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Birthdays & Birthstones Poetry Prompt: A Rossetti List Poem

By Kortney Garrison 16 Comments

BalloonsLast week marked the first annual Take Your Poet to School Week! At our homeschool co-op, we celebrated by cutting and coloring Christina Rossetti puppets and beginning to memorize her poem “The Months.”

The Months

January cold desolate;
February all dripping wet;
March wind ranges;
April changes;
Birds sing in tune
To flowers of May,
And sunny June
Brings longest day;
In scorched July
The storm-clouds fly
Lightning-torn;
August bears corn,
September fruit;
In rough October
Earth must disrobe her;
Stars fall and shoot
In keen November;
And night is long
And cold is strong
In bleak December.

–by Christina Rossetti

After I read through the poem once, the children spontaneously found their own birth months and those of their younger siblings and pets! Some were pleased with May’s singing birds and blooming flowers, but others were much less enthusiastic about “rough October.”

However you feel about Rossetti’s designations, her list poem presents an almanac of sorts.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, our seasons match up fairly well with Rossetti’s England.

Try It: List Poem

What about where you live? Can you use this poem as a template for describing the changes that the natural world births throughout the turning year? Can you write a local almanac of your home place? Or perhaps you’d like to make a list poem just for your birthday, using the character of your particular month.

Photo by frankieleon, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Poem is in the public domain. Post by Kortney Garrison.

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Kortney Garrison
Kortney Garrison
Kortney Garrison is a writer, home educator, and Community Director at Read-Aloud Revival.
Kortney Garrison
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Filed Under: Birthdays and Birth Stones, Blog, Nature Poems, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writing prompt, writing prompts

About Kortney Garrison

Kortney Garrison is a writer, home educator, and Community Director at Read-Aloud Revival.

Comments

  1. Tom says

    April 9, 2018 at 1:11 pm

    Paul Simon’s “April Come She Will” seems much less a curiosity after reading the months. Thanks. I’ve included a link.

    https://youtu.be/PYD-DIggB2k

    Reply
    • Kortney Garrison says

      April 9, 2018 at 5:03 pm

      “July, she will fly and give no warning to her flight.”

      …my birthday month! Thanks for sharing this sweetness, Tom.

      Reply
  2. L.L. Barkat says

    April 9, 2018 at 5:08 pm

    Cherries,
    a pie,
    that’s the whole
    list—all
    I ever needed
    for my
    birthday.

    🙂

    (true story! 🙂 )

    Reply
    • Kortney Garrison says

      April 9, 2018 at 5:12 pm

      So a late summer birthday, L.L.?

      Reply
      • L.L. Barkat says

        April 9, 2018 at 8:16 pm

        Just a cherry pie birthday, regardless of season. 🙂

        Oh, but I did *so* love eating cherries at my grandmother’s house in the summer. She had a bing cherry tree that simply wept to the ground, and we would sit under it as if it was a secret house, and we would eat cherries until we could eat no more.

        The tart cherries were too high up. She’d climb ladders to get those cherries. And I remember she was always battling with the birds (many nets over trees, to try to keep them away). Later, I would help her pit the cherries with this funny little contraption that made an awful mess, but it was worth the effort (many summer pies from that kitchen; many pies, period, from that kitchen; I do miss her abundant, generous cooking and baking and canning).

        Reply
        • Kortney Garrison says

          April 10, 2018 at 10:49 am

          Thank you for inviting us under the branches of your cherry tree. It’s sweet here in your secret house!

          Reply
  3. Laura Lynn Brown says

    April 10, 2018 at 9:12 am

    Pittsburgh in April

    Sunny and cold,
    gray and snowy,
    sunny and warm,
    gray and rainy,
    morning sleet and evening thunder,
    sunny and warm,
    sunny and snow,
    snow all day but nothing sticks,
    sunny. So far.

    Reply
    • Kortney Garrison says

      April 10, 2018 at 10:48 am

      Love this rhythm and repetition! Especially, snow all day but nothing sticks.

