Children's poetry

Children's poetry is poetry written for, appropriate for, or enjoyed by children.

Children's poetry is one of the oldest art forms, rooted in early oral tradition, folk poetry, and nursery rhymes. Children have always enjoyed both works of poetry written for children and works of poetry intended for adults. In the Western world, as people's conception of childhood changed, children's poetry shifted from being a teaching tool to a form of entertainment.

The first glimpse of children being shaped by poetry was noted by The Opies, renowned anthologists and literary historians. They saw that before the mid-eighteenth century there wasn't much written for children aside from encouraging phrases. Ballads of the 18th century launched the modern genre of children's poetry.

Today, many poets (such as Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein, and Jack Prelutsky) are primarily known for their work aimed at children; many poets who primarily write for adults (such as Ogden Nash and Robert Frost) are also known for beloved children's poetry.

History

Early children's poetry

Poetry is universal throughout the world's oral traditions as songs and folklore passed down to younger generations.Ntuli, Cynthia Danisile Daphne (20 December 2013). "Children's oral poetry: A reflection on the role of Imilolozelo (lullabies) as Art Performance in Zulu". Muziki. 10 (sup1): 13–23. doi:10.1080/18125980.2013.852739. ISSN 1812-5980. S2CID 192177851. Retrieved 10 August 2021. The oldest works of children's poetry, such as Zulu imilolozelo, are part of cultural oral traditions.

In China, the Tang dynasty became known as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry with the invention of the movable type."The Evolution of Children's Stories". www.mykabook.com. Retrieved 10 August 2021. Some poets chose to write poems specifically for children, often to teach moral lessons. Many poems from that era, like "Toiling Farmers", are still taught to children today.

In Europe, written poetry was uncommon before the invention of the printing press.Adcock, Joshua. "Publishing Shakespeare: A History of the Printing Press". Most children's poetry was still passed down through the oral tradition. However, some wealthy children were able to access handmade lesson books written in rhyme.

With the invention of the printing press, European literature exploded. The earliest printed poetry for children is nearly all educational in nature. In the fifteenth century and sixteenth century, courtesy books aimed at children sought to teach them good manners and appropriate behavior. Les Contenances de la Table, published in 1487, is a French example; The Babee's Boke and Queen Elizabethe's Academy are both English examples, printed in the 1500s.

The first children's book printed in the New World was John Cotton's Milk for Babes, Drawn out of the Breasts of Both Testaments, Chiefly for the Spiritual Nourishment of Boston Babes in either England, but may be of like use for any children.Cotton, John, BD; Royster, Paul (1646). Milk for Babes. Drawn Out of the Breasts of Both Testaments. Chiefly, for the Spirituall Nourishment of Chiefly, for the Spirituall Nourishment of BostonBoston Babes in Either Babes in Either EnglandEngland: But May Be of Like Use for Any Children (1646) : But May Be of Like Use for Any Children. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved 10 August 2021. Published in 1646, it was a child's Puritan catechism. While the first edition was not in verse, later editions were rewritten into the earliest American children's poetry.

Another notable work of early children's poetry is John Bunyan's A Book for Boys and Girls, first published in 1686, and later abridged and re-published as Divine Emblems. It consists of short poems about common, everyday subjects, each in rhyme, with a Christian moral.

Eighteenth century

In the eighteenth century, a separate genre of children's literature, including poetry, began to emerge.

As before, many works of children's poetry were written to teach children moral virtues. Isaac Watts' Divine Songs are an example of this concept. They were reprinted for a 150 years, in six or seven hundred editions. In fact, they were so popular that Lewis Carroll parodied them two hundred years later in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.Murdoch, Lydia. "Alice and the Question of Victorian Childhood - Archives & Special Collections Library - Vassar College". specialcollections.vassar.edu. Retrieved 10 August 2021. JR Townshend argues that Isaac Watts was the first true poet for children.

For the first time since the invention of the printing press, children's poetry was being written to entertain. Nursery rhymes became popular for children in the mid-eighteenth century. The first published book of children's nursery rhymes was likely Tommy Thumb's Song Book, published in 1744 by a woman named Mrs. Cooper. Most of the nursery rhymes contained in the Song Book are familiar to modern audiences, and were most likely passed through the oral tradition before being written down.

In the late eighteenth century, John Newbery, the first publisher of English children's books, began to publish children's poetry. He first published the Mother Goose rhymes in the 1760s and then A Little Pretty Pocket-Book a few years later.

Nineteenth century

In the nineteenth century, children's poets continued to write for children's entertainment. Ann Taylor and Jane Taylor wrote several books of children's poetry that contained poems such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "My Mother". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature claims that their poems are 'proverbial'.

