You might remember the poem, Nine Parts of Speech, from your childhood. Written in a catchy rhythm, we learn the parts of speech which we use when writing or speaking English every day. The poem was written by student, Green Baker of Freedman’s School in 1865/66.

You can see the original poem, handwritten on yellowed paper, as it’s documented here at Americanantiquarian.org, but I will post the poem below for easier reading:

Nine Parts of Speech
Three little words you often see,
are articles– a, an, and the.
A noun‘s the name of anything
as school, garden, hoop, or swing.
An adjective tells the kind of noun,
as in great, small, pretty, white, or brown.
Instead of nouns the pronouns stand,
Jack’s head, his face, your arm, my hand.
Verbs tell of something to be done,
to read, sing, jump, or run.
How things are done the adverbs tell,
as slowly, quickly, ill, or well.
Conjunctions join words together,
as men and women, wind or weather.
The prepositions stand before

a noun, as at, or through the door.
The interjection shows surprise,
as ah! How pretty- Oh how wise!
The whole are called nine parts of speech,
which reading, writing, speaking teach.

©Green Baker, student at Freedman’s School 1865/66

Poetry for learning facts

Repetition and rhyme in poetry or songs teach children how language works. Here’s an excellent article on Why Rhyming is Important. I still remember the songs from School House Rock (conjunction, junction what’s your function ♪♪) and the poem I learned as a child to remember the U.S. States:

The Fifty States in Rhyme 

When I was small, I studied U.S. Geography. 
My teacher said, "Would you stand up and list the states for me?” 
My knees began a-knockin’, 
My words fell out all wrong, 
Then suddenly, I burst out with this silly little song! 

Alabama and Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, 
California, Colorado and Connecticut and more. 
Delaware, Florida, Georgia. Then Hawaii, Idaho, 
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa. Still 35 to go! 

Kansas and Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, 
Maryland, Massachusetts and good old Michigan. 
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri and Montana, 
Then Nebraska's 27. Number 28's Nevada. 

Next, New Hampshire and New Jersey, 
And way down, New Mexico. 
There's New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio. 

Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania. Now let's see… 
Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee. 

Texas and there's Utah, Vermont, I'm almost through! 
Virginia and there's Washington and West Virginia, too. 

Could Wisconsin be the last state? Or is it 49? 
No, Wyoming is the last state in the 50 States that Rhyme! 

When, I sat down all out of breath, 
The teacher said, “That’s great! 
I’m quite impressed you were the best in listing all the states. 

But if you want to get an ‘A’ for that silly little rhyme, 
Stand back up and sing that song, 
But do it in double time!” 

— Author unknown

have you heard this poem?

When two vowels go walking,
the first one does the talking.
It says its name just like it sounds,
the other one goes to sleep, goodnight.

—Author unknown

The idea is that when there are two vowels side-by-side in a word, they represent the long sound of the first of the two vowels, as in the word boat, for example. However, this is only true part of the time. Here is an article by literaryworldwide.org that explains why this rhyme is only a generalization to the rules and “the first vowel doesn’t always do the talking.”

Rhyming Picture books

As you may know, I am a children’s book author. You can tell by my list of books how much I love rhyme and how important it is to me to share language with children in a fun, interactive way.

what poems have you heard?

I’d love it if you would share some of the poems for learning that you remember from your childhood, or some your kids recite today. Just pop them into the comments for all of us to enjoy.

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