ISBN: 978-4231-0805-4
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| Cover image from www.npr.org |
Kennedy divides the poems into categories based on themes. This particular collection contains: poems about self and identify, family, friendship and love, mythical creatures, nonsensical, school, sports and games, war, and nature. Each section has a brief introduction by Kennedy that offers her thoughts on the particular theme, as well as a few details about some of the poems in the section. Kennedy also includes a short "Extra Credit" section that has four longer poems, such as "Paul Revere's Ride" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee." The book also has helpful access features: a table of contents, an index of the poets, and an index of the first lines.
The poems display a wide variety of figurative language, but the ones that jump out the most are metaphor, simile, and personification. Gary Soto's "Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes" parallels Pablo's day with those of his beloved (and well-worn) tennis shoes. Soto (2013) describes Pablo drifting off to sleep, while his shoes rest with their "tongues hanging / Out, exhausted" (25). Katherine Pyle's "The Toys Talk of the World" will resonate with fans of Toy Story, as the read about a group of objects wistfully wonder what the outside world must be like. Ogden Nash's "The Tale of Custard the Dragon" skillfully employs figurative language to describe the cast of characters in this longer poem about Belinda and her black kitten Ink, gray mouse Blink, yellow dog Mustard, and the cowardly dragon Custard. Nash (2013) describes them as being "brave as a tiger" or "brave as a barrel-full of bears," while Custard has a "mouth like a fireplace" (95). What truly makes this poem a delight to read is the description of Custard, who is covered in spikes and scales, but desperately "cries for a nice safe cage" (97). Some of the poems offer a play on words, like William Cole's "Foolish Questions" and Richard Wilbur's "Some Words Inside of Words." Cole's "Foolish Questions" takes on the silliness and confusion of the English language and some of its homonyms. Cole asks, "Where can a man buy a cap for his knee? / Or a key for the lock of his hair? / And can his eyes be called a school? / I would think -- there are pupils there!" (86). It would make a wonderful poem to introduce English Language Learners to the baffling world of homonyms and homophones. In "Some Words Inside of Words," Wilbur manages to find words inside longer words and somehow associate them with the parent word. For example he says, "In a flower bed, the ranks of bright-faced plants / Look like a choir that's singing hymns... / We find an anthem in chrysanthemum" (94).
Kennedy has chosen poems that do have a lot of rhythm. In "Disobedience" by A. A. Milne (2013), the rhythm is created by the repetition of specific words and phrases, such as, "James James / Morrison Morrison / Weatherly George Dupree" (38). It sounds as if the reader is hopping up and down on their toes. It's also helped by the syllabic structure of the line "Weatherly George Dupree" with the multi-syllabic Weatherly, followed by the staccato George, and then the elongated sounds of Dupree that make it sound as if the reader's voice is doing hopscotch (Milne 2013, 38). "Someone" by Walter de la Mare contains a series of short words that mimics the sounds of someone knocking on the door, as the poem is about someone knocking on an elf's tiny door. Alfred, Lord Tennyson's (2013) famous "Charge of the Light Brigade" repeats the phrases "Cannon to the right of them, / Cannon to the left of them, / Cannon in front of them / Volly'd and thunder'd" (143). It conjures up an image of young men surrounded by cannon fire, and the repeated use of "cannon" reinforces the idea that they were indeed surrounded. One of the best uses of a poetic structure's rhythm is in Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool." Brooks places the first line of the next statement on the same line as the previous statement. It allows the reader to pause, to draw attention to the "we," before moving on to the activities performed by this group.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. WeThe stanza breaks demarcate the growing intensity of the young men's activities. Giving the reader the ability (and permission!) to pause, lets the progression from leaving school to participating in potentially violent activities to their inevitable death sink into the audience. Perhaps being cool isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Die soon. (Brooks 2013, 119).
Some of the poems have an definitive rhyme structure, as seen in "Song of the Ogres" by W. H. Auden. In this poem, Auden employs a rhyme scheme of AABCCB for each stanza, which lends it a slightly heroic air, if you could imagine a Broadway style male chorus singing it. Just try saying the last stanza aloud:
Always hopeful, aren't you? Don't be."Under the Bed" by Penny Trzunka (2013), where every other line rhymes, often draws attention to the unexpected turn the poem takes when the bemused narrator says the monster, "taps me on the shoulder / I don't know what to do. / He looks at me and says, 'I'm scared! / Can I get in with you?" (78). Jeff Moss employs rhymed couplets in "If Little Red Riding Hood..." that helps tie the two lines together. This starts with the very first lines: "If Little Red Riding Hood had a dad, / Perhaps things wouldn't have turned out so bad" (Moss 2013, 43).
Night is falling and it won't be
Long now:
You will never see the dawn,
You will wish you'd not been born,
And how! (Auden 2013, 82)
Kennedy also did an excellent job curating poems that examine topics students will study in school. "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall should become a regular addition to a school's African-American History Month program. It places an human face on the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and gives the event an emotional context, instead of an event on a timeline. William Blake's "Poison Tree" would be great to use with a group of students learning anger management techniques to introduce healthy and responsible ways to express their anger. It can also be used in a psychology class to open a discussion about suppressed anger. Janet S. Wong's wonderfully descriptive "Liberty" would be a great means to introduce the concept of a pluralistic government in a civics class. "Shiloh" by Herman Melville talks about the aftermath of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, which makes it an excellent source to use in a US History class about to begin a unit on the Civil War.