Cautionary tales like Miss Turner's Cautionary Stories became popular around this time, and were reprinted well into the twentieth century. These 'cautionary tales' follow the pattern of the Divine Songs and Courtesy Books of past centuries- they are short verses about children who do something terrible and face the consequences.Turner, Elizabeth (1897). Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories. London: Grant Richards. Retrieved 24 August 2021. They became enough of a cultural staple to be parodied by writers such as Hilaire Belloc and Edward Gorey.Glen, Emil. "Hilaire Belloc and Edward Gorey; Cautionary Tales for Children: Goreyography West Wing". www.goreyography.com. Retrieved 24 August 2021.

Other moralist authors, like Charles and Mary Lamb, wanted to educate more than preach. Their best-known work for children, Tales from Shakespeare, attempted to simplify and censor the works of William Shakespeare to be suitable for young minds. Critics praised the clarity of the writing, but even at the time, argued that it might be too complicated for children to understand.

Also during this time, society started seeing childhood as a different state from adulthood, an innocent state that should be focused on gentle education and play. One of the most significant works from the early nineteenth century was William Roscoe's 1807 The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast. Despite a mixed reception from critics, its significance cannot be understated, and all modern picture books owe something to its influence.

Other stories-in-verse followed, including A Visit From Saint Nicholas (better known as 'Twas the Night before Christmas) and Robert Browning's The Pied Piper of Hamelin. These works, written by 'respectable' members of society, proved that public opinion was changing. Children's literature was as likely to be fanciful as it was moralizing. Around this time, the Brothers Grimm began collecting folklore. Romantic ideals of nationalism and aestheticism suddenly gave fairy tales a new significance. Many nineteenth century authors began to write new fairy tales, some in prose and some in verse.

This new cultural acceptance of romanticism and lack of meaning in children's literature led to the creation of a new genre of children's poetry: nonsense verse, whimsical poetry that focuses more on sound than sense. Although nonsense verse existed for most of human history, it was rare to see original nonsense verse in print until the 1800s.

One of the first modern poets to write nonsense verse was Edward Lear - his limericks focus on absurd, whimsical situations, and his later poetry revels in made-up words and ridiculous concepts. Lear's most notable poems include The Jumblies, The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, and The Pobble Who Has No Toes.

Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, also is well known for writing nonsense verse. His parodies of famous children's poetry, such as How Doth the Little Crocodile, shine an amusing light on Victorian children's moral lessons.Firtich, Nikolai. "WORLDBACKWARDS: Lewis Carroll, Nonsense and Russian Avant-Garde - Archives & Special Collections Library - Vassar College". www.vassar.edu. Retrieved 27 August 2021.

At the turn of the century, Rudyard Kipling wrote a number of notable poems for children.Karlin, Daniel (23 December 2015). "Kipling and the origins of the 'Just-So' stories". OUPblog. Retrieved 27 August 2021. Most of them are contained in the Jungle Book or in the Just So Stories, an anthology of stories that Kipling wrote for his daughter Effie.

Twentieth century

Children's poetry continued to diversify and expand through the twentieth century, adopting new forms and new methods of expression."Poetry for Children." The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. Edited by Daniel Hahn. Oxford University Press, Inc., Oxford, UK, 2015

One of the twentieth century's pioneers of picture books was Leonard Leslie Brooke, who wrote picture books about a character named Johnny Crow. Unlike previous illustrated books for children, they were single poems with each line of verse illustrated, rather than a series of poems each with their own illustration.

Children's magazines like St. Nicholas Magazine were also instrumental in the growth of children's poetry during this period. Notable authors like Lucy Maud Montgomery and William Makepeace Thackeray published poetry in these magazines, and many young poets published their first works thanks to the contests the magazine regularly held.Shaw, John McKay (1965). poems, poets & illustrators of St. Nicholas magazine, 1873-1943. Tallahassee: Florida State University, Strozier Library. Retrieved 5 February 2022.

Other notable children's poets of the early 20th century include Eleanor Farjeon, Laura E. Richards, and Walter de la Mare. Richards was described by May Hill Arbuthnot as 'the American Poet Laureate of Nonsense for Children', and started her career writing poetry for St. Nicholas magazine. She published many short, narrative poems in magazines, and her first book, 'Tirra Lirra', in 1932.

In the 1920s, AA Milne emerged as a notable children's poet. While he's best known for his Winnie-The-Pooh series of children's stories, he began writing children's literature with two books of poetry. Milne was a successful playwright and adult poet, and in 1924 he wrote When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six- two poetry books which are still popular among children to this day. Milne's views on writing children's poetry show how, by this time, children's poets approached their work seriously, with the same passion they put into writing for adults:

"The practice of no form of writing demands such a height of technical perfection as the writing of light verse... When We Were Very Young is not the work of a poet becoming playful, nor of a lover of children expressing his love, nor of a prose-writer knocking together a few jingles for the little ones, it is the work of a light-verse writer taking his job seriously even though he is taking it into the nursery."