Introduction
Althea Randolph was the byline used for the children’s poetry collection A Shower of Verses, published in 1914. Bibliographic records identify the author more fully as Althea Randolph Bedle Rusch. Her poems turn babies, moonlight, flowers, birds, seasons and everyday choices into short, musical lessons for young readers.
This collection brings together ten of the most useful and searchable Althea Randolph poems, including A Year of Babies, Baby Moon, The Moon Is Shy!, When Day Is Done, Memory Book, Winter and Unity. Each poem includes a concise meaning, themes and literary explanation without unnecessary academic filler. Readers can also explore the Famous Poets directory for more public-domain poets and poetry collections.
Children’s Poetry & Analysis
Selected Althea Randolph Poems
Featured PoemsA Year of Babies
January Babies grow
As pretty, pure and white as snow!
February Babies, next,
Have “Kindness” for their daily text!
Babies born in bleak March gale,
Are healthy, happy, strong and hale!
April Babies sometimes cry,
To help the flowers grow by and by!
Babies born in May are sweet,
As blossoms pink, from head to feet!
Babies born in June prove true,
And make the world a bower for you!
July Babies romp and run,
And revel in the noon-day sun!
August Babies sleep away
The sultry hours of summer’s day!
September Babies watch the sky,
And sing a twilight lullaby!
October Babies weave gay wreaths
Of smiles and autumn’s golden leaves!
November Babies dance and play,
And chase away the clouds of gray!
December Babies loving are
With eyes that sparkle like a star!
Overview Short Summary
“A Year of Babies” gives babies born in each month a cheerful quality connected with the weather or season. January babies are compared with snow, July babies enjoy sunshine, October babies wear autumn leaves, and December babies have star-like eyes. The poem celebrates every birth month rather than presenting one month as better than another.
Calendar Reading Month-by-Month Meaning
- January: Snow suggests purity and freshness.
- February: Kindness becomes a daily principle.
- March: Windy weather suggests strength and health.
- April: Tears are playfully compared with rain that helps flowers grow.
- May: Spring blossoms represent sweetness and beauty.
- June: Truthfulness makes the world feel like a garden.
- July: Sunshine creates energy, movement and play.
- August: Summer heat produces rest and sleepiness.
- September: The evening sky inspires a gentle lullaby.
- October: Smiles and autumn leaves form a bright wreath.
- November: Playfulness pushes away gray weather.
- December: Love and sparkling eyes reflect the season’s light.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Childhood individuality: Each month receives its own positive personality.
- Nature and the calendar: Weather, flowers, sunlight and leaves shape the descriptions.
- Celebration of babies: The poem treats every child as a source of affection and delight.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is affectionate, playful and optimistic. Its quick rhymes create a light mood suited to reading aloud, baby celebrations and month-by-month birthday verses.
Poetic Craft Rhyme Scheme and Literary Devices
The poem is made of twelve rhyming couplets, one for each month. Repetition of “Babies” gives the poem a predictable calendar rhythm. Similes compare babies with snow, blossoms and stars, while seasonal imagery helps each month feel distinct.
Baby Moon
The Moon rocks gently to and fro,
Safe in her silvery bed;
And every night the Stars keep watch
Above her pretty head.
In day-time when their lights go out,
The Stars have shut their eyes;
Does little Baby Moon go then
To sleep in other skies?
Overview Short Summary
“Baby Moon” imagines the moon as a child rocked in a silver bed while the stars watch over her. When daylight comes and the stars disappear, the speaker wonders whether the moon goes to sleep somewhere else. The poem explains the night sky through the imagination of a young child.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Wonder about the night sky: The poem turns an astronomical question into a bedtime fantasy.
- Protection and care: The stars behave like loving guardians.
- Sleep and routine: Night and day are imagined through a child’s familiar bedtime experience.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is tender, curious and soothing. The rocking motion, silver bed and watchful stars create a peaceful bedtime mood.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
The moon becomes a baby, the sky becomes a nursery and the stars become caregivers who close their eyes in daytime. “Silvery bed” provides soft visual imagery, while “rocks gently to and fro” suggests the rhythm of a cradle.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem contains two quatrains. The second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme, creating an ABCB pattern. The first stanza makes a confident imaginative statement; the second changes into a question, ending with wonder rather than an explanation.
