English Poem recitation : "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman

Primary school english poem recitation : Lots of children in school start searching for a good English poem for recitation when the competition time arrives. I am gathering some of the English poems for school recitation here for all of you.
For the 7th standard English poem recitation competition when I was searching for a good poem I came across this touching poem by Walt Whitman , "O Captain! My Captain"...This poem is based on the death of American president Abraham Lincoln.

"O Captain! My Captain!"               
by Walt Whitman

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.


O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills; 10
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.


My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

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You can listen to a good recitation of this poem @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Q6cs_9tkw

About Poet : Walt Whitman (31 May 1819 - 26 March 1892 / New York / United States)
Walter "Walt" was an American poet, essayist and journalist. Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and – in addition to publishing his poetry – was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War.

About Poem : Written on the death of Abraham Lincoln in 1865, O Captain! My Captain! is one of the most famous poems by Walt Whitman.The "ship" spoken of is intended to represent the United States of America, while its "fearful trip" recalls the troubles of the American Civil War. The title role "Captain" is Lincoln himself.

The assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday,April 14, 1865, as the American Civil War was drawing to a close.Lincoln was shot while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.He died early the next morning.Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated. The assassination was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth.

Recitation of Poem : Where The Mind Is Without Fear by Tagore

I came across this famous poem by Rabindranath Tagore while searching for the poems for my 7th standard English poetry recitation competition.This is may be good for 4, 5 & 6 standards also.


Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

Rabindranath Tagore

More poems @ Poem Hunter

I came across this famous poem by PB Shelly while searching for the poems for my 6th standard English poetry recitation competition. Maya Brown won the first prize by reciting this poem in her school , Woodbridge Senior High School during 2010. You can listen and view her beautiful recitation of the poem here.

Recitation of Poem :  Ozymandias by PB Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land                    
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron.He is most famous for such classic anthology verse works as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, and The Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular and critically acclaimed poems in the English language.

Speech on “Advertisements are misleading”

Now we have more practical works part of the new way of studying at school. I need to give a speech next week. Here is what I have prepared.

Respected teacher and my dear friends,

Advertisements have become part and parcel of our life. I am sure many of us here love watching ads during commercial break. But do you know most of the ads shown are misleading. The false advertisements have great influence mainly on children who demands many things from parents. But they do not know that it may be very harmful for their health.

For example we see so many ads on TV about skin creams and no one clearly refers that for which skin it is suitable and for which skin it’s allergic. One such creams claim to make you fair within 7 days of application. Do you believe this?  No for we know genes in the body decides fairness of the skin.

 Also the face creams children often demand are for men not for children. Applying these creams will ultimately destroy their natural skins, as the children’s skin is very soft.

So we should all be aware of these ads and should not buy any product by seeing the ad only. Also as a good and responsible customer we should know about the product completely and clarify that it would not affect us in bad way and then buy the product.

Stephen Leacock once said that Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it. I think that some advertisement companies are arresting our human intelligence way beyond our comfort levels.

Recitation of Poem : I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou

 Classes started. I thought of getting ready with my poem selections for this year little early. Here comes the first...by Mary Angelou, one of the most visible female American poets of this era.

I know why the caged bird sings
by Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.

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Maya Angelou (born 1928) is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her first seventeen years. It brought her international recognition, and was nominated for a National Book Award. She has been awarded over 30 honorary degrees and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her 1971 volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie.
Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

Synonym Finder & Antonym Finder

 Part of my English grammer learnings we need to find out synonyms and antonyms. Following sites are pretty useful

• Synonym Finder (Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings)
• Antonym Finder  (Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings. )
  

Recitation of Poem : Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Christmas holidays over and back to school. Competitions are back and some of the english poems for recitation competitions for you my friends. These are part of my shorlists.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.