ENG38-A.

Name: Ellaine Rose S. Aguilar. Date: March 30, 2022

Year: II-BSED(ENG)

Development of Poetry for Children and their Poem Makers

(15 Poets and their one sample Poems)

I. Dr. Isaac Watts published his DIVINE and MORAL SONGS for CHILDREN in 1715. These songs while of
religious in nature had, nevertheless, a very real appeal to children. A few of the poems are still included
in juvenile books of today, the best of which is "A Cradle Hymn".

"A Cradle Hymn"

By Dr. Isaac Watts

HUSH! my dear, lie still and slumber,

Holy angels guard thy bed!

Heavenly blessigs without number

Gently falling on thy head.

Sleep, my babe; thy food and raiment,

House and home, thy friends provide;

All without thy care or payment:

All thy wants are well supplied.

How much better thou'rt attended

Than the Son of God could be,

When from heaven He descended

And became a child like thee!

 Soft and easy is thy cradle:

Coarse and hard thy Saviour lay,

When His birthplace was a stable

And His softest bed was hay.

Blessèd babe! what glorious features—

Spotless fair, divinely bright!

Must He dwell with brutal creatures?

How could angels bear the sight?

Was there nothing but a manger

Cursèd sinners could afford

To receive the heavenly stranger?

Did they thus affront their Lord?

Soft, my child: I did not chide thee,

Though my song might sound too hard;

'Tis thy mother sits beside thee,

And her arms shall be thy guard.

Yet to read the shameful story

How the Jews abused their King,

How they served the Lord of Glory,

Makes me angry while I sing.

See the kinder shepherds round Him,

Telling wonders from the sky!

Where they sought Him, there they found Him,

With His Virgin mother by.

See the lovely babe a-dressing;

Lovely infant, how He smiled!

When He wept, the mother's blessing

Soothed and hush'd the holy child.

Lo, He slumbers in His manger,

Where the hornèd oxen fed:

Peace, my darling; here 's no danger,

Here 's no ox anear thy bed.

'Twas to save thee, child, from dying,

Save my dear from burning flame,

Bitter groans and endless crying,

That thy blest Redeemer came.

May'st thou live to know and fear Him,

Trust and love Him all thy days;

Then go dwell for ever near Him,

See His face, and sing His praise!

2. William Blake (1757-1827) was the first of the important English poets to write poetry for children. To
Blake, Children were not little sinners to be warned and frightened, but were the unspoiled handiwork
of divine love. Blake is noted for his originality of rhythm and stanza pattern and the fitness of his
rhythms to the spirit of his songs. His themes were about nature, the lives of simple people, gay and
laughing children and turned his back on everything artificial and purely formal. His SONGS of
INNOCENCE first printed in 1789, has the first poem entitled "Introduction " shows a gay andlaughing a
child.

"Introduction to the Songs of Innocence Lyrics"

By :William Blake

Piping down the valleys wild

Piping songs of pleasant glee

On a cloud I saw a child.

And he laughing said to me.

Pipe a song about a Lamb;

So I piped with merry chear,

Piper pipe that song again—

So I piped, he wept to hear.

Drop thy pipe thy happy pipe

Sing thy songs of happy chear,

So I sung the same again

While he wept with joy to hear

Piper sit thee down and write

In a book that all may read—

So he vanish'd from my sight.

And I pluck'd a hollow reed.

And I made a rural pen,

And I stain'd the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear.

3. Ann and Jane Taylor (1782-1866)-(1783-1824). Began to write for little children when they were
scarcely more than children themselves. They wrote in such close collaboration throughout their lives
until Jane's death.

The Taylor's were the first poets to write exclusively for children. Their first collection of verses was
published in 1804 with the title.."Original Poems for Infant Minds: By Several Young Persons" which was
in collaboration with a friend, Miss Adelaide O'Keefe. However, Miss O'Keefe had no hand at all in
"Rhymes for the Nursery "published 1806 and in "Hymns for the Infant Minds" published 1808.

Some of their well-known poems are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," I Like Little Pussy," and "Pretty Cow."

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

BY JANE TAYLOR

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveler in the dark

Thanks you for your tiny spark,

How could he see where to go,

If you did not twinkle so?

 In the dark blue sky you keep,

Often through my curtains peep

For you never shut your eye,

Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark

Lights the traveler in the dark,

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

Source: The Golden Book of Poetry (1947)

4. Edward Lear (1812-1888) He was a gifted young English artist who at the age of 19 years old made
colored drawings of birds for the London Zoological Society and later he was employed by the Earl of
Darby to draw pictures of his family.

"The Table and the Chair"

BY EDWARD LEAR

Said the Table to the Chair,

'You can hardly be aware,

'How I suffer from the heat,

'And from chilblains on my feet!

'If we took a little walk,

'We might have a little talk!

'Pray let us take the air!'

