Songs & Poems


Poems and song lyrics help learn new vocabulary in English. The ones featured here are accompanied by audio links and activities.

The Great American Songbook describes the most popular songs written for musicals in the 20th Centrury. These songs by Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George and Ira Gershwin are sometimes called standards

American Songbook

American Poems

Comic Poems


Edward Lear (1812-88) is one of the most popular English comic poets. He wrote comic verse for children (including ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat’) and limericks - or 'nonsense' - poems including

There was an Old Man with a Beard
There was a Young Lady whose Chin
There was a an Old Man with a Nose

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

Belloc is most famous for his 'Cautionary Verse'. These are comic poems about what happens to naughty children.

Jim
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