The Moon Is Shy!
The Moon looks down and smiles on me,
When I’m in bed;
I throw a good-night kiss to her,
Far-overhead.
She hides her face behind a cloud on high,
I think the Moon is shy, so very shy!
She comes out only in the dark,
I wonder why?
She never shines when it is day,
Up in the sky!
Perhaps she does not like the Sun, and so
She stays away until she sees him go!
She seems quite friendly with the Stars,
As they pass by;
For I have seen her beam on them
When they are nigh;
So I am sure if she just once would try,
She’d learn to love the Sun as much as I!
Overview Short Summary
In “The Moon Is Shy!,” a child sends the moon a good-night kiss and interprets its movement behind clouds as shyness. The child wonders why the moon appears at night but avoids the sun, then concludes that the moon might learn to love the sun if she were willing to meet him.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Childlike curiosity: The speaker asks simple questions about why the moon appears at night.
- Friendship and openness: The ending suggests that unfamiliarity can be overcome by making an effort to connect.
- Imagination and nature: The sky becomes a social world filled with smiles, shyness and friendship.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The child treats the moon like a distant friend. A cloud becomes something behind which the moon hides her face.
Stanza 2
The speaker wonders why the moon appears only after sunset and imagines that she may be avoiding the sun.
Stanza 3
Because the moon seems friendly with the stars, the child believes she could also become friendly with the sun. The conclusion turns a question about nature into a gentle lesson about overcoming shyness.
Style Tone and Literary Devices
The tone is warm, playful and inquisitive. Personification gives the moon a face, a smile and feelings. Repeated questions reproduce a child’s curiosity, while the repeated word “shy” emphasizes the speaker’s imaginative explanation.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
The poem has three six-line stanzas. Short question lines such as “I wonder why?” interrupt the longer descriptions and make the poem conversational. The final two lines of each stanza provide a fuller rhyme and a clear concluding thought.
When Day Is Done
When day is done—and lights are out,
And you are tucked in bed;
Remember then the deeds you’ve done,
Recall the words you’ve said.
And if the deeds that day were kind,
The words both gentle, true,
I’m sure the Angels bright will bring
Sweet rest, dear child, to you!
Overview Short Summary
“When Day Is Done” asks a child to review the day before going to sleep. Kind actions, gentle words and honesty lead to a peaceful conscience and restful sleep. The poem presents bedtime as a quiet moment for moral reflection.
Reader Takeaway Meaning and Moral Lesson
The poem’s lesson is that peace at night is connected with the way a person treats others during the day. It encourages self-examination without using fear: the desired result is the comfort that follows kindness, truth and gentle speech.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Kindness: Good deeds are presented as part of daily character.
- Responsibility: Children are asked to remember their own actions and words.
- Rest and conscience: Peaceful sleep symbolizes the inward calm produced by good conduct.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is caring, instructive and reassuring. The mood is calm and bedtime-like rather than severe, making the moral advice feel protective.
Poetic Craft Structure and Literary Devices
Two quatrains follow a clear ABCB rhyme pattern. Repetition of “deeds” and “words” connects behavior with reflection. The contrast between daylight actions and nighttime rest gives the poem its simple moral structure.
My Rose
I have a little Rose,
And what do you suppose?
It has ten pretty toes,
One cunning little nose,
And hair tied up with bows.
Why, everybody knows
It is my Baby Rose!
Overview Short Summary
“My Rose” begins as though the speaker is describing a flower, then reveals that “Rose” is a baby. Toes, nose and hair bows replace petals and leaves, turning the poem into a playful expression of affection.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Love for a child: The baby is described as something precious and beautiful.
- Playful naming: The word “Rose” works as both a flower image and a child’s name or pet name.
- Everyday delight: Small physical details become reasons for admiration.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is affectionate, teasing and cheerful. The opening question invites the reader into a small guessing game, and the final line delivers the answer.
Poetic Craft Rhyme and Wordplay
The poem uses a chain of rhymes—“Rose,” “suppose,” “toes,” “nose,” “bows” and “knows.” This repeated sound gives it the feel of a nursery rhyme. The main device is a playful metaphor that briefly presents the baby as a flower.
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