Suggested Poetry Memorization List

Here are some suggestions of beloved poems that my children have memorized (or will soon memorize!) since we began homeschooling nearly a decade ago. Our practice is to read one work aloud once or twice each day, concentrating on one selection a month. Some longer selections are practiced up to two months. We do these selections in addition to our Scripture and Catechism memory work.

Preschool Children (about 3-6 yrs.)

Psalms

• 1, 23, 51, 63, 100, 133, 139, 150

Poems

• Try, Try Again, Hickson
• Halfway Down, Milne
• My Gift, Rosetti
• All Things Bright and Beautiful, Alexander
• How Doth, Carroll
• The Caterpillar, Rosetti
• Work, Stodard
• Mr. Nobody
• The Goops, Burgess
• How Many, How Much, Shel Silverstein
• Wynken, Blinken, and Nod,
• Afternoon on a Hill, Millay
• Any Nursery Rhyme

Lists

• Books of the Old Testament
• Books of the New Testament
• The Lord’s Prayer
• The Apostle’s Creed

Primary Children (about 7-10 yrs.)

 Selections from the Bible

• Psalms: 34, 127, 128

• A Time for Everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)
• Ten Commandments in context (Exodus 20:1-17)
• Many Mansions (John 14:1-6)
• The Word Became Flesh (John 1:1-5, 11-14)
• The Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18)
• Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4-9)
• Wait on the Lord (Isaiah 40:28-31)
• The Christmas Account (Luke 2) 

Fun and Rhyming Poems

• The Jabberwocky, Lewis Carrol
• A Visit from St. Nicholas, Moore
• Sea Fever, Masefield
• The Height of the Ridiculous, Holmes
• A Tragic Story, Thackeray
• The Spider and the Fly, Howitt
• Father William, Southey
• Matilda, Belloc
• Ozymandias, Shelley
• I Wandered Lonely, Wordsworth
• Foreign Lands, Stevenson

Speeches/Lists

• The Beatitudes and Selections from The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)
• Sermon to the Birds, Assisi
• I Have a Dream, MLK
• Gettysburg Address, Lincoln
• The American Presidents
• Kings and Queens of England (Poem: England’s Sovereigns in Verse)
• Nicene Creed

Historical

• The Star-Spangled Banner, Key
• Hiawatha, Longfellow
• Pocahontas, Thackery
• Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, Heman
• Excerpts from The Declaration of Independence
• A New Colossus, Lazarus
• O, Captain! Whitman
• Paul Bunyan, Silverstein
• March to Bannockburn, Burns

Middle School Children (about 11-14 yrs.)

Chapters from the Bible

• Psalms: 8, 103, 130
• The Creation (Genesis 1)
• The Greatest Commandment (Deuteronomy 6)
• Love Never Fails (1 Corinthians 13)
• All Things Work Together (Romans 8:28-39)
• Walk In Newness of Life (Romans 6:1-11)
• Do Not Worry (Matthew 6:25-34)

Poems

• Casey at the Bat, Thayer
• The Old Oaken Bucket, Woodworth (and As Revised by the Board of Health!)
• An Overworked Elocutionist, Wells (Great after you’ve already memorized many selections!)
• When the Frost is on the Punkin, Riley
• The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet, Carryl
• The Village Blacksmith, Longfellow (and others)
• The Bells, Poe
• Excerpts from The Courtship of Miles Standish, Longfellow
• Solitude, Wilcox
• The Lady of Shalott, Tennyson
• The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Marlowe and The Nymph’s Reply, Raleigh
• Excerpts from On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, Milton
• How Do I Love Thee, Browning
• Khubla Khan, Coleridge

Other

• Queen Elizabeth’s Speech to the Troops at Tilbury
• Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death (The War Inevitable), Patrick Henry
• The Athanasian Creed
• Selections from St. Augustine
• Excerpt from Luther’s Speech at the Diet of Worms
• Entirety of Amazing Grace, Newton
• The Bill of Rights
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Macbeth
• To Be, or Not to Be, Hamlet
• All the World’s a Stage, As You Like It
• Sonnet 18, Shakespeare
• Anthony’s Soliloquy from Julius Caesar (“Friends, Romans, Countrymen...”) 

Historical

• The Burial of Moses, Alexander
• Belshazzar’s Feast, Kirk (or many other versions)
• The Destruction of Sennacherib, Lord Byron
• Cleopatra Dying, Collier
• Sherwood, Noyes or Lady of Shallot, Tennyson
• Excerpts from Song of Roland
• The Charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson
• Columbus, Miller
• The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Longfellow
• George Washington, Benet
• Independence Bell, Anonymous
• The Oregon Trail, Guiterman
• Annabel Lee, Poe
• I Hear America Singing, Whitman