The Midnight Monster

I had a flash of brilliance when I was trying to distract the kids at dinner the other night. I started reciting "The Raven" (this really does happen sometimes, other times it's "Jabberwocky" but I digress...) and then I decided to let them fill in their own words. It didn't calm them down, it sort of wound them up even more but I think their poem is pretty brilliant. And when else do I have the excuse to explain what "eagerly I wished the morrow" means? They wanted to do more so we also have a version of "The Night Before Christmas" and "How Do I Love Thee" but we'll start with the first one we did for today. The words they added are highlighted, in case it wasn't obvious enough.

Once upon a midnight monster, while I pondered weak and hollered,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten old man-
While I nodded, nearly playing the Wii, suddenly there came a goblin,
As of someone gently touching the goblin, rapping at my chamber door-
"Tis some visitor," I muttered, "rapping at my side-
Only this and me."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak goblin;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the bathroom.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;-vainly I had sought to play the Wii.
From my books surcease of sorrow-sorrow for the lost shoe-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name cuckoo-
Nameless here for evermore.