      Reply
      • L.L. Barkat says

        April 10, 2018 at 12:47 pm

        I’m with you, Kortney. I like the way the rhythm and repetition are working. They feel (and look), to me, like a form of precipitation in themselves.

        Reply
  4. Maureen says

    April 10, 2018 at 1:26 pm

    12 Months of Marriage by Birthstone*

    A new red lipstick is no garnet
    but planting your honeyed lips

    on your Baby in January
    is surely the next-best thing.

    Come February, do forget
    the time you were cold

    -shouldered and celebrate
    your sixth anniversary

    with amethyst. It’s hard
    and plenty durable,

    like others’ marriages.
    By March if you’re more

    than ready to spring
    for some peace — alone —

    by the sea, let the water’s
    serene aquamarine tones

    cool your temper, maybe
    reawaken your lost love.

    Just don’t try sharpening
    your tongue on her diamond.

    You’ll be banished in April
    and she’ll remember

    what you did forever. Look
    to a new beginning in May,

    the way Cleopatra and Liz
    always did, with an emerald

    to signify your loyalty.
    If you see teardrops falling

    from the moon in June,
    have the wisdom to string

    her a strand of natural pearls.
    Not passionate enough,

    you say she says! Count to
    thirty and on the first of July

    dress her with rubies.
    She’ll glow like coal-fed fire.

    Chase away her August
    night terrors with a lime

    -green peridot ; she’ll
    welcome her good fortune

    and help you channel
    all your higher powers

    toward September, when
    you’ll finally seal her divine

    favor with a rare royal
    blue sapphire. Read her

    mood wrong in October,
    though, and mistake

    yourself not: you’ll see
    that change of color

    in her eyes sufficient
    to match any flashy opal.

    But know this also: things
    could brighten up again

    in November if you break
    her spell of anger with topaz,

    not to be confused with
    the lemony citrine. And pay

    heed: in December, nothing
    will pale more than the heat

    of your marriage bed if you
    sleep through Christmas

    morning, leaving her to find
    no Tiffany blue box

    of tanzanite, zircon, or turquoise
    to ward off impending doom.

    * Courtesy of American Gem Society’s facts, myths, and legends.

    Reply
  5. Kortney Garrison says

    April 11, 2018 at 9:42 am

    A new red lipstick is no garnet
    teardrops falling/ from the moon in June
    She’ll glow like coal-fed fire.
    if you break/ her spell of anger

    ….these lines really shine! Thanks so much for sharing your poem, Maureen!

    Reply
  6. Katie says

    April 14, 2018 at 9:42 am

    January ice and snow
    Now we sled to and fro,
    February, more of same
    Bring hot cocoa to the game,
    March blows in, branches down
    Surveying the yard we frown,
    April showers soften earth
    To the flowers giving birth,
    May warms with buds and blooms
    Gardening all my time consumes,
    June, yet bright, warmer
    Hinge of year, we turn the corner,
    July hot and dry
    Sun beats down from the sky,
    August, time to visit the beach –
    Or lake, we don’t care which,
    September peaches, bushel or peck
    October brings the frost – oh heck,
    November leaf fall
    make the pile tall,
    December means winter
    New Year we will enter.

    Reply
    • Kortney Garrison says

      April 14, 2018 at 3:00 pm

      Oh, Katie! This is wonderful! I love “June, yet bright, warmer/ Hinge of year, we turn the corner.” It’s the hinge of the year and the hinge of your poem! And “yet bright” is a delicious turn of phrase.

      Reply
      • Katie says

        April 14, 2018 at 10:29 pm

        Thank you, Kortney. And you’ve inspired me to try and memorize Christina Rossetti’s “The Months”. 🙂

        Reply
        • Kortney Garrison says

          April 15, 2018 at 10:21 am

          I read your poem to the kids I’m memorizing with…they loved February best! <3

          Reply
          • Katie says

            April 15, 2018 at 1:47 pm

            Kortney this made me smile, I feel honored!
            Hope you have fun with it:)

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