ANALYSES AND APPRAISALS OF
THE GREATEST ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
POETS FOR CHILDREN

FOR USE IN NORMAL SCHOOLS, LIBRARY
SCHOOLS, AND HOMES

Jon

WORLD BOOK COMPANY

THE HOUSE OF APPLIED KNOWLEDGE

Established 1905 by Caspar W. Hodgson
YONKERS-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK
2126 PRAIRIE AVENUE, CHICAGO

There is need for what poetry can give,
-the breadth of vision, the enrichment of
the memory, the sweep of the imagination,
the sympathetic understanding of nature
and of our fellow creatures, and a taste
for poetry must be acquired in childhood.
Yet the company of those who have writ-
ten poetry acceptable to children is indeed
small. The roll of these poets is made up
by no convention of critics, no committee
of professors of literature. The names in-
scribed thereon are chosen by the children
themselves, and it is Time that collects
and records the votes. It is surely profit-
able, then, for every one who is concerned
with children's reading to consider atten-
tively the work of the writers who have
been acclaimed as preeminently the chil-
dren's poets. The author and the pub-
lishers trust that parents, teachers, and
librarians will welcome The Children's
Poets as a book that in its discussion of
important though intangible values "Ap-
plies the World's Knowledge to the
World's Needs"

BCP-1

Copyright 1924 by World Book Company

Copyright in Great Britain

All rights reserved

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

TO PHYLLIS PHYLL

MY WIFE

PREFACE

The Children's Poets is an attempt to analyze the qualities and to appraise the contributions of the most important of the children's poets, and, so far as the author knows, is the first book in this field. It may be that children's poetry has been thought not to be worth study or not to require study. But in this age, when we are attempting to utilize to the full the emotional and artistic elements in literature, and especially in poetry, for the education of children, we cannot afford to overlook the great value in a knowledge and appreciation of the body of children's poetry. Children's poets differ among themselves quite as much as poets for adults: some are of the first class, others of the fourth or fifth class; some rank high in one department, low in others; some possess certain qualities and emphasize certain aspects of life; and all are deserving of study, especially by those who train and educate children.

A word as to the subject matter of this book. I have discussed in full those who seem to me to be the most important and significant poets who have written for children, and have grouped in the Bibliography brief analyses of those who may be termed the minor poets. Some of the poets discussed briefly may be finer poets than some of those discussed at length. But to give an idea of the range and diversity of children's poetry, particular attention was devoted to those who seemed more representative, more typical, those who enlarged the field of children's poetry or introduced new notes.

In order that the book may be of greater service as a compendium of poetry for children and may present a sufficient amount of illustrative material, a group of additional poems is appended to most of the chapters. For some of the poets considered, however, copyright restrictions have made it impossible to present more than a very limited number of poems.

The Children's Poets is really a series of essays, each essay dealing with one author, in a single instance, with two authors who seem to belong together. Each chapter is therefore a separate unit, yet an integral part of a cycle, to be studied separately and in any order, yet to be reread in the light of the other chapters. This