First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by Batsford 10 Southcombe Street London W14 0RA An imprint of Anova Books Ltd This book is based on The Poetry of Childhood (Batsford, 1981) Volume copyright Š Batsford 2014 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored ina retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. ISBN: 9781849941334 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Repro by Mission Productions, Hong Kong Printed by 1010 Printing International Ltd, China This book can be ordered direct from the publisher at the website: www.anovabooks.com, or try your local bookshop.
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Contents Infant Joy William Blake The Baby’s Dance Ann Taylor Things like Ourselves Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher Child Crying Anthony Thwaite Characteristics of a Child Three Years Old William Wordsworth On a Child Beginning to Talk Thomas Bastard Four Years Old – A Nursery Song Leigh Hunt On Children Frances Cornford Child and Mother William Cowper A Child Ill John Betjeman Frost at Midnight Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Barefoot Boy John Greenleaf Whittier Catrin Gillian Clarke The Land of Counterpane Robert Louis Stevenson I Remember, I Remember Thomas Hood Infant Sorrow William Blake Children, Children John Wain A Cradle Song William Blake Children’s Song R.S. Thomas in Just— e.e. Cummings The Child on the Cliffs Edward Thomas Seven Yere of Age Anonymous At the Sea-side Robert Louis Stevenson The Poet at ten years old William Wordsworth A Child said, What is the grass? Walt Whitman
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06 07 08 09 11 12 13 15 16 19 20 24 28 30 31 33 34 36 37 38 40 41 43 44 45
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At the Zoo William Makepeace Thackeray Fairground W.H. Auden Ballroom Dancing Class Phyllis McGinley Of the Boy and his Top John Hookham Frere There Was a Child Went Forth Walt Whitman The Children’s Hour Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dirty Jim Jane Taylor My Parents Kept Me from Children who were Rough Stephen Spender In my Two Small Fists Adrian Mitchell My Lost Youth Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Schoolboy William Blake A Medieval Schoolboy’s Complaint Anonymous from: On a Distant Prospect of Eton College Thomas Gray A Fight at School Alexander Smith from: Upon the Disobedient Child John Bunyan At School Alexander Smith There Was a Boy William Wordsworth American Boy Randall Jarrell Floreat Etona Winthrop Mackworth Praed
51 52 55 58 62
67 68 70 76 80 82 85 87 88 89 90 93
Index to Poets Picture Credits Acknowledgements
95 96 96
63 66
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Infant Joy ‘I have no name; I am but two days old.’ What shall I call thee? ‘I happy am, Joy is my name.’ Sweet joy befall thee! Pretty joy! Sweet joy, but two days old. Sweet Joy I call thee: Thou dost smile, I sing the while; Sweet joy befall thee!
William Blake (1757–1827)
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The Baby’s Dance Dance, little baby, dance up high, Never mind baby, mother is by; Crow and caper, caper and crow, There little baby, there you go: Up to the ceiling, down to the ground, Backwards and forwards, round and round. Then dance, little baby, and mother shall sing, With the merry gay coral, ding, ding, a-ding, ding.
Ann Taylor (1782–1866)
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At the Zoo First I saw the white bear, then I saw the black; Then I saw the camel with a hump upon his back; Then I saw the grey wolf, with mutton in his maw; Then I saw the wombat waddle in the straw; Then I saw the elephant a-waving of his trunk; Then I saw the monkeys—mercy, how unpleasantly they smelt!
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863)
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In My Two Small Fists in that bright blue summer I used to gather daisies for my father speedwell for my mother with buttercups and prickly heather cowrie shells and a seagull’s feather treasures in each fist all squashed together daisies for my father speedwell for my mother (that’s how I see it but I don’t know if it really happened sixty years ago but my memories shine and their light seems true and so do the daisies and speedwell too)
Adrian Mitchell (1932–2008)
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