Children’s Poetry & Analysis
Selected Althea Randolph Poems
Featured PoemsMemory Book
Our memory is like a book,
The pages written on
With things we’ve said, and things we’ve thought,
And deeds that we have done.
Now let this Book of Memory
Be sacred to us all;
Write nothing on a page of it
We’d care not to recall.
Then when the leaves are backward turned,
To read the story told,
There’ll be no word, no thought, nor deed,
But of the purest gold.
Overview Short Summary
“Memory Book” compares memory with a book whose pages record words, thoughts and actions. The speaker advises readers to live in a way they will not regret remembering. A well-lived past becomes a valuable story written in “purest gold.”
Interpretation Meaning and Moral Lesson
The poem argues that everyday choices become part of a person’s lasting inner record. Because memories cannot simply be unwritten, the reader should try to create pages worth revisiting. The lesson concerns integrity, self-awareness and responsible behavior.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Memory and identity: Past actions help form the story people tell about their lives.
- Personal responsibility: Words, thoughts and deeds all matter.
- Living without regret: The speaker encourages choices that can later be remembered with peace.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
The central comparison is introduced: memory resembles a book written through experience.
Stanza 2
The speaker asks readers to treat this inner book as something valuable and avoid adding anything they would be ashamed to remember.
Stanza 3
Looking back becomes the act of turning pages. “Purest gold” represents memories created through good and honorable choices.
Poetic Craft Structure and Literary Devices
The poem contains three quatrains with an ABCB rhyme pattern. Its extended metaphor compares memory with a book, experiences with writing, and remembered years with turning leaves or pages. The final gold image gives moral value a visible form.
Winter
With wind and snow I travel
Upon my yearly way;
The birds all fly before me,
The blossoms run away!
The singing streams and rivers,
I cause to cease their song;
The pretty lakes and brooklets,
I clothe in jackets strong.
I hide the grassy meadows
’Neath soft sheets clean and white;
And cover up the bushes
With crystal jewels bright!
I chase the merry children,
And nip them teasingly;
But as I bring them happy sports,
They gladly welcome me!
Overview Short Summary
In “Winter,” the season speaks as a traveling figure who brings wind and snow, silences streams, covers fields and decorates bushes with ice. Although Winter chases and nips children with cold, they still welcome the season because it brings outdoor games and enjoyment.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Seasonal transformation: Winter changes water, fields, plants and human activity.
- Nature as playful power: Cold weather is strong but not presented as purely threatening.
- Finding joy in hardship: Children welcome the same cold that teases them because it also creates play.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
Winter arrives on its yearly journey. Birds and blossoms retreat before it.
Stanza 2
Rivers lose their song when they freeze, and ice becomes a strong jacket around smaller bodies of water.
Stanza 3
Snow becomes a white sheet over the meadows, while ice crystals appear like jewels on bushes.
Stanza 4
Winter’s cold playfully nips children, but winter sports make the season welcome.
Literary Technique Imagery and Personification
Winter speaks in the first person and performs human actions: traveling, clothing, hiding, chasing and teasing. Snow is compared with clean sheets, ice with jackets and frozen drops with crystal jewels. These images make cold weather familiar and imaginative.
Poetic Form Rhyme Scheme and Structure
Four quatrains generally follow an ABCB rhyme pattern. Each stanza focuses on a different effect of winter: arrival, frozen water, snow-covered land and children’s play. The final contrast prevents the poem from ending negatively.
The Trees’ Wardrobe
The trees are very vain, I think;
I feel this must be true,
Because they like to change their gowns
As much as people do.
When spring and summer time arrive,
Each one is proudly seen
To don a dress all new and bright,
Made up in shades of green.
In autumn time they make a change,
And robe in gorgeous clothes
Of orange, yellow, red, and bronze,
All trimmed with tints of rose!
But when the winter comes, alas!
I’m sorry for the trees,
For then they wear no clothes at all;
I wonder they don’t freeze!
Overview Short Summary
“The Trees’ Wardrobe” compares seasonal leaves with clothes. Trees wear bright green dresses in spring and summer, change into colorful autumn robes, and stand without clothes in winter. The comparison gives a child-friendly explanation of how trees look throughout the year.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Seasonal change: The trees’ different “outfits” mark the movement of the year.
- Imaginative observation: Familiar clothing language makes nature easy to picture.
- Humor: The speaker worries that bare winter trees might freeze.
Nature Reading Seasonal Imagery
Green is associated with spring and summer growth. Orange, yellow, red, bronze and rose create a rich autumn palette. Winter is defined by absence: the trees have lost the clothing that made them colorful.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is playful, observant and lightly comic. Words such as “vain,” “gowns,” “dress” and “robe” turn the trees into fashion-conscious characters.
Poetic Craft Structure and Literary Devices
The poem uses four quatrains and a general ABCB rhyme pattern. An extended metaphor compares leaves with clothing, while personification allows trees to feel proud, change gowns and appear undressed. The final question provides a humorous ending.
What Do They Say?
What do little flowers say,
As they grow up day by day?
