At Great Hearts, we know that it is through narrative literature that children learn their earliest lessons. Poetry is an artistic extension of narrative literature that conveys a fundamental truth of the human condition. It is a way of pursuing Truth through human experiences and seeks to elicit a response in the soul of the reader by showing them that they are not alone in the joys and sorrows of life.

We expose our students to the great works of the western canon of poetry through daily recitations of a poem every day. To help them in their endeavors to learn and memorize these poems, we have compiled audio recordings of a Great Hearts teacher reciting each poem. Students should work to match the pace and the inflection expressed by the teacher.

Kindergarten

• Baa Baa Black Sheep
• Bed In Summer
• Daffodowndilly
• Early To Bed
• Fuzzy Wuzzy
• Georgie Porgie
• Goosey Gander
• Happy Thoughts
• Hey Diddle Diddle
• Hickory Dickory Dock
• Hot Cross Buns
• Humpty Dumpty
• Jack and Jill
• Jack Be Nimble
• Jack Sprat
• Lady Bird Lady Bird
• Little Bo-Peep
• Little Boy Blue
• Little Jack Horner
• Little Miss Muffet
• Mary Had a Little Lamb
• My Nose
• Old Mother Hubbard
• One Two Buckle My Shoe
• Open Them Shut Them
• Pease Porridge Hot
• Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
• Peter Piper
• Pussy Cat Pussy Cat
• Rain
• Singing
• Star light Star Bright
• The Mighty Oak
• The More it Snows
• There Was a Crooked Man
• The Star
• The Whole Duty of Children
• The Woodpecker
• Thirty Days Hath September
• Time to Rise
• To Market to Market
• Tommy
• Tom Tom the Piper’s Son
• Try Try Again
• When the Cows Come Home

 

First Grade

• A Spike of Green
• About Feet
• Hearts Are Like Doors
• Here We Come a Wassailing
• If the Moon Came from Heaven
• Introduction to Gilgamesh
• Mix a Pancake
• O Christmas Tree
• Octobers Party
• Smells
• Song of Solomon
• The Caterpillar
• The Cow
• The Flint
• The Goops
• The Puffin
• The Secret
• Village Blacksmith
• What Are Heavy
• Work While You Work

 

Second Grade

• Christopher Columbus
• Ecclesiastes
• Hope is the Thing With Feathers
• My Shadow
• Poem from the Iliad
• The Arrow and the Song
• The Garden Year
• The Hayloft
• The Land of Counterpane
• The Moon
• The New Colossus
• The Pasture
• The Ways of Living Things
• Who Has Seen the Wind

 

Third Grade

• A Bird Came Down the Walk
• Aeneas’ Speech
• Columbus
• Daffodils
• Foreign Lands
• My Heart Leaps Up
• Poetry
• Poem
• Stopping By Woods
• The Crocodile
• The Eagle
• The Kraken
• The Lake Isle of Innisfree
• The Tyger
• The Violet
• There Was an Indian

 

Fourth Grade

• Going For Water
• Nobility
• Paul Revere’s Ride
• The Splendour Falls

 

Fifth Grade

• A Light Exists in Spring
• Autumn
• Casey at the Bat
• Jabberwocky
• Matilda, Who Told Lies, and Was Burned to Death
• Prospero’s Speech
• Shiloh
• The Gettysburg Address
• The Maldive Shark
• The Road Not Taken
• To the Skylark
• When I Consider How My Light is Spent