept drawn from-

S.T. Coleridge’s “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”).

-Rhyme: this references the sameness of sounds among words in poetry. The most common is detailed out as the ending words of a line in a poem.

-Imagery:  this is the selective and effective use of words to create pictorial expression in the imagination of the reader or audience.

Repetition: this is a figure of speech in which a word, phrase, or idea is expressed more than once in a piece of poetry this is done for the purpose of emphasis

Onomatopoeia: the deployment of words in a way that such words suggest or echo their meaning or sense of use, this is used just like imagery to create a picture in the minds of readers using sounds e.g creak, crunch, crackle, buzz buzz, thud, his, etc.

-Metaphors: the mother of all figures of speech. A metaphor highlights the similarities between two things by insisting one is the other, the pattern at which comparison is made is always indirect. the only lacking feature that in simile’s that differs it from metaphors. e.g talent is a cistern; genius is a fountain. By proposing one to be the other, metaphor has been employed.

Some examples of poems for kids

-sick by Shel Silverstein.

-life doesn’t frighten me by Maya Angelou.

-snowball by Shel Silverstein

-my best friend by Abby Jenkins

-my next-door neighbor is a witch by Samiya Vallee

– the moon by Robert Louis Stevenson

-my shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson

-birches by Robert Lee Forst.

-the swing by Robert Louis Stevenson

Glossary

Stanza- a group or collection of lines/verses to form a division in a poem.

Couplet- it refers to two successive rhyming lines of a poem.

Quatrain- it means a group of four successive rhyming lines in poetry.

Meter- it is the formal sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

Rhyme scheme- the sequence in which rhyme occurs in a poem.

Syllables- unbroken sounds of a spoken or written word.

Tercet- a stanza of 3 lines.