AmblesideOnline' Year 5 Poetry: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (annotated) : AmblesideOnline Year 5, term 2;

In 1920 the popular children's magazine St Nicholas said a book of Longfellow's poems was among the top 25 books which should be in every child's library. In 1922, the Children’s Book Week Committee and a publication called 'The Bookman' declared that Longfellow was the poet most commonly read by American children. They felt the American child should branch out.
Today's child hardly reads poetry at all, at least not on purpose. Children themselves are natural poets, so I do not believe this objection to poetry comes from within, but rather, is caused by our approach to poetry as a school subject. But if we approached poetry naturally, just as another of life's joys to share, and simply read good poems together, how different it might be.
Longfellow was once known as 'the children's poet.' Let him be a poet for your children as well.