Birthday verses and report verses hearken back to indications given by Rudolf Steiner at a faculty meeting in 1921, where he said, “At the bottom of each report, write a verse for each child that expresses the child’s individuality, that can act as a leitmotif for the future.”
See Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner
Heinz Müller worked with Rudolf Steiner to bring this indication to fruition. In Healing Forces in the Word and its Rhythms he describes how to use imagery, wording, sound and meter to enhance the power of the verse.
I was inspired by what Heinz Müller described, but so daunted by the challenge that I almost gave up on the idea. I couldn’t imagine writing dozens of verses in addition to reports, crafting each one so carefully that it would give the child a sense that she was truly known.
It wasn’t clear to me whether Report Verses were meant to be read or heard just when the report was received, or whether the child would recite or hear that verse more often. I could imagine it becoming part of the child’s bedtime routine, perhaps accompanying an evening prayer. Such repetition would strengthen the power of the verse.
I didn’t know, however, whether parents would follow through, whether children had a bedtime routine, and if so, whether saying or hearing a verse would fit into that routine. So I decided to give each child the verse on his or her birthday, although I also included it in the report; so that years later, a child would encounter the verse again.
This would accomplish several goals: It would spread out the task throughout the year, making it more manageable to compose many verses, and it would make the celebration of the child’s birthday more special.
RECITING THE VERSES
I also decided that because the power of a verse is intensified by repetition, students would recite their birthday verses on the day of the week they were born. They would do this throughout the school year until the next birthday, when they would receive a new verse.
And I hoped that the impact of the verse would be magnified by having the other children witness the recitation and unconsciously perceive how the verse reflected the soul of the child.
I imagined that first graders would be easily capable of learning their verses and reciting them alone, but the child who had the first birthday of the year – a shy girl – needed me to recite the verse with her for a few weeks. After the fourth time, the rest of the class chimed in and said the verse too.
By the end of the year, each day of the week had its special character enhanced by the class reciting the verses of the children born on that day. This continued until the third grade birthdays. When I presented the birthday verse, I announced that this year the child would be reciting her verse on her own.
We therefore slowly transitioned to a process where each child had a special moment in the week when she would say the verse alone while everyone else listened.
With my second class, students wanted to recite the verse with the birthday child long after third grade, so I didn’t insist on individual recitation. Some children announced that they wanted to say their verse alone; others continued to want the class to say the verse with them for years.
Another practice that began with my second class was that when a child was absent, we all stood up and recited the verse in her honor. That brought the absent child more fully into the class’s consciousness.
A BOOK OF BIRTHDAY VERSES
A BOOK OF BIRTHDAY VERSES
One further detail: In order to make the birthday verses more special for the student and the class, I created illustrated versions which were compiled in a ´Birthday Book´.
First and second graders loved to look through the Birthday Book, and several of them learned to read by reviewing verses that they already knew by heart.
It should not surprise you that even in sixth, seventh and eighth grade, students like to leaf through the Birthday Book and recall the verses they and their classmates recited over the years. And a packet of collected personal verses is a meaningful present when the child graduates or leaves the school.
COMPOSING BIRTHDAY VERSES
After trying to apply Heinz Müller’s suggestions of how to work with all the elements of poetry to make verses more potent, I realized that I didn’t have the understanding or the skill to do so. Instead, I confined myself to finding an image or a parable that mirrored or expressed the child and would offer soul sustenance for her journey.
Composing a birthday verse that is ‘true’ requires that we reflect and meditate on our students and allow sufficient time for inspiration to come. Over the years I found that if I began to seek for an image that would speak to the student, I was likely to find it.
The process of composition also benefited from extra time, because words, phrases and rhymes had a way of suggesting themselves, often when least expected.
EXAMPLES
On one occasion, I had been agonizing over a somewhat self-centered first grader’s verse for several weeks, seeking an image that would awaken greater compassion for her classmates. One afternoon while driving, I suddenly heard her verse echoing in my soul. I pulled over and wrote down the following words:
The seeds of compassion lie buried
deep in the human soul;
In the light of love they flourish and grow
into deeds of grace untold.
Another time I had been agonizing for weeks to write a verse for a child with significant developmental challenges, but who was the light of our class. A few days before his birthday, I woke up with this verse resounding within me:
The Light of the World
came down to earth
To shine for all mankind;
I carry that light
within myself,
In my will, in my heart,
and my mind.
Over the years, a few verses came readily to me, but most didn’t. As I became more experienced with the process of composing them, I realized that I needed to trust that a verse would come; I just had to give it time.
Although it was frustrating to wait for the verse to ripen, I consoled myself with the knowledge that my reflection and meditation on the child would reap benefits for the child and for me. And though I was sometimes dissatisfied with the final result, I knew that the child on whose behalf I was working would benefit from my striving to offer something of value.
THE CHALLENGE
Many teachers think that they do not have the talent or skill to write verses for their students. Or they may think that since they didn’t start the tradition in first grade, it’s too late to start later.
Both are not true. One can start working with birthday verses any year – though sixth, seventh and eighth grade students are more responsive to poems and prose passages by other authors. And every teacher is capable of creating a heartfelt message for her students.
