Poetry Prayers
By Peggy High '55
April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate this event, different divisions of Class 4 treated their audience to ”Poetry Prayers.” They recited poems in three categories — weather, animals and humor — which seemed to be delightfully interrelated, with humor predominating in all three. Lower and Middle School girls and their teachers heard works by such well-known authors as Langston Hughes, A.A. Milne and Christina Rossetti and even some original verses composed by members of Class 4.
The weather poems included “April Rain Song” by Langston Hughes, “Who Has Seen the Wind? “ by Christina Rossetti and, inspired by Wordsworth’s daffodils, several works by the girls themselves. A group recitation of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” recalled winter’s beauty.
Of course, we do need protection from the elements, as A. A. Milne’s poem “Happiness,” recited with clarity and gusto by one of the students, reminds us. The poem’s main character, John, has “Great Big Waterproof Boots on” as well as “A Great Big Waterproof Hat” and a “Great Big Waterproof Mackintosh” and wears them all with cheerful defiance. Not so fortunate is A.A. Milne’s sufferer in the amusing poem “Sneezles.”
No celebration of spring is complete without reference to the small animals that enjoy it too, and so there were poems about kittens, a turtle and a dog. “The Little Turtle” in Vachel Lindsay’s poem is an active minnow-catching creature unlike Roger in “Roger the Dog” by Ted Hughes. (“Asleep he wheezes at his ease. He only wakes to scratch his fleas.”)
Poetry Prayers concluded with Mary Rafferty’s acknowledgment of the excellent work done by Class 4 students and their English teachers — Lynette Engel, Suzanne Epstein, Barbara Minakakis and Lisa Moy. Mrs. Rafferty said that she hoped that the days of her students would be “filled with poetry”; she could wish nothing more for them than that. |
