A good poem gratifies and teaches as explained in Horace’s quote: “The poet’s aim is to blend in one the delightful and the useful.”
Poem is thus pleasure and instruction to its reader. Thus poetry is an ideal activity for you and your child. Here a collection of 10 short rhyming poems for your kid:
Little Things by Julia Fletcher Carney
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
Thus the little minutes,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.
The Boy Who Never Told a Lie by Anonymous
Once there was a little boy,
With curly hair and pleasant eye—
A boy who always told the truth,
And never, never told a lie.
And when he trotted off to school,
The children all about would cry,
“There goes the curly-headed boy—
The boy that never tells a lie.”
And everybody loved him so,
Because he always told the truth,
That every day, as he grew up,
‘Twas said, “There goes the honest youth.”
And when the people that stood near
Would turn to ask the reason why,
The answer would be always this:
“Because he never tells a lie.”
Love Between Brothers and Sisters by Isaac Watts
Whatever brawls disturb the street,
There should be peace at home;
Where sisters dwell and brothers meet,
Quarrels should never come.
Birds in their little nests agree;
And ’tis a shameful sight,
When children of one family
Fall out and chide and fight.
The Violet by Jane Taylor
Down in a green and shady bed
A modest violet grew;
Its stalk was bent, it hung its head,
As if to hide from view.
And yet it was a lovely flower,
No colours bright and fair;
It might have graced a rosy bower,
Instead of hiding there.
Yet there it was content to bloom,
In modest tints arrayed;
And there diffused its sweet perfume,
Within the silent shade.
Then let me to the valley go,
This pretty flower to see;
That I may also learn to grow
In sweet humility.
A Farewell by Charles Kingsley
My fairest child, I have no song to give you;
No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray;
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you
For every day.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
One grand, sweet song.
The Ants by Jane Taylor
A little black ant found a large grain of wheat
Too heavy to lift or to roll;
So he begg’d of a neighbour he happen’d to meet,
To help it down into his hole.
“I’ve got my own work to look after,” said he;
“You must shift for yourself, if you please;”
So he crawl’d off as selfish and cross as could be,
And lay down to sleep at his ease.
Just then a black brother was passing the road,
And seeing his brother in want,
Came up and assisted him in with his load,
For he was a good-natured ant.
Let all who this story may happen to hear,
Endeavour to profit by it ;
For often it happens that children appear
As cross as the ant, every bit.
And the good natured ant who assisted his brother
May teach those who choose to be taught,
That if little insects are kind to each other,
Then children most certainly ought.
The Days of the Month by Anonymous.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
February has twenty-eight alone.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting leap-year—that’s the time
When February’s days are twenty-nine.
Kindness to Animals by Anonymous.
Little children, never give
Pain to things that feel and live:
Let the gentle robin come
For the crumbs you save at home,—
As his meat you throw along
He’ll repay you with a song;
Never hurt the timid hare
Peeping from her green grass lair,
Let her come and sport and play
On the lawn at close of day;
The little lark goes soaring high
To the bright windows of the sky,
Singing as if ’twere always spring,
And fluttering on an untired wing,—
Oh! let him sing his happy song,
Nor do these gentle creatures wrong.
Try Again by Anonymous.
‘T is a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don’t succeed,
Try, try again;
Then your courage should appear,
For, if you will persevere,
You will conquer, never fear;
Try, try again.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things, both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
To a Child by William Wordsworth
Small service is true service while it lasts:
Of humblest friends, bright creature! scorn not one:
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts,
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun.
