Poetry Break - Poem with a Refrain

Hand in Hand: An American History Through Poetry

Collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Introduction

Share with children how the rhythm of the words in a poem forms an integral part of the listening experience by having the group pat softly on their legs in tempo to imitate the sound of a train on the tracks (pat,pat...pat,pat...pat,pat) while you read the following poem.

The Railroad Cars are Coming

 

The great Pacific railway,

   For California hail!

Bring on the locomotive,

   Lay down the iron rail;

Across the rolling prairies

   By steam we’re bound to go,

The railroad cars are coming, humming

   Through New Mexico.

The railroad cars are coming, humming

   Through New Mexico.

The little dogs in dog-town

   Will wag each little tail;

They’ll think that something’s coming

   A-riding on a rail.

The rattlesnake will show its fangs,

   The owl tu-whit, tu-who,

The railroad cars are coming, humming

   Through New Mexico.

The railroad cars are coming, humming

   Through New Mexico.

Extension

On repeated readings, children can join in reciting the final lines, and of course everyone can make the sound of train whistle fading in the distance at the end. As a trivia question, ask if anyone can identify the railway named partly for a New Mexico city. Answer: the Atchison,Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

Many other poems in this volume lend themselves to group choral reading:

Battle Won is Lost by Phil George

We Shall Overcome by Anonymous

Enemies by Charlotte Zolotow

What Shall We Do for the Striking Seamen? Traditional

Bennett, Lee Hopkins, ed. 1994. Hand in Hand: An American History Through Poetry. New York: Simon and Schuster.