The Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical Curriculum

by Laura Berquist and Laura M. Berquist

Book Overview

Convinced that a critical part of education is to foster in our children a love of the beautiful and true, teacher and writer Laura Berquist presents this wide selection of poetry for every age level from grades one to twelve. Language development is significantly enriched by exposure to good poetry. This book is an important resource because it provides in one volume many poems that concern noble actions or ideas presented in beautiful patterns of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898707161
• ISBN13: 9780898707168
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Length: 493 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Miss describe for quality.

I temporarily lost my copy and needed a replacement for my son’s homeschool lessons. This copy is low quality. The writing on the pages, stickers, cover and corners conditions are terrible. It should have been classified as iffy or poor. Good thing, I just need it long enough for me to find my copy and stay on schedule. As for the book… many homeschool curriculums recommend and use this book for memorization and quality literature.

Great collection of poetry!

This book is so full of excellent poetry, I was so excited to read through it. We are using it as part of our homeschool language arts. What I like most about it is how it is organized. Younger grade levels in the front, and they gradually become more complex poems and topics as the book progresses. Very well done!

A Wonderful Resource

As a classical homeschooler, poetry memorization is important to me and at one time I owned 55 poetry books just to find the right poem to memorize. We have poetry books about each subject we study: math, science, history, grammar and french. Poetry is enjoyed in our home all the time but I found I was spending too much time fretting over what to memorize. I know some people let their kids pick the poems but when I tried that my daughter only wanted to pick the two to three line poems, not really caring what they were about. Upon another's recommendation, I purchased The Harp and Laurel Wreath. At first I wasn't very impressed, I read the introduction and looked through the selections and it sat on the shelf. I used a few poems from The Harp and Laurel Wreath but I was still pulling poetry from many sources. I finally came to the point I wanted to make my time spent preparing for our lessons for efficient and effective, that's when The Harp and Laurel Wreath came down from the shelf and became the leader in our poetry memorization efforts. The book is separated into Early Years (K-3), Grammatical Stage(4-6), Dialectical Stage (7-9) and Rhetorical Stage (10-12). The grade levels are my estimation. I feel this is an excellent collection of poems, play excerpts, and speeches for memorization purposes. Could it be added to? What couldn't? If you are looking for one source to help you through K-12 in memorization, this is one resource to have but don't purchase this thinking it is the end all of memorization selections. Personal tastes and individual educational goals may lead you to other areas but I do feel this book is worth having along for the journey. We do not use the dictation exercises in The Harp and Laurel Wreath because our spelling program is dictation based but it nice to have selections to fall back on if I need them. We also intend to have a solid poetry analysis course outside of The Harp and Laurel Wreath.

Beautiful Collection of Poetry for Children

This collection of poetry, especially designed for those putting together a curriculum for children, does all the work of finding important, interesting and beautiful works for children to study or memorize from the simplest verses for young tots "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings" to more complex works for high school (such as "Ode to a Grecian Urn" by John Keats) that include study questions and an answer key. This is a true treasure especially for homeschool parents and teachers - it's so comprehensive and easy to use.It's not the only poetry book you should own (there certainly is a place for beautifully illustrated poetry books to pick up for pleasure reading as well), but it is a real gem and a great value.

Twaddle-free Copywork

This is *the* all-in-one resource for your classical copywork, dictation, and memory work needs. Laura Berquist has done all the legwork for busy homeschooling parents, bringing together a lovely selection of poetry and organizing it according to the stages of the trivium. Selections for the rhetorical stage include study questions, so the book could double as a literature text in the upper grades. One note to clear up a misconception by another reviewer: This isn't meant to be a comprehensive poetry anthology for reading aloud - plenty of these are available - but rather a sourcebook for classical language arts. It's an attractive enough book, with black-and-white line drawings on some pages, but not a decorative one; that's not its purpose. The emphasis is on language throughout, not visuals. But that's part of the appeal for classical homeschoolers.All in all, this is a wonderful time-saving resource for your classical homeschool.

The Harp and Laurel Wreath

The road to truth is paved with beauty and goodness. The way we can help our children love what is true is by introducing them to those things that are beautiful and good. Beauty and goodness come to us primarily through art and literature. It is literature that Berquits provides us with. And she sets it forward in a useful fashion as a way to teach beauty to children. The literature in the book is children of all ages--adutls not excluded. But it is arranged in ascending ages so that a first grader will not be overwhelmed by that which is more appropriate for a ninth grader. This collection of poetry and prose is appropriate for instilling a love of beauty in the mind and heart. There is no garbage here, nothing obscene and ugly. It is without a doubt a classical curriculum. Those who will find this book helpful are teachers, parents, and homeschoolers who wish to give their children a love of beauty and wonder. But any person with good taste and a love of poetry will enjoy this book as well. Hopefully that is the majority of us.