Customer Reviews

The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children (Everyman's Library Children's Classics)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Editor Gillian Avery says in the introduction that this is a book of poems that "the owner will not outgrow." Thus these are poems that hold as much value for adults as for the young. (Some other book has in its title "for the young of all ages;" I like that concept!) This is a wonderful mix of verse both serious and fun, divided into sections: Rhymes and Nonsense, The Year and its Seasons, Journeys and Places, Spells Magic and Mystery, Strange Tales, Music and Dancing, Battles Soldiers and Patroits, Birds and Beasts, Childhood and Youth, Some People, Love and Lovers' Tales, Last Things. A fine volume.

For anyone who loves poems. For children and adults alike. I think there are many poems in this book which are a bit too complex for children but that's ok. There's an incredible variety of poems which should appeal to everyone. I purchased this book to read to my four year old. Some of them she enjoys very much, others not so. But as she grows up I'm hoping this is one of the books she returns to every now and then like the poem books I still have from my infancy.

I love poetry, I'm a huge fan of the Everyman's Series, and the prospect of an Everyman's book of poetry for children may have set my expectations too high. Another reviewer notes that some of the poems may be difficult for children, and I second that. Few rhyme. Now, whatever your stance on rhymes and poetry, I think most folks who know children will agree that rhyming is key. To a child, it's what makes a poem a poem. And for the most part, these poems don't rhyme, and are sure to baffle the young, would-be poetry fan. Aside from that, the majority were written more than a century ago, and the wordage is awkward to a young modern child's ears.
A children's poetry anthology can be many things, but a young reader ought to be able to hole up in a corner somewhere and read, understand, follow, be delighted and tickled now and then, and generally come to realize that hey--I like poetry! This book won't pull that off.

It seems to me the primary basis for inclusion in this anthology was that the work was in the public domain. The most frequently represented author is "Anonymous," with works like "The Merry Bells of London" ("Gay go up and gay go down / To ring the bells of London Town. / Bull's eyes and targets, / Say the bells of St Marg'ret's. / Brickbats and tiles, / Say the bells of St. Giles." And so forth.) Many works are excerpts: An eight-line song from a Renaissance masque ["Oberon"] by Ben Jonson, or the "Spring" song from Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost."

Now, let's take "Spring," for example. The song starts: "When daisies pied and violets blue / And lady-smocks all silver-white / And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue / Do paint the meadows with delight, / The cuckoo then, on every tree, / Mocks married men; for thus sings he, / Cuckoo; / Cuckoo, cuckoo: / O word of fear, / Unpleasing to a married ear." I don't really know how a child is going to make sense of this; I'm guessing that even a large number of adults might miss the fact that "cuckoo" is "unpleasing to a married ear" because it sounds like the word "cuckold." But without that information--and this anthology seldom provides such information--then you can't really appreciate the poem. The irony is that the editor probably figured that what makes the poem appropriate for children is that it has the word "cuckoo" in it, playful and musical, but it's exactly that word and its--for children--obscure connection to the seldom-used word "cuckold" that will make it incomprehensible to them. Can an adult read it aloud to a child in a way that highlights the musicality of language, even if the full meaning remains out of reach? Sure. But wouldn't it be a better way to foster an appreciation of poetry if you picked poems that highlighted the sound of language while ALSO having a meaning that's accessible to children?

I mean, they have Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" in here. Wonderful poem, obviously, but I don't see the point in reading it until you're at least 14 or 15 years old (unless you're extraordinarily precocious). When I think of poetry for children, I think of poetry targeted to kids between the ages of 7 and 12 or 13. Yes, as the five-star reviewers say, there are a few poems here that fit the bill, but they are truly few. If you're interested in getting your young children interested in poetry, I would start with one of the Shel Silverstein anthologies instead.

My daughter is almost eight and reads well, but I am hard pressed to find anything in this anthology that she will enjoy or comprehend. I have a five year old son and an almost three year old daughter to whom the entire contents are useless. The thing is, they are children, and this is supposed to be "for children." I am finding many (though not all) of the poems I memorized for high school in here (Ozymandias, Because I Could not Stop for Death, The Road Not Taken, O Captain! My Captain! etc.) and none of the ones I loved as an elementary school student (The Secret, My Shadow, Who Has Seen the Wind, Wynken Byinken and Nod, Paul Revere's Ride, etc.). Even as an anthology for older children, just on quick perusal, I can say for certain that there are many great poets completely left out- E.B. Browning, Bryant, Emerson, Longfellow, Millay, Poe, Sandburg, and Whittier (none of the Fireside Poets- which is likely deliberate, but unfortunate), just to name a few. Definitely skip this one.