Field & Garden: Children's poems

Showing posts with label Children's poems. Show all posts

My Photo Journal: Red-winged Blackbird in a Wildflower Meadow

Labels: Botanical photography, Children's poems, Family activities, Landscape photography, Music & Poetry, My photo journal, Nature photography, Nature poems, Ontario parks, Travel and leisure

FLOWERS AND WEEDS
by GEORGE COOPER
(originally published March 8, 1887)

HAVE you ever heard what the fairies say,
Little girl, little boy? Oh, hear and heed!
For each smile you wear on your face today
There's a flower grows; for each frown a weed.

So to make this world like a garden bright,
Little girl, little boy, keep frowns away.
Oh, the loving lips that can say tonight,
We have scattered flowers o'er the earth today!

The image above shows a red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) perched on top of a wildflower stalk (it looks like a goldenrod not yet in bloom).

These throwback photos were taken in 2012 on a walk through the DuPont Gordon Richards Park located near the waterfront in Whitby, Ontario. The park is a great place to spot many diffent types of birds and wildflowers, such as the strikingly pretty but incredibly invasive broad-leaved everlasting-pea or Lathyrus latifolius (below).

The meandering path through the park is smoothly paved and makes for a tranquil walk filled every step of the way with birdsong, which always makes me think of this Paul McCartney/Beatles masterpiece aptly entitled "Blackbird":

I hope you are enjoying beautiful weather where you are and wish you many hours of walking along happy trails while favourite tunes echo in your mind.

Photos © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Public domain poem is from my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: The Birds' Farewell

Labels: Children's poems, Music & Poetry, Nature poems

A vintage nature poem titled "The Birds' Farewell" written in 1888 by O. Herford about birds flying south for winter and saying goodbye to a young girl whose garden they've been in all summer.

You can download this illustrated poem as a free high-res 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG (without a watermark) for collage art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects here.

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: Mother by M.M.D.

Labels: Children's poems, Music & Poetry, Nature poems

A poem simply entitled "Mother" by M.M.D. (I suspect it is Mary Mapes Dodge), published in October 1877. This is how it goes:
Early one summer morning,
I saw two children pass:
Their footsteps, slow yet lightsome,
Scarce bent the tender grass.

One, lately out of babyhood,
Looked up with eager eyes;
The other watched her wistfully,
Oppressed with smothered sighs.

"See, mother!" cried the little one,
"I gathered them for you?
The sweetest flowers and lilies,
And Mabel has some too."

"Hush, Nelly!" whispered Mabel,
"We have not reached it yet.
Wait till we get there, darling,
It isn't far, my pet."

"Get where?" asked Nelly. "Tell me."
"To the church-yard," Mabel said.
"No! no!" cried little Nelly,
And shook her sunny head.

Still Mabel whispered sadly,
"We must take them to the grave.
Come, darling?" and the childish voice
Tried to be clear and brave.

But Nelly still kept calling
Far up into the blue;
"See, mother, see, how pretty
We gathered them for you."

And when her sister pleaded,
She cried -- and would not go: --
"Angels don't live in church-yards,
My mother don't, I know."

Then Mabel bent and kissed her.
"So be it, dear," she said;
"We'll take them to the arbor
And lay them there instead."

"For mother loved it dearly,
It was the sweetest place!"
And the joy that came to Nelly
Shone up in Mabel's face.

I saw them turn, and follow
A path with blossoms bright,
Until the nodding branches
Concealed them from my sight;

But still like sweetest music
The words came ringing through;
"See, mother, see, how pretty
We gathered them for you."

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: Cheery Robin by B. Lander

Labels: Children's poems, Music & Poetry, Nature poems, Spring poems, Summer poems

Image source: Wikimedia
The following is a public domain Victorian children's poem written by B. Lander and originally published in 1880. The poem is called "Cheery Robin" and this is how it goes:

Robin in the April time
Blithely sings of summer prime,
Every mellow note outwelling
Sweetly telling of his glee;
How his merry carol rings!
As he sings,
In the budding April time, -- Cheerily!