“We are glad that we are fair,
And with fragrance fill the air,
For our pleasure is to give
Happiness to all who live!”
This is what the flowers say,
As they grow up day by day!
What do little birdies say,
As they grow up day by day?
“Let us sing a song so glad,
That to all the world we’ll add
Paeans of praise and joy and love,
In gratitude to God above!”
This is what the birdies say,
As they grow up day by day!
What should little children say,
As they grow up day by day?
“Let us sing as birdies do,
Songs of joy and praises true;
Let us each be as a flower,
Budding in Earth’s living-bower,
Shedding sweetness everywhere,
Proving God’s great loving care!”
This is what good children say,
As they grow up day by day!
Overview Short Summary
“What Do They Say?” imagines flowers and birds explaining how they contribute beauty, happiness, praise and love to the world. The poem then asks children to follow their example by growing into people who spread joy and goodness.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Giving to others: Beauty and talent are valuable when they create happiness.
- Gratitude: Birdsong becomes an expression of thankfulness.
- Moral growth: Children are encouraged to develop good qualities as naturally as flowers grow.
- Faith: The natural world is presented as evidence of divine care.
Close Reading Section-by-Section Explanation
The Flowers
The flowers value their beauty because it allows them to give fragrance and happiness to others.
The Birds
The birds use their song to add joy and praise to the world.
The Children
Children are asked to imitate both examples: to sing with gratitude and spread sweetness through their behavior.
Emotional Effect Tone and Mood
The tone is encouraging, devotional and cheerful. Repeated questions make the lesson feel conversational, while the responses create a classroom or read-aloud rhythm.
Poetic Craft Structure and Literary Devices
The poem uses repetition, personification and analogy. Flowers and birds speak like people, and children are compared with plants that bud and grow. The repeated phrase “day by day” emphasizes gradual development rather than instant perfection.
Unity
Many little grains of sand
It takes to make the mighty land;
While alone, they ne’er would be
Anything but sand, you see!
Many drops of water too,
It takes to make the ocean blue;
While alone, they ne’er would make
Ocean, river, or a lake!
Many trees of different kinds,
Within a forest dense, one finds;
Still, together there they stay,
Each one growing in its way!
But suppose they all should hate,
Fight, and then should separate;
All alone, each ne’er would be
Anything except a tree!
So together we should stand,
Like a mighty soldier band,
With Love as armor, then should we,
United, be God’s Family!
Overview Short Summary
“Unity” uses sand, water and trees to show that small or separate things can form something greater when they remain together. The final stanza applies this natural lesson to people, asking them to stand united and protected by love.
Interpretation Meaning and Moral Lesson
The poem’s central lesson is that cooperation creates strength without requiring everyone to become identical. The forest contains “different kinds” of trees, and each grows in its own way. Unity therefore means shared purpose and mutual care, not the loss of individuality.
Core Ideas Main Themes
- Strength in unity: Many small parts create land, oceans and forests.
- Cooperation: Separation reduces what a group can achieve.
- Difference within community: Different trees can remain together while growing individually.
- Love as protection: The final metaphor presents love as moral armor.
Close Reading Stanza-by-Stanza Explanation
Stanza 1
Individual grains of sand appear small, but together they form land.
Stanza 2
Single drops cannot make an ocean or lake; collective presence creates scale and power.
Stanza 3
A forest contains different trees growing in different ways, offering a model of diversity within unity.
Stanza 4
Conflict and separation would reduce the forest to isolated trees.
Stanza 5
The natural examples become a human lesson: people should stand together, with love guiding and protecting them.
Poetic Craft Symbols and Literary Devices
- Sand and water: They symbolize the power created by many small contributions.
- The forest: It represents a community made of different individuals.
- Simile: A united group is compared with a strong soldier band.
- Metaphor: Love becomes armor, suggesting protection without violence.
- Repetition: “Many” and “together” reinforce the poem’s central argument.
Poet & Book
Althea Randolph: Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Althea Randolph?
Althea Randolph was the name printed on the 1914 poetry collection A Shower of Verses. Library and book records identify the author more fully as Althea Randolph Bedle Rusch. Her surviving collection is best known for short poems about babies, nature, imagination, bedtime and moral growth.
What is A Shower of Verses?
A Shower of Verses is a 1914 collection published by the H. W. Gray Company. Its title describes four groupings: Mother’s Treasure Book, Fancies, Fairies and Frolics, and Twilight Poems. The ten poems on this page come from that collection.
What kind of poems did Althea Randolph write?
Her best-known work consists mainly of short children’s poems. Common subjects include babies, the moon, stars, flowers, birds, changing seasons, kindness, memory, cooperation and bedtime.
What are some memorable Althea Randolph quotes?
Frequently shareable lines include “Our memory is like a book,” “The Moon rocks gently to and fro,” and “With Love as armor.” Their original contexts appear in “Memory Book,” “Baby Moon” and “Unity” above.
Are Althea Randolph’s poems public domain?
The poems reproduced here come from the 1914 edition of A Shower of Verses, a public-domain publication in the United States. The source link attached to each poem opens a digitized scan of that edition.
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