10 Traditional Kid’s Poems Everybody Need to Read

10 of the very best poems for children

What are the finest kids’s poems in all of English literature? Every reader will have their own firm favourites that revive fond memories of those carefree and innocent days, but we have actually tried to select 10 of the extremely finest classic poems for kids for this post. For timeless nursery rhymes, have a look at our choice of the best children’s nursery rhymes in a separate post.Lewis Carroll,’

Jabberwocky‘. Frequently incorrectly called ‘The Jabberwocky’ (the Jabberwock is the beast, so the poem is ‘Jabberwocky’), this poem first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s 1871 follow-up book to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass. Concentrating on the slaying of a fearsome beast, the titular Jabberwock, the poem is renowned for the inventiveness of its language: it gave us almost literally lots of new words, including some now in common use: the words ‘chortle’ and ‘galumph’.

Edward Lear, ‘ Macavity, the Mystery Feline’. As writing such and ‘The Hollow Men’, T. S. Eliot likewise composed a book of rubbish verses about felines for his godchildren. (Eliot himself owned various felines.) Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats was later on become the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical Cats. This poem follows Macavity, who is loosely based upon Teacher Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories (of which watch Michael Rosen reciting his poem here in this YouTube video.

Roald Dahl, ‘ Little Red Riding Hood of nineteenth-century fairy stories An adventurous, resourceful, and brave woman who pulls a pistol out of her underwear to secure herself from the Big Bad Wolf. Revolting, horrific, and funny too– as we ‘d anticipate from the remarkable mind of Roald Dahl.