Said the Table to the Chair.

II

Said the Chair unto the Table,

'Now you know we are not able!

'How foolishly you talk,

'When you know we cannot walk!'

Said the Table, with a sigh,

'It can do no harm to try,

'I've as many legs as you,

'Why can't we walk on two?'

III

So they both went slowly down,

And walked about the town

With a cheerful bumpy sound,

As they toddled round and round.

And everybody cried,

As they hastened to their side,

'See! the Table and the Chair

'Have come out to take the air!'

IV

But in going down an alley,

To a castle in a valley,

They completely lost their way,

And wandered all the day,

 Till, to see them safely back,

They paid a Ducky-quack,

And a Beetle, and a Mouse,

Who took them to their house.

Then they whispered to each other,

'O delightful little brother!

'What a lovely walk we've taken!

'Let us dine on Beans and Bacon!'

So the Ducky, and the leetle

Browny-Mousy and the Beetle

Dined, and danced upon their heads

Till they toddled to their beds.

5. Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) was a great master of musical language and metrical arts. Her first and
most inspired work "Goblin Market and Other Poems" appeared in 1862 and ten years later she wrote
"Sing Song", a collection of little nursery poems which were pure lyrics and which she dedicated to the
infant son of a close friend, Professor Arthur Cayley of Cambridge. Like Blake, Miss Rossetti used very
few figures of speech in her poems for children. She used simple, direct and childlike sensory images.

"Remember"

By: Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann’d:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

 Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

6. Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835-1894) was one of the earliest American Writers of Verse for Children.
Published "Stories and Poems" (1883) which includes such poems as: "The Sandpiper", "Wild Geese",
"The Sparrows". She was a nature-poet.

"The Sandpiper"

By Celia Laighton Thaxter

Across the lonely beach we flit,

One little sandpiper and I,

And fast I gather, but by bit,

The scattered drift-wood, bleached and dry.

The wild waves reach their hands for it,

The wild wind raves, the tide runs high,

As up and down the beach we flit,

One little sandpiper and I.

Above our heads the sullen clouds

Scud, black and swift, across the sky:

Like silent ghosts in misty shrouds

Stand out the white light-houses high.

 Almost as far as eye can reach

I see the close-reefed vessels fly,

As fast we flit along the beach,

One little sandpiper and I.

I watch him as he skims along,

Uttering his sweet and mournful cry;

He starts not at my fitful song,

Nor flash of fluttering drapery.

He has no thought of any wrong,

He scans me with a fearless eye;

Stanch friends are we, well tried and strong,

The little sandpiper and I.

Comrade, where wilt thou be to-night,

When the loosed storm breaks furiously?

My drift-wood fire will burn so bright!

To what warm shelter canst thou fly?

I do not fear for thee, though wroth

The tempest rushes through the sky;

For are we not God's children both,

Thou, little sandpiper, and I?

7. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) He was considered as the first true "Poet-Laureate" of children.
His book "A Child's Garden of Verses" was not only regarded as classic but represented a standard of
style and quality for all other writers of Children's poetry.

"My Shadow"

in Famous Children Poems

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest things about him is the way he likes to grow-

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

 He stays so close beside me, he's a coward you can see;

I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

8. Laura Elizabeth Richards (1850-1943) was the daughter of Julia Ward Howe, author of the "Battle
Hymn of the Republic", was not only a poet but also a musician. She published several collections of
songs and rhymes as well as stories which contributed exclusively to the St. Nicholas, the leading
magazine for children.

"A Brief Ballad Of Araby"

By Laura Elizabeth Richards

In Araby, in Araby,

In Araby the blest,

There lived a man who thought he'd like

To travel to the west.

On a lumpy humpy camel he

Departed with hs family;

His uncle's name was Sammy Lee,

But I forgot the rest.

From Araby, from Araby,

 From Araby the free,

They amble-ramble-gambolled

Till they came unto the sea.

But the camel could not swim, you know,

It disagreed with him, you know,

He waved his hinder limb, you know,

And yelled ferociously.

To Araby, to Araby,

To Araby the fair,

They turned their faces home again

In anguish and despair.

But the camel, they'd such grief of him,

They wished to find relief of him,

And so they made corned beef of him,

And ate him then and there.

9. Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) Published his first collections poems, "Songs of Childhood" in 1901.
This was followed by "A Child's Day in 1912, "Peacock Pie", his best known collection in 1913, and the
"Down-a Down Derry: A Book of Fairy Poems" published in 1922. Mr. De la Mare displays his greatest
gift in writing about fairies, woodland spirits and other blithe spirits in the realm of fairyland.

"A Song of Enchantment"

By Walter de la Mare

A song of Enchantment I sang me there,

In a green-green wood, by waters fair,

Just as the words came up to me

I sang it under the wild wood tree.

