There’s something so magical about summer. After the chill of winter has warmed, the promise of spring ushers in a season of new energy. Wind in our hair and sun on our faces, the world feels full of possibility. Poetry is an excellent way to share that amazing feeling with students. Here’s a list of summer poems for kids to brighten your day!
1. Golden Sun by Lenore Hetrick
“Shine down on me today!”
“Hushing rhythm of the waves.”
“The grass so green, the sun so bright.”
4. It’s Hot! by Shel Silverstein
“I’ve drunk a quart of lemonade.”
5. A Bird Song by Christina Rossetti
“It’s a year almost that I have not seen her.”
“Gently I stir a white feather fan.”
“There was no water at my grandfather’s…”
“The oriole sings in the greening grove.”
“Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs.”
“Preserved in kind brine.”
11. Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson
“I have to go to bed by day.”
“Gravel and sand; my knees aching with salt.”
13. In Summer by Paul Laurence Dunbar
“In a cloak from the loom of the sun!”
“Gives us no sign.”
“…rowing upstream in a wooden boat.”
16. July by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
“The figs we ate wrapped in bacon.”
“This is a large voice coming out of these cities.”
“Dancing up and down.”
“Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
20. I, Too by Langston Hughes
“They’ll see how beautiful I am.”
21. Summer Magic by Leslie Pinckney Hill
“She poured her sunshine on the earth.”
22. The Jungle by Megan Fernandes
“In midsummer, in Los Angeles, the night is fractured.”
“They who to warmer regions run, may bless the favour of the sun.”
“Purplesaurus Rex, Roarin’, Rock-A-Dile Red, Ice Blue, Island Twist, Sharkleberry Fin.”
25. By the Stream by Paul Laurence Dunbar
“…I dream in calm delight, and watch as in a glass.”
26. Summer Haibun by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
“There are not enough jam jars to can this summer sky at night.”
“I didn’t mean to stay so late.”
“Better weather, the absence of bees.”
“Eruptive lightnings flutter to and fro.”
“Drops fell and flattened on the tin roof.”
“The world is in the magic thrall.”
“Diving bell in a glass of water. Cacti atmosphere.”
33. August by Helen Hunt Jackson
“Save hum of insects’ aimless industry.”
“The sky is melting. Me too.”
35. Mist Valley by James Longenbach
“At the end of August, when all the letters of the alphabet are waiting.”
“World of my childhood and the star-struck sea.”