The Everyman Anthology Of Poetry For Children

by Gillian Avery

Gillian Avery, historian of children's books and novelist whose first book THE WARDEN'S NEICE has become a modern classic of children's literature, has made a very personal selection of favourite poems. If children like them as much as she does, then (she says) they will stay in the mind long after their readers have grown out of childhood. Her taste is for the Augustan rather than the Romantic writers, but her choice of over two hundred and fifty pieces ranges widely, from ballads to Ted Hughes, from Ben Jonson to Noel Coward. The illustrations are taken from the books of natural history made by Thomas Bewick, the celebrated English wood engraver.

Genres: Poetry, Childrens, Classics

400 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 1994

About the author

Gillian Elise Avery was a British children's novelist, and a historian of childhood education and children's literature. She won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972 for A Likely Lad. It was adapted for television in 1990.

Reviews

[Aabha Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

An impressively diverse anthology of classic poems. Includes all the greats(Keats, Yates, Shakespeare, Dickinson, Byron, Shelly, Caroll and many others) You might not love every poem in here but you definitely will love some. They are divided into categories like seasons or strange tales or nonsense verse. There’s a handy first line index at the end as well as an index by author. Also includes some medieval hymns and local folk songs from different parts of the world. I found some old favorites and formed some new ones like this one.

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand the last poem more than he knows.

[Marlaine Legault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies are always good to have in your library. They help you discover authors, writers, poets, etc.. A good addition on your bookshelves.

[Thomas Fackler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read some poetry to Elizah every morning to get her going. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I suppose it gets me going as well, but I've usually had a sniff of coffee at that point so my controls are a bit off. It also gives me an idea of how awake I am - based on how much I trip over punctuation and pronunciation.

We are only about 1/3 of the way through and this particular volume has been a superb compilation so far. It has all of the classic stuff in it such as Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare, Stevenson, or whatever you might consider classic in the child's vein.

Today I read Yeats "The Stolen Child". I love it for the ending quatrain of each section....

...we finished the compilation last Friday. The ending chapter is a mish-mosh of poems that sort of dragged on. There were some good ones in there, though nothing that made me jump up and add it to this description.

This was a good compilation over all - mostly British with some works from places Britain colonized. It is worth adding to your collection if you get it for free - otherwise consider buying the collections of individual poets.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great collection of over 250 classic poems. I think it has great value as a reference of good poetry, but I question how many children will be passionate about this book and these poems. Older children will be more interested but younger children will likely be far more interested in Silverstein, Florian, and other modern poets. This anthology groups the poems into several categories: Rhymes and Nonsense; The Year and Its Seasons; Journeys and Places; Spells, Magic and Mystery; Strange Tales; Music and Dancing; Battles, Soldiers, and Patriots; Birds and Beasts; Childhood and Youth; Some People; Love and Lover’s Tales; Last Things. It includes poets such as Eliot, Dickinson, Hardy, Keats, Hughes, Shakespeare, Tennyson, and Wordsworth. Certainly, this is an excellent collection of poems. I doubt that today’s children will be impressed but it would be a good addition to a school library to ensure that these classic works are available when students are ready to read them.

[Suzanne Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been impressed with the whole Everyman series of books. Most of them are of classic books, many with copies of the original illustrations. Beautifully done series of books that are bound nicely but not so nicely that they're overpriced. Young families with children who would read or have these books read to them should be able to afford them.

[Camilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent poetry anthology. More for teens than wee ones.