📚 🌼 WONDERFUL WORDS: May and the Poets

The merry month of May is upon us! We hope you’ll spend many happy hours out in the fields this month, but if you have to stay inside more than usual for whatever reason, you can still always find an echo of spring indoors — so Leigh Hunt reminds us in our homeschool poem-of-the-week for this first week of May.

May and the Poets

There is May in books forever;
May will part from Spenser never;
May’s in Milton, May’s in Prior,
May’s in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer;
May’s in all the Italian books:—
She has old and modern nooks,
Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves,
In happy places they call shelves,
And will rise and dress your rooms
With a drapery thick with blooms.

Come, ye rains, then if ye will,
May’s at home, and with me still;
But come rather, thou, good weather,
And find us in the fields together.

Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) was one of the prominent writers of the Romantic period in England in the early 1800s, along with John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelly, and many others. He wrote not only poems, but also essays, plays, literary criticism, and political commentary. His verse is not as philosophical as Keats’ or Shelley’s, and so he is not as popular with academic critics today — but in a sense that makes some of his poems more accessible, especially for younger readers.

“May and the Poets” is a clever reminder that spring can be found at any time of year in the works of the great poets — and Hunt recites his favorites for us: Edmund Spenser, John Milton, Matthew Prior, Geoffrey Chaucer, James Thomson, and George Dyer. May hides in our bookshelves, and even when it rains, May still can be found between the pages. Nevertheless, fair weather is always the best, so that we — you and me — can go into the May fields together.

“May and the Poets” is a great intermediate-level read-aloud poem — why not have your students practice reciting it. Structurally, it’s a string of seven couplets (rhymed pairs) arranged into two sentences, and the line-count of fourteen tells you that it’s a sonnet. Metrically, it starts out in perfect trochaic tetrameter (“There is May in books forever; / May will part from Spenser never”) — but once the catalog of poets is complete, Hunt begins to vary the line-lengths from seven to nine syllables, and that keeps the rhythm from becoming excessively monotonous. The first ten lines develop the May-in-books theme, and then the final four lines make a summary turn or volta — a common feature of many sonnets — that brings us to a final wish not for books, but for the May fields themselves.

What wonderful words and poetical productions have you and your students been examining in your homeschool this Leo Term? 😊

❡ Upon your Easter bonnet: Can your students recognize a sonnet? It’s one of the most intricate forms used in traditional poetry, and we read four beautiful ones each year: “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” “August,” and “May and the Poets,” above. For an excellent literary lesson, print all four of them out and have your students see what similarities and differences they can find. (Hint: fourteen lines is one of the main clues.) 📖

❡ Find us in the fields together: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 🌼

❡ Explore more: For a quick homeschool review of the artistic and literary movement known as Romanticism — the movement with which Hunt was associated — turn to page 338 in your River Houses history encyclopedia. 📚

❡ This is a printable lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a custom “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you resize or delete elements that you may not want or need (such as images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨

❡ Literary lives: The website of the Poetry Foundation includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Leigh Hunt) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers. ✒️

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar to follow along with us as we visit fifty of our favorite friends over the course of the year, and add your name to our River Houses mailing list to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week. 📫

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