Poetry and Other Matters
IPoetry, as Mr. Walter de la Mare says, wears well, A poem has something new for us every time we come to it ; and the pOems we read when we are young will, if they are the right ones, stay with and interest us all through our lives. This year there are two books of poetry for children, both of which have excellent store of those poems we get to know in nursery days, forget, and remember with a shock of delight some years later. One is Mr. de la Mare's Tom Tiddler's Ground (Collins, 5s.), whose contents range from nursery rhymes to Shakes-. peare and Robert Louis Stevenson, and which has a brief, compelling introduction. Kenneth Grahame's Cambridge Book of Poetry for Children (Cambridge, Os.) has many of the same poems, and, in this new edition, a better selection of twentieth- century verse : and its woodcuts by Gwen Raverat are simpler and better than the illustrations to Torn Tiddler's Ground. Both admit that they are only introductions to the great world of poetry ; and both, in that capacity, are about
as good as they could be. ,
The verses in Sycamore Square, by Jan Struther (Methuen, 5s.) are not exactly " for " children, northank heaven are they " about " children. But it was not only the grown- ups who followed the Dialling Tones in Punch. Children also
know what is good, and " Jan's " delicate, witty verses have an appeal that is by no means transient, and that is enhanced by E. H. Shepard's graceful illustrations. By contrast,
Curiouser and Curiouser, by Caryl Brahms (Harrap, 6s.) is ",for " children, by a grown-up, and is in this respect, like so many feeble descendants of the A. A. Milne books, regrettable : and the same applies to Young Hopeful, by Jennie Dunbar • (Jenkins, 5s.), and also to the verse chronicle John and Mary and Tommy, by Eleanor McLaren Brown (Oilord, 3s. 64. though this has a pleasant site of sincerity:. In The Chiles Ozim Limerick Book (Archer, 5s.) Mr.- Langford Reed provides 'every kind of limerick, from Zoo(il)logical limericks to ones on Christian names-with an offer to write one specially for any child whose name is not among them.
Kings and Queens, by Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon (Gol. lahcz, Os.) is a grand book. Its verses _make history really .gdod fun '(see particblarli those' on Wiltaril I, James II, and :Edward VII), and Rosalind Thornycroft's, illustrations have caught 'their spirit, and are riotous in colour and movement. Te turn to other matters, there are two good books on toys. Children's Toys of Yesterday (Studio, 7s. 6d.) has photo- graphs of every kind of toy (except, happily, the expensive wonders of our over-mechanised age). The twentieth century rubs shoulders with 400 B.c., and the dolls and. soldiers of every age and country make a delightful pageant' of history through the wrong 'end, of a telescope. The Toymaker, by Helen M. Angus (Oxford, is. 6d.) shows in pleasant diagrams how to make toys not too far removed from the Studio photo- . graphs; and of very simple materials. It is just the book for eight-year-olds on a rainy afternoon. In High Days and Holidays, by Eleanor Graham (Henn, Os.) the author. of Welcome Christmas tells of numerous customs, saints' days, and legends, throughout the year--,-and, incidentally, suggests several new kinds of mischief. Oola-Boola's Wonder Book, by Bruno H. Biirgel (Bell, 6s.) undertakes-to make modern science into fairy-tales ; and, in its rather Teutonic manner it suc- ceeds, though the Doctor's stories. of the diamond,. the diver, and the water-drop will hardly oust the "old-fashioned " Hans Andersen tales which in their best moments they resemble.
Lastly, some old favourites. Ruskin's fairy-tale, The King of the Golden River, with illustrations by Arthur Bockhorn (Harrap, 5s.) is a book to treasure. The Kenneth Grahame Book (Methuen, 7s. 6d.) contains the ever-welcome Golden Age, Dream Days, and The Wind in the Willows. Best of all are the Tales from the Arabian Nights, in a large, handsome book illustrated by Gordon Nicoll (Oxford, lOs. 6d.). This would make an excellent present, and contains some of the best stories in the world.
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