I’m a Tuesday’s child, what that means is that I was born on a Tuesday and according to the old nursery rhyme I’m “… full of grace.” I just reread the Mother Goose rhyme Monday’s Child. It’s an interesting verse, its rhythm is smooth and its rhyme doesn’t sound forced when read out loud. I have fond memories of this particular nursery rhyme for a couple of reasons. First, I remember both my Mother and Grandmother reading it to me. Second, it was the first poem I memorized.
Monday’s Child
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child born on the Sabbath Day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.
As I reread the poem, I counted the syllables in each line; the syllable count is 7 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 9 – 9 – 9 – 8. I looked at the rhyme scheme; the rhyme scheme is a – a – b – b – c – c – d – d – e – e. This is an easy rhyme to learn and it’s fun to read. This isn’t the first time I’ve reread this rhyme, I reread it at least once or twice a year whenever I get to feeling nostalgic. This is my favorite Nursery rhyme.
Each time I reread this poem, I notice something different about it, today I noticed the several spiritual attributes mentioned in the version of the poem I remember. Grace is the only spiritual attribute I’m interested in right now, but what does it mean when someone is full of grace. I don’t remember either my Mother or my Grandmother telling me the meaning of grace. Of course, I didn’t ask what it meant so I guess they didn’t think I wanted to know. I wonder how many children hear this poem and wonder what grace means. I wonder what answer a parent gives when a child asks the question, “What does grace mean?”
When I go to a thesaurus to find other word’s for grace I’m given the following list: elegance, refinement, loveliness, polish, beauty, style, poise, charm, kindness, kindliness, decency, favor, mercy, mercifulness, charity, benevolence, clemency, leniency, blessing, prayer, thanks, thanksgiving, adorn, embellish, enhance, beautify, decorate, ornament, dignify, honor, favor, and distinguish. These words don’t actually tell me what grace means, but they do give me something to work from when writing a poem about grace. To find what the word means, I have to go directly to a dictionary.
When I go to http://dictionary.reference.com/ I’m given several meaning for grace, all of which refer in some way to beauty, elegant movement or have spiritual significance. To find what day you were born on go to http://www.bethanyroberts.com/MondaysChildIsFairofFace.htm or http://www.hugkiss.com/birthday/monchild.html.
Each time I reread this poem, I notice something different about it, today I noticed the several spiritual attributes mentioned in the version of the poem I remember. Grace is the only spiritual attribute I’m interested in right now, but what does it mean when someone is full of grace. I don’t remember either my Mother or my Grandmother telling me the meaning of grace. Of course, I didn’t ask what it meant so I guess they didn’t think I wanted to know. I wonder how many children hear this poem and wonder what grace means. I wonder what answer a parent gives when a child asks the question, “What does grace mean?”
When I go to a thesaurus to find other word’s for grace I’m given the following list: elegance, refinement, loveliness, polish, beauty, style, poise, charm, kindness, kindliness, decency, favor, mercy, mercifulness, charity, benevolence, clemency, leniency, blessing, prayer, thanks, thanksgiving, adorn, embellish, enhance, beautify, decorate, ornament, dignify, honor, favor, and distinguish. These words don’t actually tell me what grace means, but they do give me something to work from when writing a poem about grace. To find what the word means, I have to go directly to a dictionary.
When I go to http://dictionary.reference.com/ I’m given several meaning for grace, all of which refer in some way to beauty, elegant movement or have spiritual significance. To find what day you were born on go to http://www.bethanyroberts.com/MondaysChildIsFairofFace.htm or http://www.hugkiss.com/birthday/monchild.html.
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