"And to all, a good night..."

I used part of my Christmas money to buy some new pants for work today. They're really nice. I also want to get a new set of dog dishses for Sable.

Posted for no reason, here are my favorite poems to read before going to bed. Comments by Rebecca in red. 

( After Apple-Picking, Robert Frost )

 

I have many poems memorized, but this is the only one that I cannot only recite, but perform. Probably my favorite of Frost's poetry. 

( The Brook, Alfred Lord Tennyson )

I really loved this poem when I first discovered it in middle school. Since then, my liking for it has waned (it borders on too perfect, too picturesque, and too much like a damn Thomas Kinkade painting) but I still enjoy reading it.

( City, Langston Hughes )

This poem and many others on this list (actually, most of them) are from an anthology of children's poetry that Sara gave me a few Christmases ago. Hughes paints the best urban landscapes.

( The Coming of the Teddy Bears, Dennis Lee )

I love this poem. Its use of words is so creative (like "the dark is drowsy") and it's extraordinary in how well it captures the nonsensical mind of a tired child. Just reading it makes me feel sleepy. It's anyone's guess as to why this poem isn't better known.

( Hoeing, John Updike )

I doubt I'll ever read another poem that makes me want to hoe a field so much.

( Lie in the Dark and Listen, Noel Coward )

Isn't it obvious just from the title that this is an amazing poem?

( My Shadow, Robert Louis Stevenson )

I love so many poems from A Child's Garden of Verses. I really should buy a copy of that book. My grandparents were such Stevenson fans that they named my aunt Alison after Stevenson's nanny, to whom the book is dedicated ("To Alison Cunningham, from her boy").

( Night Mail, WH Auden )

This is probably one of my favorite poems of all time. What is there not to love? The final line almost makes me cry.

( Poem To Be Read at 3am, Donald Justice )

This is from Garrison Keillor's compilation of Good Poems. There are a lot poems more in that book that are good to read before bed, but I couldn't possibly include them all.

( The Rain, Robert Louis Stevenson )

Another one from A Child's Garden of Verses. I cannot remember a time when I didn't know and love this poem.

( Rain in the Night, Amelia Josephine Burr )

One of my favorites from our old Childcraft volume of "Poems & Rhymes."

( Requiem, Robert Louis Stevenson )

Dad liked this poem.

( Summer Storm, Dana Gioia )

So devastatingly sad and beautiful.

( Still the Dark Forest, WH Auden )

Children's poems can sometimes be too cute and simple, but this one is remarkably sophisticated and somber, even a little sad.

( To Sleep, William Wordsworth )

Nothing can put you to sleep so well as a poem about insomnia.

( Trees, Harry Behn )

It's a poem as lovely as a tree! (Who said they would never see one?)

( We'll Go No More A-Roaving )

Discovered in my British Literature survey class in 2006, along with a lot of other really great poems.

( What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, Edna St. Vincent Millay )

I've never read a poem by Millay that I didn't love. But then, has anyone?