When I was between three and five I lived with my Grandmother while mom finished school after my dad died. She used to read Kipling and Service to me, thanks for the trip on the way back machine.
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."
Service, Kipling, Whitman, Frost. The ‘average, everyday man’ poets are my favorite. They wrote of everyday things for everyday people with talents sneered at by critics and literati, but they knew how to tell a truth to all.
If you like Service, make sure you’ve read The Three Voices, my favorite of his
Thanks. I have always been a fan of Robert W. Service and of course Rudyard Kipling. I know the woke Brits are attempting to cancel Kipling, but he and Service will always be favorites of mine.
This is the sort of poetry you would start kids on. If you actually wanted them to like poetry.
Worked on me. "A Child's Garden of Verses" was the first book I was given, I was four, that was some 73 years ago.
When I was between three and five I lived with my Grandmother while mom finished school after my dad died. She used to read Kipling and Service to me, thanks for the trip on the way back machine.
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."
Service, Kipling, Whitman, Frost. The ‘average, everyday man’ poets are my favorite. They wrote of everyday things for everyday people with talents sneered at by critics and literati, but they knew how to tell a truth to all.
If you like Service, make sure you’ve read The Three Voices, my favorite of his
Thanks. I have always been a fan of Robert W. Service and of course Rudyard Kipling. I know the woke Brits are attempting to cancel Kipling, but he and Service will always be favorites of mine.
Never been a poetry fan, but your selections leave room for the exceptions.