AmblesideOnline Year 3 Poetry (annotated): William Blake, Sara Teasdale, Hilda Conkling, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Charlotte Mason said that poetry is an instructor of the conscience, and that children "must grow up upon the best. There must never be a period in their lives when they are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading-made-easy. There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told. Let Blake's 'songs of Innocence' represent their standard in poetry..." and the result will be readers who demand the best, "the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life."
Isn't it interesting that modern research supports her in this. Research is showing that reading poetry provides a ‘rocket-boost’ to the brain that cannot be matched by straightforward, simple paraphrases. The research also found poetry, in particular, "increased activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, an area concerned with 'autobiographical memory', which helped the reader to reflect on and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they had read."
AO students read the poems of Longfellow, Blake, Conkling and Teasdale in the 3rd year, a variety of poems which will give the young readers word pictures and ideas to reflect on and apply to and interpret their own experiences.
The poems are also just lovely and worth reading for themselves. We hope you will enjoy reading them with your children as much as we enjoy sharing them with you.
A word: Please don't analyze and dissect these poems. There is time for that later in your young scholar's life. Just as there is a time to simply feed your young ones delicious, nourishing food, and a time later in their lives to teach them the analytical details of health, nutrition, and all about the vitamins and minerals in their food, there is a time to just read poetry and learn to enjoy it. Year 3 students are still in the stage of simply enjoying the feast. Later they can learn about the analytical details. Don't spoil their appetites for poems by analyzing too young.