Poetry Friday: The Dream Keeper by Langston Hughes
The Dream Keeper
by Langston HughesBring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.
SUCH a great poetry class with my Journey North kids today. Iambic meter with lots of examples; personification & anthropomorphism; Langston Hughes. Lots of laughter as they thought up ending lines for an unfinished poem in iambic tetrameter. Only three more meetings to go in this short six-week session, before we break for the summer. It’s gone so fast! We’ll pick up again in a bit, though.
For the Hughes poems, I used this beautiful collection: The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, with absolutely gorgeous scratchboard illustrations by Brian Pinkney.
This week’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Elizabeth Steinglass.
Melanie B says:
Our poetry this week was Robert Burns “To a Mouse”. Of course. After butchering the Scots accent while reading the excerpt in The Far Side of the Loch, I had to go watch some You Tube videos of Scots doing it right.
Kind of theme this week since Dom interviewed a Scot on his radio show today.
And since my maiden name is Scott writing it with only one t always looks wrong.
On May 16, 2014 at 8:11 pm
Liz says:
Langston Hughes has so many beautiful poems that can be shared with kids. I’m going to add this book to my summer reading list.
On May 17, 2014 at 4:15 am
Myra from GatheringBooks says:
One of my absolute favourite poets. I featured The Dream Keeper several times, I think. It never grows old. Beautiful.
On May 18, 2014 at 5:09 am
Tabatha says:
Beautiful poem! If poems were kids, it seems like it would play sweetly with “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.”
Finishing an unfinished poem in iambic tetrameter sounds like a good exercise.
On May 18, 2014 at 6:27 am