Poems Every Child Should Know (Puisi Bahasa Inggris untuk Anak)

Berikut adalah beberapa puisi yang diambil dari buku “Poems Every Child Should Know”, yang dapat didownload di sini. Menurut pengarang buku tersebut, puisi-puisi tersebut adalah puisi pilihan yang kemungkinan besar anak-anak akan suka. Puisi-puisi berikut sudah dipilih yang tidak begitu panjang, sehingga mudah diingat.

The Arrow and the Song.

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

-Henry W. Longfellow-

The Babie

Nae shoon to hide her tiny taes,
  Nae stockin’ on her feet;
Her supple ankles white as snaw,
  Or early blossoms sweet.

Her simple dress o’ sprinkled pink,
  Her double, dimplit chin,
Her puckered lips, and baumy mou’,
  With na ane tooth within.

Her een sae like her mither’s een,
  Twa gentle, liquid things;
Her face is like an angel’s face:
  We’re glad she has nae wings.

-Jeremiah Eames Rankin-

Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite.

Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
  For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
  For ’tis their nature too.

But, children, you should never let
  Such angry passions rise;
Your little hands were never made
  To tear each other’s eyes.

-Isaac Watts-

Little Things

Little drops of water,
  Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
  And the pleasant land.

Thus the little minutes,
  Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages
  Of eternity.

-Ebenezer Cobham Brewer-

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star!
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the glorious sun is set,
When the grass with dew is wet,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle all the night.

In the dark-blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark
Guides the traveller in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star!

Pippa

The year’s at the spring,
The day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hillside’s dew pearled;

The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in His heaven—
All’s right with the world!

-Robert Browning-

The Days of the Month.

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
February has twenty-eight alone.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting leap-year—that’s the time
When February’s days are twenty-nine.

-Old Song-

True Royalty

There was never a Queen like Balkis,
From here to the wide world’s end;
But Balkis talked to a butterfly
As you would talk to a friend.

There was never a King like Solomon,
Not since the world began;
But Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man.

She was Queen of Sabaea—
And he was Asia’s Lord—
But they both of ’em talked to butterflies
When they took their walks abroad.

-Rudyard Kipling-

Little White Lily

Little White Lily
Sat by a stone,
Drooping and waiting
Till the sun shone.
Little White Lily
Sunshine has fed;
Little White Lily
Is lifting her head.

Little White Lily
Said: “It is good
Little White Lily’s
Clothing and food.”
Little White Lily
Dressed like a bride!
Shining with whiteness,
And crownèd beside!

Little White Lily
Drooping with pain,
Waiting and waiting
For the wet rain.
Little White Lily
Holdeth her cup;
Rain is fast falling
And filling it up.

Little White Lily
Said: “Good again,
When I am thirsty
To have the nice rain.
Now I am stronger,
Now I am cool;
Heat cannot burn me,
My veins are so full.”

Little White Lily
Smells very sweet;
On her head sunshine,
Rain at her feet.
Thanks to the sunshine,
Thanks to the rain,
Little White Lily
Is happy again.

-George Macdonald-

Love Between Brothers and Sisters.

Whatever brawls disturb the street,
There should be peace at home;
Where sisters dwell and brothers meet,
Quarrels should never come.

Birds in their little nests agree;
And ’tis a shameful sight,
When children of one family
Fall out and chide and fight.

-Isaac Watts-

If I Had But Two Little Wings

If I had but two little wings
  And were a little feathery bird,
    To you I’d fly, my dear!
But thoughts like these are idle things
    And I stay here.

But in my sleep to you I fly:
  I’m always with you in my sleep!
    The world is all one’s own.
And then one wakes, and where am I?
    All, all alone.

-Samuel T. Coleridge-

A Farewell

My fairest child, I have no song to give you;
    No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray;
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you
         For every day.

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
    Do noble things, not dream them all day long:
And so make life, death, and that vast forever
        One grand, sweet song.

