Heaven on Earth: 101 happy poems
Selected by Wendy Cope
Faber pound;6.99
100 Best Poems for Children Chosen by Children
Edited by Roger McGough. Illustrated by Sheila Moxley
Viking pound;12.99 (hbk)
The Nation’s Favourite Children’s Poems
Foreword by Spike Milligan. Edited and compiled by Alex Warwick
BBC Worldwide pound;9.99
As Siegfried Sassoon movingly tells us in “Everyone Sang”, “the singing will never be done”. There is a lot of singing in Wendy Cope’s uplifting anthology, which is guaranteed to leave a smile on the face. From the wonderful cover image of what looks like a Fifties sepia photograph of three children literally jumping for joy at the seaside, to the glorious cornucopia of poetry assembled, Cope savours and celebrates the good things in life: love, of course; babies and children; nature; weather; faith; freedom. Quiet moments of pleasure such as simply feeling alive and in good health or enjoying the satisfaction of work well done are not ignored.
Cope gives us Keats and Wordsworth, as well as contemporary voices such as Langston Hughes, Kathleen Raine and Sheenagh Pugh. Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Dappled Things” are there with Andrew Marvell’s “Garden”, while Norman MacCaig ruminates on good whisky and Robert Burns welcomes his “love-begotten” illegitimate daughter.
100 Best Poems for Children is edited by Roger McGough, who never puts a foot wrong in writing and collecting poetry for children.nbsp; This selection is based on the choices of teachers and children from 135 schools all over Britain who replied to a questionnaire organised by the publisher. Consequently a delightful mix of old favourites sits side by side with newer work from the likes of Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephaniah, Allan Ahlberg and Grace Nichols. This is a handsome volume, attractively but discreetly illustrated in full colour by Sheila Moxley.
The Nation’s Favourite Children’s Poems is less child-friendly in appearance, but it’s a well-priced hardback with line illustrations by Josephine Sumnet, part of a BBC series (including The Nation’s Favourite Poems of Childhood ). The selection (99 poems this time) is not to be confused with the National Poetry Day BBC poll of the same name although the winner of this year’s poll, “The Owl and the Pussycat”, is illustrated on the jacket.
- Morag Styles is a reader in children’s literature at Homerton College, Cambridge
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