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Poems Every Child Should Know

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<h3>The Nautilus and the Ammonite.</h3> <div class="pre_poem">"The Nautilus and the Ammonite" finds a place here out of respect to a twelve-year-old girl who recited it at one of our poetry hours years ago. It made a profound impression on the fifty pupils assembled, I never read it without feeling that it stands test. Anonymous. </div> <table class="poem" summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="stanza"> The nautilus and the ammonite Were launched in friendly strife, Each sent to float in its tiny boat On the wide, wide sea of life. </div> <div class="stanza"> For each could swim on the ocean's brim, And, when wearied, its sail could furl, And sink to sleep in the great sea-deep, In its palace all of pearl. </div> <div class="stanza"> And theirs was a bliss more fair than this Which we taste in our colder clime; For they were rife in a tropic life— A brighter and better clime. </div> <div class="stanza"> They swam 'mid isles whose summer smiles Were dimmed by no alloy; Whose groves were palm, whose air was balm, And life one only joy. </div> <div class="stanza"> They sailed all day through creek and bay, And traversed the ocean deep; And at night they sank on a coral bank, In its fairy bowers to sleep. </div> <div class="stanza"> And the monsters vast of ages past They beheld in their ocean caves; They saw them ride in their power and pride, And sink in their deep-sea graves. </div> <div class="stanza"> And hand in hand, from strand to strand, They sailed in mirth and glee; These fairy shells, with their crystal cells, Twin sisters of the sea. </div> <div class="stanza"> And they came at last to a sea long past, But as they reached its shore, The Almighty's breath spoke out in death, And the ammonite was no more. </div> <div class="stanza"> So the nautilus now in its shelly prow, As over the deep it strays, Still seems to seek, in bay and creek, Its companion of other days. </div> <div class="stanza"> And alike do we, on life's stormy sea, As we roam from shore to shore, Thus tempest-tossed, seek the loved, the lost, And find them on earth no more. </div> <div class="stanza"> Yet the hope how sweet, again to meet, As we look to a distant strand, Where heart meets heart, and no more they part Who meet in that better land. </div> </td></tr></table> Anonymous. <h3>The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk.</h3> <table class="poem" summary="poem"><tr><td><div class="stanza"> I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute, From the center all round to the sea, I am lord of the fowl and the brute. O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms Than reign in this horrible place. </div> <div class="stanza"> I am out of humanity's reach, I must finish my journey alone, Never hear the sweet music of speech,— I start at the sound of my own. The beasts that roam over the plain My form with indifference see; They are so unacquainted with man, Their tameness is shocking to me. </div> <div class="stanza"> Society, Friendship, and Love, Divinely bestow'd upon man, Oh, had I the wings of a dove, How soon would I taste you again! My sorrows I then might assuage In the ways of religion and truth, Might learn from the wisdom of age, And be cheer'd by the sallies of youth. </div> <div class="stanza"> Ye winds that have made me your sport, Convey to this desolate shore Some cordial endearing report Of a land I shall visit no more! </div> <div class="stanza"> My friends—do they now and then send A wish or a thought after me? Oh, tell me I yet have a friend, Though a friend I am never to see. </div> <div class="stanza"> How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-wingèd arrows of light. When I think of my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there; But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair. </div> <div class="stanza"> But the seafowl is gone to her nest, The beast is laid down in his lair, Even here is a season of rest, And I to my cabin repair. There's mercy in every place, And mercy, encouraging thought! Gives even affliction a grace, And reconciles man to his lot. </div> </td></tr></table> William Cowper. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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