-Charles Kingsley-

The Rainbow

My heart leaps up when I behold
    A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old,
    Or let me die!
The child is father of the man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

-William Wordsworth-

The Butterfly and the Bee

Methought I heard a butterfly
Say to a labouring bee:
“Thou hast no colours of the sky
On painted wings like me.”

“Poor child of vanity! those dyes,
And colours bright and rare,”
With mild reproof, the bee replies,
“Are all beneath my care.

“Content I toil from morn to eve,
And scorning idleness,
To tribes of gaudy sloth I leave
The vanity of dress.”

-William Lisle Bowles-

Old Grimes

Old Grimes is dead; that good old man,
  We ne’er shall see him more;
He used to wear a long, black coat,
  All buttoned down before.

His heart was open as the day,
  His feelings all were true;
His hair was some inclined to gray,
  He wore it in a queue.

He lived at peace with all mankind,
  In friendship he was true;
His coat had pocket-holes behind,
  His pantaloons were blue.

He modest merit sought to find,
  And pay it its desert;
He had no malice in his mind,
  No ruffles on his shirt.

His neighbours he did not abuse,
  Was sociable and gay;
He wore large buckles on his shoes,
  And changed them every day.

His knowledge, hid from public gaze,
  He did not bring to view,
Nor make a noise town-meeting days,
  As many people do.

His worldly goods he never threw
  In trust to fortune’s chances,
But lived (as all his brothers do)
  In easy circumstances.

Thus undisturbed by anxious cares
  His peaceful moments ran;
And everybody said he was
  A fine old gentleman.

-Albert Gorton Greene-

Fairy Song

Shed no tear! O shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! O, weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root’s white core.
Dry your eyes! Oh! dry your eyes!
For I was taught in Paradise
To ease my breast of melodies—
        Shed no tear.

Overhead! look overhead!
‘Mong the blossoms white and red—
Look up, look up. I flutter now
On this flush pomegranate bough.
See me! ’tis this silvery bell
Ever cures the good man’s ill.
Shed no tear! O, shed no tear!
The flowers will bloom another year.
Adieu, adieu—I fly, adieu,
I vanish in the heaven’s blue—
       Adieu, adieu!

-John Keats-

The Rainbow

Triumphal arch, that fills the sky
When storms prepare to part,
I ask not proud Philosophy
To teach me what thou art.

Still seem, as to my childhood’s sight,
A midway station given,
For happy spirits to alight,
Betwixt the earth and heaven.

-Thomas Campbell-

Ingratitude

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou are not so unkind
   As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou are not seen,
   Although thy breath be rude.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
   As benefits forgot;
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
   As friend remembered not.

-William Shakespeare-

A Dream

Once a dream did wave a shade
O’er my angel-guarded bed,
That an emmet lost its way
When on grass methought I lay.

Troubled, ‘wildered, and forlorn,
Dark, benighted, travel-worn,
Over many a tangled spray,
All heart-broke, I heard her say:

“Oh, my children! do they cry?
Do they hear their father sigh?
Now they look abroad to see.
Now return and weep for me.”

Pitying, I dropped a tear;
But I saw a glow-worm near,
Who replied, “What wailing wight
Calls the watchman of the night?

“I am set to light the ground
While the beetle goes his round.
Follow now the beetle’s hum—
Little wanderer, hie thee home!”

-William Blake-

Heaven Is Not Reached at a Single Bound.

Heaven is not reached at a single bound,
    But we build the ladder by which we rise
    From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.

I count this thing to be grandly true:
    That a noble deed is a step toward God,—
    Lifting the soul from the common clod
To a purer air and a broader view.

-J. G. Holland-

The Last Rose of Summer.

‘Tis the last rose of summer
  Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
  Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
  No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
  Or give sigh for sigh.

I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!
  To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
  Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
  Thy leaves o’er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden
  Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,
  When friendships decay,
And from Love’s shining circle
  The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie withered,
  And fond ones are flown,
O! who would inhabit
  This bleak world alone?

-Thomas Moore-