Widdershins turned I, singing it low,

Watching the wild birds come and go;

No cloud in the deep dark blue to be seen

Under the thick-thatched branches green.

 Twilight came: silence came:

The planet of Evening's silver flame;

By darkening paths I wandered through

Thickets trembling with drops of dew.

But the music is lost and the words are gone

Of the song I sang as I sat alone,

Ages and ages have fallen on me -

On the wood and the pool and the elder tree.

10. Rose Fyleman (1877- ) has been affectionately called "Poet of the Fairies". Her first book of poems
for children "Fairies and Chimneys" was published in 1918. The 3 other volumes of verses followed: "The
Fairy Green, The Fairy Flute, Fairies and friends". Unlike Walter de la Mare's fairies, Miss Fyleman's
fairies were believable because they mixed openly in the affairs of Modern Life, urban as well as country
life. They performed activities of real people such as going marketing, riding on a bus or singing.

"Have You Watched The Fairies?"

By Rose Fyleman

HAVE you watched the fairies when the rain is done

Spreading out their little wings to dry them in the

sun?

I have, I have ! Isn't it fun ?

Have you heard the fairies all among the limes

 Singing little fairy tunes to little fairy rhymes?

I have, I have, lots and lots of times !

Have you seen the fairies dancing in the air,

And dashing off behind the stars to tidy up their

hair ?

I have, I have; I've been there!

11. Allan Alexander Milne (1882-1956) is known more familiarly as A. A. Milne. He published his first
book of poems in 1924 under the title when we "When We Were Very Young". His second collection
"Now We Are Six" came out in 1927. Milne, a very competent writer of light verses manufactured many
"funny" words to increase rhythmic effects as in his "The Three Foxes".

Now We Are Six

in Famous Children Poems

When I was One,

I had just begun.

When I was Two,

I was nearly new.

When I was Three

I was hardly me.

When I was Four,

I was not much more.

When I was Five,

 I was just alive.

But now I am Six,

I'm as clever as clever,

So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

12. Rachel Field (1884-1942) has been most successful in this genre and her collections contained
numerous poems about people and objects belonging to their immediate environment such as "The
Flower-Cart Man," "Taxis", "Skyscrapers", "The Cuckoo Shop" and many others. Rachel Field had three
books of poems for children- "The Pointed People", "A Little Book of Days," "Taxis and Toadstools".

"The Pointed People"

by Rachel Field

I don't know who they are,

But when it's shadow time

In woods where the trees crowd close,

With bristly branches crossed,

From their secret hiding places

I have seen the Pointed People

Gliding through brush and bracken.

Maybe a peaked cap

Pricking out through the leaves,

 Or a tiny pointed ear

Up-cocked, all brown and furry,

From ferns and berry brambles,

Or a pointed hoof's sharp print

Deep in the tufted moss,

And once a pointed face

That peered between the cedars,

Blinking bright eyes at me

And shaking with silent laughter.

13. Dorothy Aldis (1897-). Her verses are popular with the younger children because they appeal to their
interests, their activities and observations. Her 4 books of verses are: "Everything and Anything", "Here,
There and Everywhere," "Hop, Skip and Jump", and "Before Things Happen"-have been published in one
volume "All Together".

"The Dragon Fly"

By Dorothy Aldis

A dragon fly upon my knee

Is sitting looking up at me.

He has a scarlet tail and six

Little legs like jointed sticks.

With two of them he rubs his head.

His eyes are brown, his mouth is red,

 His wings are colored like the rain:

He lifts them, and flies off again.

14. Elizabeth Maddox Roberts (1886-1941) published "Under the Tree", which attracted attention
because of the unique quality of the poems. Among her poems were "The Rabbit", "The Hens", "The
Woodpecker", and "Milking Time".

The Rabbit

by Elizabeth Madox Roberts

When they said the time to hide was mine,

I hid back under a thick grape vine.

And while I was still for the time to pass,

A litle gray thing came out of the grass.

He hopped his way through the melon bed

And sat down close by a cabbage head.

He sat down close where I could see,

And his big still eyes looked hard at me,

 His big eyes bursting out of the rim,

And I looked back very hard at him.

15. Dorothy Walter Baruch (1899- ). Is one of the Modern poets for children who has made use of her
knowledge of Child Psychology in her books like "Parents and Children go to School". In her verses for
children, she used free verse in the Child's own manner of speaking. Some favorites are the "Merry-Go-
Round" and "I Like Automobiles".

"Automobile Mechanics"

by Dorothy Walter Baruch

Sometimes

I help my dad

Work on our automobile.

We unscrew

The radiator cap

And we let some water run —

Swish — from a hose

Into the tank.

And then we open up the hood

And feed in oil

From a can with a long spout.

And then we take a lot of rags

And clean all about.

We clean the top

And the doors

And the fenders and the wheels

And the windows and floors. . . .

We work hard

My dad

And I.