Porridge Poetry

by Hugh Lofting, Christopher Lofting

A collection of 38 imaginative, mysterious, bizarre and down right silly poems illustrated in fully color with some of Hugh Lofting's finest artwork. In this volume the Porridge Poet fires the imagination, enticing you to wonder why Mr. Beers is digging a tunnel down to China, and what the Chinese think of that? What other adventures the Pirate of the Kitchen Sink might have besides terrorizing innocent cups and saucers? And just what tales is the Palm Family whispering about at the edge of an African Lagoon? A Foreword by Christopher Lofting, The Man Who Spoke to Animals, offers an insider's view of Hugh Lofting's idiosyncrasies and tidbits about the author's personal ties to the delightful characters that emerged from his imagination.

48 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Hugh Lofting was a British author, trained as a civil engineer, who created the character of Doctor Dolittle — one of the classics of children's literature.

Lofting was born in Maidenhead, England, to English and Irish parents. His early education was at Mount St Mary's College in Sheffield, after which he went to the United States, completing a degree in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He traveled widely as a civil engineer before enlisting in the Irish Guards to serve in World War I. Not wishing to write to his children of the brutality of the war, he wrote imaginative letters that were the foundation of the successful Doctor Dolittle novels for children. Seriously wounded in the war, he moved with his family to Connecticut in the United States. Lofting was married three times and had three children, one of whom, his son Christopher, is the executor of his literary estate.

"For years it was a constant source of shock to me to find my writings amongst 'juveniles,'" Lofting reported. "It does not bother me any more now, but I still feel there should be a category of 'seniles' to offset the epithet."

Doctor Dolittle
Hugh Lofting's doctor from Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who could speak to animals first saw light in the author's illustrated letters to children, written from the trenches during World War I when actual news, he later said, was either too horrible or too dull. The stories are set in early Victorian England, (in and around the 1840s, according to a date given in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle). The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (1920) began the series and won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.The sequel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922), won Lofting the prestigious Newbery Medal. Eight more books followed, and after Lofting's death two more volumes, composed of short unpublished pieces, appeared. The series has been adapted for film and television many times, for stage twice, and for radio.
Other Works for Children
The Story of Mrs Tubbs (1923) and Tommy, Tilly, and Mrs. Tubbs (1936) are picture books aimed at a younger audience than the Doctor Dolittle books. They concern the titular old woman, her pets (with whom she can speak) and the animals who help her out of trouble.

Porridge Poetry (1924) is the only non-Dolittle work by Lofting still in print. It is a lighthearted, colorfully illustrated book of poems for children.

Noisy Nora (1929) is a cautionary tale about a girl who is a noisy eater. The book is printed as if hand-written, and the many illustrations often merge with the text.

The Twilight of Magic (1930) is aimed at older readers. It is set in an age when magic is dying and science is beginning. This work is the only one of Lofting's books to be illustrated by another person (Lois Lenski).
Victory for the Slain
Victory for the Slain (1942) is Lofting's only work for adults, a single long poem in seven parts about the futility of war; the refrain "In war the only victors are the slain" permeates the poem. It was published only in the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Rhys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very silly poetry with irresistable rhythms, accompanied by pleasant drawings. My favourite poem in this slim collection runs as follows:

'Twas in the tropic latitudes
that we were talking platitudes,
just sailor-like chit-chatitudes,
as any ship-mates might.
We forgot to take our longitude
(which was a grievous wrongitude)
so we didn't reach Hong-kongitude
till very late that night.

Yes, this is certainly the kind of poetry I like best.

[Terry]

See our review of this collection of whimsical poems on the Reading Tub.