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Children’s Poetry Through the Centuries. Children’s Poetry Over the Centuries. Major Shifts. Early anthologies of children’s poetry from the late 19 th -century include serious subjects and few, if any, illustrations.
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Major Shifts • Early anthologies of children’s poetry from the late 19th-century include serious subjects and few, if any, illustrations. • In the early 20th-century, illustrations for new and reprinted anthologies begin to become more common place. • The child as “speaker” is a feature that characterizes 20th-century children’s poetry. • By the 1970s, a new spirit enters children’s poetry: namely, the speaker becomes insolent, fed-up, and obsessed with bodily functions.
Major Shifts, 2 • Authors who began to create more believable – though sometimes truly gross – protagonists include Shel Silverstein, Jack Prelutsky, and Karla Kuskin. • This shift has created a rift in the scholarly world, as some critics celebrate the portrayal of rebellious and messy kids, while other critics argue that such poems “dumb down” children’s experience of poetry.
What’s the Difference? Stevenson (1885) CHILD. O Mother, lay your hand on my brow! O mother, mother, where am I now? Why is the room so gaunt and great? Why am I lying awake so late? MOTHER. Fear not at all: the night is still. Nothing is here that means you ill - Nothing but lamps the whole town through, And never a child awake but you.
Silverstein (1974) "I cannot go to school today," Said little Peggy Ann McKay. "I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash and purple bumps. My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I'm going blind in my right eye. My tonsils are as big as rocks, I've counted sixteen chicken pox And there's one more--that's seventeen, And don't you think my face looks green?”
The Pleasures of Poetry • Nodelman’s chapter on poetry focuses mostly on gaining an understanding of meaning in poetry written for children. • Let’s review his techniques:
Key Ways to Enjoy Poetry • Paying Attention to the Words Themselves • Paying Attention to the Patterns Words Make • Rhyme • Shape • Conventional Forms • Paying Attention to the Pictures and Sounds Words Evoke (Imagery) • Paying Attention to the Concept of Voice • Key difference between AUTHOR (Poet) and SPEAKER • Voices of Children
Key Ways to Enjoy Poetry • Paying Attention to Poems that Tell a Story