The children enjoyed doing sand art Christmas cards as we had our read aloud time this week. We are reading Children of Ancient Rome, first published in 1922. It is a wonderful tale of the founding of Rome and all that went on. I love the poem at the beginning of the book.
THE LIVING LANGUAGE
Sing a song of little words,homely parts of speech
Phrases children use at play, songs that mothers teach
Who would think when Rome was new, they used that language then
Table, chair and family, map and chart and pen?
Sing a song of stately ways, camp and square and street,
Consuls, tribunes, governors, the legions myriad feet,
If those wise men so long ago had not known what to say,
All they gave us ready made, we should not have today.
Clear and straight and brief their talk in country or in town.
Lucid,vivid, accurate the thoughts that they set down.
Still the world is using words that bear the Roman stamp,
Coined in forum, villa ,temple, market place or camp.
Still our thoughts take day by day, those shapes of long ago-
If you read the dictionary, you will find it's so.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by to visit! Please feel free to leave a comment, it's lovely to hear from you!