Poems Teachers Ask For Selected by readers of "Normal Instructor-Primary Plans"

Excerpt

PREFACE

Seldom does a book of poems appear that is definitely a response to demand and a reflection of readers' preferences. Of this collection that can properly be claimed. For a decade Normal instructor-primary plans has carried monthly a page entitled "Poems Our Readers Have Asked For." The interest in this page has been, and is, phenomenal. Occasionally space considerations or copyright restrictions have prevented compliance with requests, but so far as practicable poems asked for have been printed. Because it has become impossible to furnish many of the earlier issues of the magazine, the publishers decided to select the poems most often requested and, carefully revising these for possible errors, to include them in the present collection. In some cases the desired poems are old favorite dramatic recitations, but many of them are poems that are required or recommended for memorizing in state courses of study. This latter feature will of itself make the book extremely valuable to teachers throughout the country. We are glad to offer here certain poems, often requested, but too long for insertion on our magazine Poetry Page. We are pleased also to be able to include a number of popular copyright poems. Special permission to use these has been granted through arrangement with the authorized publishers, whose courtesy is acknowledged below in detail:

The Bobbs-Merrill Company—The Raggedy Man, from "The Biographical Edition of the Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley," copyright 1918.

Charles Scribner's Sons—Seein' Things and Little Boy Blue, by Eugene Field; Gradatim and Give Us Men, from "The Poetical Works of J.G. Holland"; and You and You, by Edith Wharton, copyright 1919.

Harper and Brothers—Over the Hill to the Poor-House, The Ride of Jennie M'Neal, The Little Black-Eyed Rebel, and The First Settler's Story, by Will Carleton.

The Dodge Publishing Company—The Moo Cow Moo and The Young Man Waited, by Edmund Vance Cooke.

Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Company—The House by the Side of the Road and The Calf Path, by Sam Walter Foss.

Little, Brown and Company—October's Bright Blue Weather, by Helen Hunt Jackson.

Houghton Mifflin Company—Poems by John G. Whittier, Alice Cary, Phoebe Cary, James T. Fields, and Lucy Larcom.

THE PUBLISHERS.

O Captain! My Captain!

(This poem was written in memory of Abraham Lincoln.)

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done,The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But, O heart! heart! heart!O the bleeding drops of red,Where on the deck my Captain lies,Fallen, cold and dead.O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Here Captain! dear father!This arm beneath your head!It is some dream that on the deckYou've fallen cold and dead.My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse or will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells!But I, with mournful tread,Walk the deck my Captain lies,Fallen, cold and dead.Walt Whitman.For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dewFrom the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunderstorm;Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battleflags were furl'dIn the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.Tennyson, "Locksley Hall," 1842.

The Landing of the Pilgrims

The breaking waves dashed highOn a stern and rock-bound coast,And the woods against a stormy skyTheir giant branches tossed;And the heavy night hung darkThe hills and waters o'er,When a band of exiles moored their barkOn the wild New England shore.Not as the conqueror comes,They, the true-hearted, came,—Not with the roll of the stirring drums,And the trumpet that sings of fame;Not as the flying come,In silence and in fear;They shook the depths of the desert's gloomWith their hymns of lofty cheer.Amidst the storms they sang;And the stars heard, and the sea;And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rangTo the anthem of the free.The ocean eagle soaredFrom his nest by the white wave's foam;And the rocking pines of the forest roared—This was their welcome home!There were men with hoary hairAmidst that pilgrim band:Why had they come to wither thereAway from their childhood's land?There was woman's fearless eye,Lit by her deep love's truth;There was manhood's brow serenely high,And the fiery heart of youth....