The post of Poet Laureate has existed in Britain since the 1600s and has included a number of household names. Whilst glancing through the list of previous holders of the honour, however, there were (to me at least) some unknown figures. Famous, or perhaps infamous, for supposedly being the least talented and least read of […]
Hearing the news that Julia Donaldson (writer of The Gruffalo and other hugely popular books for children) had been awarded a CBE in the 2018/19 New Year’s Honours list reminded me of the important place that rhyming tales (narrative poetry) have had in literature and society for perhaps thousands of years. The ballad-like Gruffalo is […]
The Golden Treasury has been hailed as one of the most popular books of poetry ever to be published. First appearing in 1861, this was an anthology of what you might call the “grand masters” of poetry in English, compiled by Francis Turner Palgrave, and it is still in print to this day. The 2011 […]
I decided to have a quick look into published poets who were children, as opposed to those writing for children. It turns out that some of these were writing a very long time ago. Incidentally, this is going to be more of a “fact meal” than a “fact bite”, and I have only researched four writers! […]
Free verse is a form of poetry which usually does not rhyme and, instead of having a fixed pattern of syllables or stressed beats in the lines, more closely follows the rhythms of natural speech. In the later nineteenth century, a group of French poets established the “Vers libre” movement, from which the English term […]
Enid Blyton is best known for her classic adventure stories. I have only recently discovered that she also published poetry for children. For this knowledge I am indebted to The Lady magazine’s 11th August 2017 issue which included a feature on Enid Blyton, informing us that her first published book was poetry. Child Whispers came out […]
The book at the top of the pile in this image of three books is an edition of Original Poems for Infant Minds. This early book of verses for children (my copy dates from 1823) was by the sisters Jane and Ann Taylor and was originally published in 1804. You probably haven’t heard of Jane […]
I thought it would be interesting to find out the world’s shortest poem, but it turns out to be a matter of extensive debate! One candidate includes “Me/Whee!” or “Me/We” reputedly spoken by the legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali, but this was not actually published as a poem as far as I know. Another contender was […]
One of the first English books of children’s rhymes to be known about is called A Little Book for Little Children. It was published more than 300 years ago, in the reign of Queen Anne and the author is only known by the initials T.W. The title page begins, “Wherein are set down, in a […]
