April is National Poetry Month—hope you’ve stopped by to see our “Poet-tree” at the main desk! Even for avid readers, poetry is often thought of as being hard to read or understand. I’ll admit it’s been a while since I’ve read a poem. But being the word nerd that I am, I thought I’d share some of my favorites.
My grandmother gave me Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses when I was a little girl. I was enthralled by the beautifully detailed illustrations and quickly became enamored with the way the words flowed. It’s quite possible that this book was what triggered my lifelong passion for words.
In high school, my favorite English teacher introduced us to many great authors. It was in Mr. Cummins’s class that I discovered the eloquence and poignancy of “The Road Not Taken”, and it has stuck with me all these years. It remains today my favorite poem. Early Frost contains the author’s first three books, one of which is Mountain Intervalwhere “The Road Not Taken” can be found.
It was also in high school that I discovered “Nature’s First Green is Gold”, which was notably referred to in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Much to my delight, the poem was written by Robert Frost and it led me to discover many others by him. “Nature’s First Green is Gold” can be found in New Hampshire, along with “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and “Fire and Ice”.
One of my latest favorites is Sharon Creech’s Love that Dog, which is actually free verse. It’s written in the form of a diary, from the perspective of a boy who refuses to do his poetry assignments. It’s a quick read and makes a great point about the way we perceive things. As a teacher, it’s assigned reading for all my students. I even try to make my friends and family read it too. And now I challenge you to read it!
Sarah Duffy, Library Assistant