A Child's Anthology of Poetry

A Child's Anthology of Poetry. Edited by Elizabeth Hauge Sword. HarperCollins 1995. 323 pages. $19.37

Children’s poetry books usually fall into one of two categories: either they are filled with poems that so are juvenile and silly that they lack real meaning, or they contain poems that are so complex that young people are unable to appreciate them.  Editor Elizabeth Hauge Sword’s A Child’s Anthology of Poetry strikes the perfect balance between these two extremes. The beauty of this book is that it speaks to children, without talking down to them. Filled to the brim with the work of such “serious” poets as Maya Angelou, William Blake, Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson, to name only a few, the poems are so well-chosen that readers of all ages will find much to enjoy here.  Of course, the book also includes the work of authors who write specifically for children, household names like Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky, among others. 

The poems in this collection range far and wide, from the humorous doggerel of Ogden Nash’s “Experiment Degustatory,” to the somber “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” of Dylan Thomas, to the nonsense verse of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” to Poe’s classic narrative of horror, “The Raven,” there truly is something here for everyone. 

The collection also includes a wide range of poetic forms and styles to inspire the young poet.  Here you will find the haiku of Basho, the narrative poetry of Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman” or Longfellow’s “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, the experimental forms of E.E. Cummings, and the deceptive simplicity of William Carlos Williams.  In essence, this book exposes young readers and writers to the entire world of possibilities that exists within the genre of poetry, and it is a collection that they will never outgrow.