Robin in the summer prime,
What cares he for autumn rime!
Present care and present pleasure
Fill the measure of each day;
And his merry carol rings,
While he sings,
In the golden summer prime, -- Cheerily!

Robins in the autumn rime
Singeth of a sunny clime,
Where the bowers glow with flowers,
Where the hours brim with glee.
Still his merry carol rings!
Still he sings,
In the chilly autumn rime, -- Cheerily!

Robin to the aged Year
Sings a parting note of cheer;
Happy heart of sunshine, Robin,
Ever throbbing merrily.
Sweet contentment Robin brings,
When he sings,
With a cadence loud and clear, -- Cheerily!

Free Vintage Winter Clipart and Nature Poem for Cardmaking, Crafts or Junk Journaling: Snow Crystals, 1881 and Snowflakes, 1879

Labels: Children's poems, Free vintage clipart, Music & Poetry, Nature poems, Vintage nature clipart, Vintage weather illustrations, Winter poems

Above is a black and white illustration from an 1881 magazine thats a variety of snow crystal shapes. I also found a sweet winter poem called "Snowflakes" written by Mary Mapes Dodge (1831 - 1905) and first published in 1879 that I thought would go well with the illustration. Here is how the poem goes:

Whenever a snowflake leaves the sky
It turns and turns to say “good-bye;”
“Good-bye, dear cloud, so cool and gray!”
Then lightly travels on its way.
And when a snowflake finds a tree,
“Good-day,” it says — “Good-day to thee!
Thou art so bare and lonely, dear,
I’ll rest and call my comrades here.”
But when a snowflake brave and meek,
Lights on a rosy maiden’s cheek,
It starts— “How warm and soft the day!
‘Tis Summer!”— and it melts away.
[Source]
You can download the free illustration as a high-resolution 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here. Perfect for a holiday greeting card or incorporate into crafts, scrapbooking or junk journal projects.

By the way, here is an audio of soprano Gwen Catley singing "Snowflakes," which had been set to music by composer Liza Lehmann (1862 - 1918), and published in 1914. [Source]

From my personal collection of ephemera. All digital scans by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if you use or share this work.

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: The North Wind Doth Blow (with Sheet Music)

Labels: Children's poems, Free vintage sheet music, Music & Poetry, Nature poems, Nursery rhymes, Winter poems

The North wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor Robin
do then, poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn,
And to keep himself warm
Will hide his head under his wing,
poor thing!

Antique nature poem found in a children's magazine from c1880 (the origin of the poem itself is much older and is thought to date back to the 16th century). You can download this illustrated poem and sheet music as an 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here for use in cardmaking and nature journal projects or simply print and frame for wall art.

Here is a really adorable video I found of the poem on Youtube:

Free Vintage Nature Poem Fairy Snow

Labels: Children's poems, Music & Poetry, Nature poems, Summer poems, Winter poems

Here is a sweet nature poem that was originally published in 1911, charmingly illustrated in a distincetive art nouveu style by Rachael Robinson.

Here is how the poem goes:
We toss the thistle-down away
And wait to see it fly;
'Twill make a rather snowy day
For fairies in the sky!

Then after all the summer rain
When wintry winds shall blow,
They'll send it down to us again,
In little flakes of snow!

You can download this illustrated poem as a 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here for use in greeting cards, nature journals or simply print and frame for wall art.

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: The Song of the Bee by Nancy Nelson Pendleton

Labels: Children's poems, Garden poems, Music & Poetry, Nature poems

Image © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

THE SONG OF THE BEE
by Nancy Nelson Pendleton
(originally published September 1897)

Buzz, buzz, buzz
This is the song of the bee.
His legs are of yellow,
A jolly good fellow,
And yet a good worker is he.