I strongly encourage you to try. You may be surprised by what you are able to create, and you will definitely be gratified by the students’ responses. And in those desperate moments when you don’t feel up to the task, you can take solace in Ben Johnson’s maxim: “What is written without effort is read without pleasure.”
Although birthday verses composed by a teacher may have special meaning for her students, verses from any source can be equally meaningful and effective. Heinz Müller includes examples in his book, and Heather Thomas’s A Journey Through Time in Verse and Rhyme has many verses.
I have also included many examples for emulation, adaptation, or to be used as written in an appendix in Home Surroundings the Waldorf Way
Composing Your Own Verses – A Primer
Although I don’t consider myself an expert in composing birthday verses, I certainly have had plenty of experience and have done my share of agonizing. I will therefore try to describe how I approached this challenge in the hope that it will support your creative process.
In my opinion, the most important aspect of the birthday verse is the central image. This image should express who the child is, or is becoming. When children receive a verse with the right image, they feel seen and known and are reassured that we understand and love them.
Lest you think that we can only find images through some mysterious esoteric process, let me reassure you that images are all around us. We just have to begin to pay attention in a different way.
Every natural phenomenon can speak to us and reveal its message, if we but look and listen with our soul. The same type of images that we use for nature stories, pedagogical stories, or parables, can serve in birthday verses.
FINDING IMAGES AND WORDS
Here is an example of a situation that I wanted to address:
A child’s family was going through a divorce, and she was deeply unsettled. When I looked for an image, I thought of a ship helplessly tossing in a tempest. The image of the storm-tossed ship led me to think of the ship’s anchor. This child needed to be reassured that she was well anchored.
With these thoughts in mind, I sketched out my idea: A ship that is being tossed about by the blasts of a storm needs an anchor to hold it. What anchors us in our lives? Our relationships with one another.
I tried to express the image poetically and arrived at a statement of the image: “Firm the anchor holds the ship.” Then I asked myself, what does the anchor do? It keeps the ship secure, stopping it from drifting away. I tried synonyms and came up with ‘sure’ and ‘fast’.
The first part of the verse was now “Firm the anchor holds the ship and keeps it sure and fast.”
Then I tried to express the correspondence between relationships and anchor. I cast about for the best word for relationships and decided to try ‘bonds’. This matches the idea of an anchor on a chain. The expression “So the bonds that link us all” came to mind, and I held it as a possibility while trying out various possibilities for the last line.
The necessity of rhyme often works magically to help us find the right words. To rhyme with ‘fast’ I chose ‘blast’ to express the storms of life. Now I had a final challenge: to express what the bonds that link us all allow us to do with respects to the storms of life.
After trying several expressions, I settled on the verb ‘to weather’, pleased with its double reference to the storm, and to making it through the storm safely. The second part of the verse now became “So the bonds that link us all will weather every blast.”
I agonized whether to use ‘will’ or ‘can’. Will had the advantage of alliteration, but this child was a melancholic; and if the verse was too affirmative, it might not ring true to her. So I settled on ‘can’, which leaves a little doubt. I hoped that the reassurance of the verse would come from repetition.
The final version read:
Firm the anchor holds the ship
and keeps it sure and fast;
So the bonds that link us all
can weather every blast.
In eighth grade, when we reviewed our years together as a class and discussed the experience of reciting and hearing birthday verses, the child for whom this was written told us that this verse sustained her through the years. And she predicted that she would never forget it.
PICTURING INTENTIONS
Birthday verses can also express hopes or aspirations. The process of finding an image for such verses is identical to the one described above. Once you have found the image, you need to articulate the hope or intention that the image inspires. This step benefits from making a prose statement first.
For instance, I decided that a good image for a timid girl was the moon which starts off as a crescent and gradually gains brightness. The hope to be expressed was: I will try to be brave enough to show the world who I am.
After some poetic wrestling, I came up with this verse:
The crescent moon so meek and mild
prefers to hide her face;
But when she waxes full and bright
she shines with strength and grace.
O may I too be brave enough
to shine with all my might;
And like the lovely silver moon
fill all the dark with light.
If my process of composing verses does not reflect yours, I would not be surprised. Each of us has a different way to tread the path of creation. Whatever your process, be patient with yourself and take joy in your efforts. Any verse you create will be received by your students with gratitude and will nurture their souls.
Roberto Trostli has been active in Waldorf education since 1981 as class teacher, high school teacher, adult educator, author, and lecturer. He received his BA from Columbia University and his MA from the University of Cambridge, England.
After working as a violin-maker, Roberto taught for 10 years at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, which he attended as a child. Then he moved to Hadley, Massachusetts, where he worked for 18 years, first as a class teacher from grades 1 to 8, then as the founder and director of the Hartsbrook High School.
In 2009, Roberto resumed class teaching at Richmond Waldorf School, Virginia. He co-directed the part-time teacher training in Sunbridge College, New York, and served as Director of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education. He was a member of the Pedagogical Section Council for 10 years and helped with the re-structuring of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America. He has also written numerous articles, plays and books.
Comments are welcome, so don’t hesitate to share experiences, questions and feedback below.
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Thank you so much for your verses and your written words Mr Trostli, they are water for the soul and nurture our hearts. Encourage to Trust (as your second name) in our way…Blessings to your heart and life 🙏🏻💖