Friday, March 20, 2009

Return to Pooh Corner: Poems, Song, & Video


I used to love reading Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner to my elementary students. I also enjoyed sharing many of the poems from A. A. Milne's books of children’s poetry—When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six.

Today I have a video of a song, Return to Pooh Corner, which was written by Kenny Loggins. The song was popular in the early 1970s—when I was a young teacher. I guess I liked the song so much because I loved the Pooh books and the loveable characters that Milne had created for them: gloomy Eeyore, bouncy Tigger, nervous Piglet, innocent Roo, Pooh Bear—who always relished a “smackerel” of hunny—and all the other animals who lived in the Hundred Acre Wood. Listening to the song and watching the video brought back happy memories of reading Milne's books to my daughter and to my students. Ah, there are days when I do wish I could return to Pooh Corner.

In addition to the video, I’ve included a link to the complete lyrics of the song—as well as links to some of the children’s poems written by A. A. Milne.















Return to Pooh Corner (Lyrics by Kenny Loggins)

Christopher Robin and I walked along
Under branches lit up by the moon
Posing our questions to Owl and Eeyore
As our days disappeared all too soon
But I've wandered much further today than I should
And I can't seem to find my way back to the Wood

So help me if you can
I've got to get back
To the House at Pooh Corner by one
You'd be surprised
There's so much to be done
Count all the bees in the hive
Chase all the clouds from the sky
Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh


You can read the rest of the lyrics here.




HAPPINESS (When We Were Very Young)

John had
Great Big
Waterproof
Boots on;
John had on a
Great Big
Waterproof
Hat;
John had a
Great Big
Waterproff
Mackintosh—
And that
(Said John)
Is
That.


From FURRY BEAR (Now We Are Six)

If I were a bear
And a big bear too,
I shouldn’t much mind if it froze or snew;
I shouldn’t much mind
If it snowed or friz—
I’d be all fur-lined
With a coat like his!


You can read more of A. A. Milne’s children’s poems here and here.

********************


At Political Verses, I have a poem by J. Patrick Lewis about Henry Kissinger entitled Henry K., Man of Peace.

Here are links to two of my original poems that I posted at Political Verses this week: Winnie the Pooh-Bah and the Hundred Acre Wood: A Poem about Rush Limbaugh and Bernie Made Off with My Money.

I’m doing the Poetry Friday Roundup today. Please leave the URL of your poetry post and a short description of it in the comments at my special Roundup Post.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Elaine, I'm not sure if it's just me, but I can't load the page to post my link for Poetry Friday. So I'll leave it here. I've posted the poem, The Slave's Dream by Longfellow at http://theweekthatwas.wordpress.com/

jama said...

Oh, I love this post. Pooh and the Loggins song are longtime faves.

Elaine Magliaro said...

Jama,

I had forgotten about that song for a long time. Then I bought a Loggins & Messina music CD a few months ago with "Return to Pooh Corner" on it. Listening to the song brought back memories about my early days in teaching--and that "silly old bear" and his friends.

Andromeda Jazmon said...

I love that song too. When I was a kid my dad used to read the stories and poems to us and he did all the voices. We adored those readings. Especially the Heffalump one because he would start laughing so hard he could no longer read when he got to the part where Piglet was trying to tell Christopher Robin "heff heff, a horrible half a lump! hor hor a heffable horalump!" Dad would have to stop and laugh until he ran out of breath.

Those stories are so well written, with so many layers. I just love them.

Terry Doherty said...

Oh, you made my day. I love Pooh and I so love Loggins' House at Pooh Corner. Before we adopted CJ, I bought a lullaby CD specifically because it had this song. I'm so glad she's fallen in love with the *real* Pooh!

Elaine Magliaro said...

Cloudscome,

I so loved the Pooh books-and so did my students--and yes, they have so many layers. I think my kids and I enjoyed the defined personalities of all the different animal characters in the books.

I just wonder how many parents and teachers still read these books to children today. They are true classics.


Reading Tub,

Happy your CJ has fallen in love with the "real" Pooh. I hope I have a grandchild some day--one that I can share the Pooh books with.