In days that are sunny,
He's getting his honey;
In days that are cloudy,
He's hoarding his wax;
On pinks and on lilacs,
And gay daffodillies,
And columbine blossoms
He levies a tax.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!
The sweet-smelling clover
He humming hangs over;
The scent of the roses
Makes fragrant his wings;
He never gets lazy,
From thistle and daisy
And weeds of the meadow
Some treasure he brings.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!
From morning's first gray light
Till fading of day light,
He's singing and toiling
The summer day through,
Oh! we may get weary,
And think work is dreary;
'Tis harder by far
To have nothing to do.

Free Vintage Nature Poem for Kids: Apple-Tree Hall by Elizabeth Roberts Macdonald

Labels: Children's poems, Music & Poetry, Nature fantasy, Nature poems

Here is an antique children's poem of nature and imagination by Elizabeth Roberts Macdonald, published in the October 1910 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine.

APPLE-TREE HALL

There's an old spreading apple-tree, gnarly and wide,
In an orchard (I can't tell you where),
Where Dora and I can curl up side by side,
And nobody know we are there.
We go there on Saturdays, -- that's if it's fine,
And Mother is willing, and all, --
Take our dolls and our dishes, and there we keep house
Till tea-time, in Apple-Tree Hall.

There's the loveliest carpet, all wood-brown and gray,
And the walls have a pattern of green;
The windows are curtained the coziest way
That ever was thought of or seen;
And as for the ceiling, it's blue as the sky;
And we've crimson globe-lamps in the fall --
In the spring we have pink, and in summer use none
(Such a saving!), in Apple-Tree Hall.

All the neighbors are charming, -- so musical, too!
Madam Thrush has a voice like a bird,
And the love-songs she sings (in Italian, I think)
Are the sweetest we ever have heard.
Then the dryads and wood-nymphs dwell close to us, too,
Though they are too bashful to call.
The society really is quite the best
When we're living at Apple-Tree Hall.

Oh, I wish I could tell you one half of our plays,
And the fine things we plan when we're there,
Of the books that we'll write and the deeds that we'll do
In the years that wait, shining and fair.
My mother says, sometimes, -- and so does Aunt Kate, --
That these are the best days of all;
But we think it's just the beginning of fun,
Keeping house here in Apple-Tree Hall!

My Photo Journal: Aster and Bee

Labels: Bug photography, Children's poems, Garden poems, Music & Poetry, My photo journal, Nature photography, Nature poems

Aster and Bee
© FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.
Do you miss the balmy days of summer? As I sit in a chilly room on a darkening day in the midst of a gloomy Canadian winter, I long for the hours I spent tramping about in the fields and meadows with my family when the sun shone hot and insects droned incessantly.

Among the daisies all astir
Observe the belted rover,
The merry little mariner
That sails the seas of clover.

Whene'er a shower falls, pellmell
Upon the seas of clover
He flies into some flower-bell,
And waits until it's over.
("The Bee" by R.K.M., published in 1888)
What do you miss the most from when the weather was sultry? As the snow clings to these January days, let's shake our boots and march through our memories of clover seas and mariner bees and dream of the days when we will arrive at the shores of summer once more.

Public domain poem is fom my personal collection. All digitized poems by FieldandGarden.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Please credit and link back to FieldandGarden.com as your source if sharing or publishing.

My Photo Journal: Winter Tree

Labels: Botanical photography, Children's poems, Flower and plant photography, Music & Poetry, My photo journal, Nature poems, Tree photography, Winter poems

WINTER TREE
by M.K. Powell

Alone, ignored,
The leaves, they went away in fall;
The tree is frozen,
Yet standing tall.

The winter tree
It's sleeping now;
But in spring, it will stir once more,
Wakened by the sun's warming glow.

Right now through the harsh winds of winter,
When animals retreat to their nests,
The tree stands lonely,
While the critters rest.

The scraggly branches
Reach up to the sky.
Remembering the summer days,
When life was peachy as pie.

Winter tree is dark against the sky,
But it stands tall and doesn't bend.
For in the spring,
the weather all will mend.

Poem and photo © 2018 FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.