The Faber Book Of Children's Verse

by Janet Adam Smith (Editor)

Book by Compiled by Janet Adam Smith

Genres: Poetry

412 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

Reviews

[Elizabeth Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of beautiful poetry that I wish I had memorized a long time ago. Also, a few I never really cared for. A must read for poetry lovers.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first "real" poetry anthology I ever owned, and I still have it. The editor never condescends to young readers: you'll find a couple of T.S. Eliot's cat poems in this collection, but you'll also find his "Journey of the Magi." Lewis Carroll and Robert Louis Stevenson are represented, but so are Edgar Allan Poe, William Blake, Edith Sitwell, Byron, Ezra Pound, and any number of other poets who didn't write specifically for children. I was given this collection at age 8, and read most of the poems in it over and over, even the ones I didn't really understand. It was here that I first encountered Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," Shelley's "Ozymandias," and Yeats' "The Song of Wandering Aengus." I wish this book were still in print (I haven't looked at the New Faber Book of Children's Verse yet; hopefully it's just as good) so I could shove it into the hands of every child I meet.

[Carlos Llanos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it, but my daughter would politely disagree with Smith's assertion that is good reading for little girls.

It gives you an overview of many different styles of poetry and could be a "gateway drug" for the genre.