Sick
“I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
“I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
Poetry offers up a wealth of benefits for children. It fosters a love for language, thereby building literacy. It helps children understand themselves and others, allowing them to cultivate valuable qualities like compassion and empathy. It is also a healthy way for children to express their emotions and deal with emotionally challenging situations. Fortunately, there are many famous poems for children. Poets like A. A. Milne and William Blake wrote many poems for children that can inspire them to find their voice and representation through poetry, even from an early age.
“I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
“I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.

A singer friend told an audience that when she and her brother tried to ditch school, their mother would ask them to say 'plum jam'. If they really had a cold, they would have given a nasal...
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Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn't frighten me at all

This is a wonderful poem. It talks about stuff that most children are scared about, and it has a moral too, which is life is hard but no matter what don't give up.
The other night 'bout two o'clock, or maybe it was three,
An elephant with shining tusks came chasing after me.
His trunk was wavin' in the air an' spoutin' jets of steam
An' he was out to eat me up, but still I didn't scream


This is truly a great poem describing the vivid imagination of children, and it does seem that children have an even deeper imagination when it comes to bedtime! I think this is a great poem...
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Most every night when they're in bed,
And both their little prayers have said,
They shout for me to come upstairs
And tell them tales of gypsies bold,

Grandpa sat with cigar at his side (rarely in his mouth), his bushy gray eyebrows and mustache crouched in intense concentration, a chess piece or book in hand in most of my memories. But...
I made myself a snowball
As perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me.

I love the humor, innocence and whimsy of this poem. But there's more here than meets the eye. If you look a bit deeper, you can see how we sometimes don't properly interpret our experiences,...
No one can tell me,
Nobody knows,
Where the wind comes from,
Where the wind goes.


What a great poem! Life's a mystery and where the wind goes as indicated "Who knows?" And what changes are in store for our lives? Change comes to us from all directions in our lives like the...
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When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

I often read AA Milne poems with my children when they were little & enjoyed the original Pooh stories with them. On the morning of her sixth birthday, our daughter woke us up by sitting on...
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
Into a sea of dew.
"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly;
"'Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you may spy.
The way into my parlor is up a winding stair,
And I have many curious things to show when you are there."


This is a beautiful poem, very beautiful! It can as well be a warning to school girls who are prone to dating those men out there. Symbolically, the spider in the poem is a male and the fly...
These are my two drops of rain
Waiting on the window-pane.
I am waiting here to see

Everyone has had a raindrop race at one time or another. The best was slushy snow. I thought this poem was brilliant.