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We recently spent 6 weeks learning about and reading poetry by Christina Rossetti. Here were some of our favorite resources.
Given how frequently you find Rossetti's poetry in children's poetry anthologies, I was surprised how difficult it was to find a compilation of her work that I liked. I ending up purchasing two books for our studies because neither of the library systems I frequent had any decent Rossetti poetry volume or biography.
You can find Rossetti's Sing Song for free online (it's in the public domain) or a
cheap Dover copy![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=de000f7224244c2970ce635b494cdbc2&_cb=1551850499947)
online. I purchased the Dover copy but didn't end up using it with my kids. The illustrations are fine (old-fashioned but appealing), but a large number of the poems are kind of on the morbid side. About dead babies or dead animals. Lots of death. Even if I read only selections from the book, my kids would most certainly want to know what I skipped and peruse the book on their own. You can find a big set of selections from
Sing Song![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=f7a4e6e4d0368d4ca5e21d725e6776d7&_cb=1552016053967)
(minus most of the morbid ones) for free on
Ambleside Online. I didn't want to just read my kids the poems from a text-only copy though. I personally think the picture book format makes poetry much more accessible to and enjoyable for children.
So I opted to use
Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=9fa6cbe1d5de97ba0ff5d9baae167a1e&_cb=1551850615562)
as our main read-aloud. It includes 23 of Rossetti's poems, mostly from
Sing Song![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=838740e3715695fbfbedb647796fa1a7&_cb=1551850639044)
. We also supplemented with a few favorite
poetry
anthologies![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=519f23b4f1e3be8209447f237149ef0a&_cb=1552016658331)
that featured other Rossetti poems not in the collection
Fly Away, Fly Away Over the Sea.
In adddition, I also found a picture book version called
What Can I Give Him? ![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=c1c835a390aa381a9cf8ac777f2c0ad7&_cb=1552010860542)
of Rossetti's poem "In the Bleak Midwinter
![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=a81649b25c006de1d4dbc579e47a47b5&_cb=1551850742631)
," one of my favorite Christmas carols. I do not love the illustrations, but I do love picture book versions of poems/ songs, and my kids liked it.
For a biography we used the
Rookie Biography of Christina Rossetti![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=e072b180051bd48bb4094a89e41dc6c4&_cb=1552016094241)
. This was a good fit because it was a good amount of text for my 7yo. But we also enjoyed reading the biographical information about Rossetti in
A Child's Introduction to Poetry![](https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=econovgoigreg-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=326574449c8ae9ab38a9abeeceee86fb&_cb=1552016102200)
. This book features explanations of types of poetry with examples along with featured poets (biographical information plus a few selected works). An accompanying CD has readings of all the poetry included. My kids ended up being very interested in this book and looked at it quite a bit on their own.
You can find other books we've used to study poetry (as well as Shakespeare) here. Other poets we've studied include:
- Robert Frost
- Langston Hughes
- Emily Dickinson
- Carl Sandburg
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Gwedolyn Brooks
- A. A. Milne
- Alfred Lloyd Tennyson
- Edward Lear
Here are links to all our favorite picture book read-alouds by subject:
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