Reading with senior groups

Poems are memorised.  Poems are memories.

Grouping readers by age is often as pointless as grouping them by eye-colour – but with an increasingly large and diverse population over 65, there’s scope for sharing poems with older readers in so many different ways, giving particular pleasure in reading, listening or reminiscing.

Reminiscence

Poems by theme, whether favourites memorised at school or brand new poems that are evocative, work well as part of reminiscence on a particular topic.  Poems, like old photos or reminiscence box objects, are another evocative key to unlock stories and shared memories.

Care

We see some astonishing responses to poems from care home residents. Poems learned many years ago can be recognised, or even remembered word-perfect to great satisfaction, when many other things are forgotten or confused.

Poems read aloud can provide some precious human contact and a familiar voice if someone in care is too disoriented or tired to hold a conversation. Or perhaps reading some poems is simply an easier way for you to keep talking to somebody you love who no longer recognises you. 

Here are sources of poems that we have found are particularly relevant or popular among older generations of readers, and which also work well if you want to share poems aloud.  Some of these are particularly suitable for people who grew up in Scotland, while others will be familiar to a wide English-language readership.

All-time favourites

• The Sair Finger by Walter Wingate
• The Boy on the Train by Mary Smith
• Invictus by William Ernest Henley
• Daffodils (I wandered lonely as a cloud) by William Wordsworth
• The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear
• To A Mouse by Robert Burns
• Cuddle Doon by Alexander Anderson
• Sir Patrick Spens (anon)

Spring: flowers, weather, gardening & gardeners

• Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose
• William Wordsworth, Daffodils (I wandered lonely as a cloud)
• Edward Thomas, Sowing
• Robert Louis Stevenson, The Gardener Does Not Love to Talk
• Muriel Stewart, The Seed Shop
• Hugh MacDiarmid, The Little White Rose of Scotland    
• W B Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Summer: holidays & excursions, sea & seaside

• Robert Louis Stevenson, From a Railway Carriage
• Mary Smith, The Boy on the Train
• Marriott Edgar, The Lion and Albert
• John Masefield, Sea Fever
• W. H. Davies, Leisure

Autumn: Hallowe’en and ghost stories  

• J. K. Annand, Hallowe’en
• Rudyard Kipling, The Way Through The Woods
• William Allingham, The Fairies
• Robert Louis Stevenson, Windy Nights
• Walter De La Mare, The Listeners
• Robert Burns, Tam O’ Shanter

Winter: winter, Christmas, Hogmanay

• Robert Burns, Up in the Morning Early
• Rudyard Kipling, Eddi’s Service
• Clement Clarke Moore, A Visit from St Nicholas
• Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne

Further resources

Useful books include: 

100 Favourite Scottish Poems, edited by Stewart Conn (Luath)

100 Favourite Scottish Poems to Read Out Loud, edited by Gordon Jarvie (Luath)

Ewan McVicar,  Doh Ray Me, When Ah Wis Wee & A B C, My Grannie Caught a Flea (Birlinn)

Training for reading and reminiscing with older people:

Scottish Storytelling Centre offers training for working with older people, including storytelling for reminiscence

The Reader Organisation offers Read to Lead training