The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems
Compiled and illustrated by Jackie Morris
Introduced by Carol Ann Duffy
Reviewed by Ilene Goldman
Lacking familiarity with poetry, many parents avoid reading it to their children. Lucky for me, my mother did. In the summer, she lulled me to sleep with Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson:
In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
She quoted Ogden Nash and when I was ill, like Christopher Robin, I had the “sneezles and wheezles.”
Jackie Morris has collected the poets and poems of my childhood, as well as many, many more in The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems. She includes the works of the finest poets of the English language, from the most recognized to the more obscure. These poems trace life’s journey, beginning with Kathleen Raine’s Spell of Creation and ending with Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s The Poet’s Song. Morris includes those poets we might expect in a “children’s” book (Nash, Lewis Carroll, Stevenson) and many unexpected delights (Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Siegried Sassoon). The variety makes for a rich, exciting collection.
At times, the editor’s choices speak eloquently to each other as when Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s How do I love thee? sings to William Shakespeare’s comparison of his love to a summer’s day (Sonnet 18). Several meditations on animals cause us to contemplate the life of the captive (Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Panther); the extraordinariness of the ordinary (Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Birds, Marianne Moore’s The Fish and G.K.Chesterton’s The Donkey); and the delight of the imaginary (Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky). Other poems delve into the nature of creativity itself.
Morris’s illustrations deserve special note—simply put, they are glorious. Her watercolor images complement the poems, matching the lyricism and the fantasy, the profundity and the glee. To see such art paired with poetry should inspire readers of any age.
A singular complaint: Morris doesn't include any background information about the poets, an oversight considering how this lovely anthology invites discovery, by adults and children alike.
Complaint aside, I think The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems may quickly surpass your favorite poetry anthology. As Emily Dickinson’s A Book declares on the frontispiece;
There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
Rating: *\*\*\*\
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