Children Poems

Popular Children Poems

Manners

by Elizabeth Bishop

For a Child of 1918

My grandfather said to me
as we sat on the wagon seat,
"Be sure to remember to always
speak to everyone you meet."

We met a stranger on foot.
My grandfather's whip tapped his hat.
"Good day, sir. Good day. A fine day."

......

The Female Of The Species

by Rudyard Kipling

When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail,
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

When Nag, the wayside cobra, hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can,
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail -
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

......

Television

by Roald Dahl

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set --
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.
In almost every house we've been,
We've watched them gaping at the screen.
They loll and slop and lounge about,
And stare until their eyes pop out.

......

Exposure

by Wilfred Owen

I

1 Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us ...
2 Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ...
3 Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ...
4 Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
5 But nothing happens.

6 Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire.
7 Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.

......

September On Jessore Road

by Allen Ginsberg

Millions of babies watching the skies
Bellies swollen, with big round eyes
On Jessore Road--long bamboo huts
Noplace to shit but sand channel ruts

Millions of fathers in rain
Millions of mothers in pain
Millions of brothers in woe
Millions of sisters nowhere to go

......

Recent Children Poems

Because Oprah Says So

by Jeffrey Pipes Guice

But I’m an altar boy who helps my priest every Sunday...
“That’s because you’re a racist!”

I was taught by my parents to love everyone...
“That’s because you’re a racist!”

But I helped the blind man cross the busy street...
“That’s because you’re a racist!”

I woke up this morning...

......

What Love Truly Brings

by Jeffrey Pipes Guice

The millennials are out there protesting
while wearing a Covid mask...
The president uses Twitter
to take them all to task...

The parents are threatening
to change the basement key...
The children are demanding
that the politicians set them free...

......