Hatbox - A Poetry Break

INTRODUCTION

In my opinion Abraham Lincoln is my favorite president and has been since I was real little. Thus, I could not resist creating a poetry break for him. Plus, the poem’s subject is fascinating! This would be perfect to read for Lincoln’s birthday (February 12), President’s Day (February 18), a fun session on hats or concrete/shape poems! Make sure you have pictures of the stovepipe hat to show!

POEM

Hatbox

(Abraham Lincoln, 1861-65)

By Susan Katz

... …Abraham Lincoln wore

... …a hat as tall and skinny

.. .…as he was. More than

... …ornament for his head,

... …this president used is

... …hat instead for carrying

... …papers-his letters, bills,

... …or legal documents like

... …will. Messy fragments

... …spilled everywhere, his

... …written scraps tumbling

... …over his hair. Wasn’t it

apt-for thoughts that set the world

ablaze to be store in a stovepipe hat!

EXTENSION

• Share other concrete/shape poems with the children, and have them try out writing their own.
• Share more information about Abraham Lincoln, and have the children share what they like about the president, especially in poetic form!

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Katz, Susan. 2012. The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub: Poems About the Presidents. Illus. by Robert Neubecker. NY, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN: 9780547182216.

EXTRA TIDBIT

Here is the footnote that accompanied this poem:

To avoid losing his papers, Abraham Lincoln stuffed them into his hat. A Story is told that he once bought a new hat and forgot to answer a letter because he’d left it in his old hat. When Lincoln’s actual stovepipe hat was sent to Chicago for an exhibit of Lincoln artifacts in 1997, it was considered so valuable that it arrived no only carefully padded and crated but accompanied by an armed escort.