Kennedy also pairs several poems together well. "Brother" by Mary Ann Doberman and "Brother and Sister" by Lewis Carroll perfectly illustrate the concept of sibling rivalry. Elizabeth Bishop's "Manners" partners excellently with and excerpt from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's A Drama of Exile as they both deal with how we reap the benefits of kindness and manners. The playful "Under the Bed" and "What's That?" by Florence Parry Heide both deal with the fear young children might feel when contemplating the monsters under their bed.
Several poems are eminently relatable to children. Most of them are in the section about school. Kennedy's (2013) introduction mentions the "strain of silent rebellion [that] runs through the genre" (99). Who among us didn't at some point feel a wee bit of passive-aggressive rebellion in a classroom? Jane Yolen's (2013) "Homework" wryly notes, "What is it about homework? / That makes me pick up socks / That stink from days of wear, / Then clean the litter box?" (103). Students of all ages know how it feels to have homework looming over your head, but somehow even the task of cleaning out the cats' litter box is much more appealing. In this day and age of constant high-stakes testing, Janet S. Wong's "Bubble Troubles" accurately describes the anxiety felt by students when they make a mistake on the all-important bubble sheet. Galway Kinnell's "Hide-and-Seek, 1933" delves into the mind of a child who has finally triumphed at hide-and-seek. Robert Louis Stevenson's "Block City" describes the joy felt at building a city of wooden building blocks, and the fleeting joy at knocking it over. Girls will relate to Nikki Giovanni's "The Girls in the Circle" with its depiction of a typical slumber party, with the elaborate makeovers, and nowhere to show them off. Fans of Breaking Bad might also appreciate the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which also happened to be the title of the last episode of the series. They would be able to easily pick up the parallels of the fallen statue of a king to the fallen empire of Walter White.
I would be remiss if I didn't elaborate on Muth's gorgeous artwork. Muth, a 2006 Caldecott honouree for Zen Shorts, deftly illustrates the themes or tones of the poetry. The illustrations range from richly detailed, such as the one that accompanies "The Secret Sits," Hide-and-Seek, 1933," and "Block City," or mere suggestions, like the illustration with "Personal" and "A man said" where the poems are printed on a soft, dusky pink background, with a plain white envelope floating in the mist. The illustration with "Charge of the Light Brigade" covers two whole pages in shades of grey, as if viewing the men on horseback through the fog of smoke from cannon fire. Muth imagines Abraham Lincoln standing at the edge of the battlefield at Gettysburg, gazing out at the cemetery with a single page of paper (presumably containing the Gettysburg Address) in one hand. Muth places Lincoln off to the side, the lower-right of the two-page spread, so he's one of the last thing our eyes hit as they travel across the illustration. The focus of the painting, as is of Lincoln's speech, is of the now-silent battlefield. The illustrations can be a bit literal, representing exactly what's said in the poem, but from time to time, Muth throws in a touch of whimsy, such as the young man, reclining on his elbows, watching a baseball game on television in the middle of a summer meadow. Even so, the color, shading, and obvious craftsmanship that went into the paintings is exquisite. They give the book a slight air of nostalgia for a simpler time, when people did sit on the porch or around the kitchen table, entertaining each other by reciting poetry. Which, when it comes down it, is the purpose of the book.
The book is a really good anthology of poems that can find an audience no matter the age range. There are poems for young children, middle grades, high school, and beyond. It wouldn't be out of place in a school library or classroom library. It is, though, a very traditional anthology. Most of the poems veer away from any whiff of controversy, although many can lead to spirited discussions. I did notice a pattern about halfway through the book. It seemed as if a majority of the poems were written by men. I wondered if I was seeing things that weren't there, because at first glance it felt as if there were plenty of poems written by women. So I decided to count. Out of eighty-nine poets, sixty-six of them are men. Out of those sixty-six, a whopping fifty are basically Caucasian men. I have to say this really disappointed me. There are many well-regarded female poets and poets of color, especially considering this collection was published in 2013. It was a somewhat disappointing discovery after I had enjoyed the book to that point. I was especially disappointed in the choice to include a translation of a Navajo poem -- "In beauty may I walk" -- written by a Caucasian man when the Abenaki writer Joseph Bruchac has one that is, in my opinion, much more moving and beautiful. Still, in the overall summation of the book, these aren't deal breakers , and the overall quality of the book and the poems in it are quite good.
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Spotlight on...
"Tommy"
I put a seed into the ground
And said, "I'll watch it grow."
I watered it and cared for it
As well as I could know.
One day I walked in my back yard,
And oh, what did I see!
My seed had popped itself right out,
Without consulting me.
-- Gwendolyn Brooks (2013, 160)
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I think all children should experience growing something from a seed. "Tommy" is a great way to introduce younger students to growing plants, vegetables, or flowers. After sharing the poem with the students, they can choose whether to grow a flower or herb (parsley, sage, rosemary, or thyme among others), plant the seeds, then observe the seed sprouting. In the meanwhile, they can keep a record of the experience, and then write a poem about it. They can write a poem about the seedling or how it felt to grow something.
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Works Cited
Kennedy, Caroline, ed. 2013. Poems to Learn by Heart. Illustrated by Jon J. Muth. New York: Disney Hyperion.
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