My dad loved poetry

My dad was someone who could quote poetry seemingly for any occasion imaginable. He told me and my brothers and sisters that he learnt most of his poetry when he was at school in the highlands of Scotland.  The school was Boultach School and his teacher I only ever heard him refer to as Rachael.  She must have had an incredible impact on my father. Poetry was one of the things he turned to in his final years.

When he was no longer able to read because of poor eyesight he enjoyed having the newspaper read to him and he loved listening to poetry.  He had his favourites and when we visited we would read the poems to him and he would be able to recite sections of the poems if not all.

This poetry book I have chosen for my A-Z Book Challenge is a book we gave to dad for Fathers’ Day when he was 94. Many of the poems in this book were favourites of his and there are many in this book that are favourites of mine.

Here are just some of the titles included in the book.

Click on the picture of the titles to see them in larger print.  Are any of your favourites there? You can check out the book here where you can view a full list of the poems included in the book.

Here are some of my favourites: Cargoes, Abou Ben Adhem,The King’s Breakfast, Stop all the clocks, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, This Be The Verse.  The last poem mentioned I used when I was teaching reluctant high school students and provided a great starting point for discussion on poetry for those who had no love for poetry at all.  The poem was written by Philip Larkin who was offered the position of Poet Laureate but declined.