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GRADED POETRY

THIRD YEAR

EDITED BY

KATHERINE D. BLAKE

GEORGIA ALEXANDER

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INTRODUCTION

Poetry is the chosen language of childhood andyouth. The baby repeats words again and again forthe mere joy of their sound: the melody of nurseryrhymes gives a delight which is quite independentof the meaning of the words. Not until youth approachesmaturity is there an equal pleasure in therounded periods of elegant prose. It is in childhoodtherefore that the young mind should be stored withpoems whose rhythm will be a present delight andwhose beautiful thoughts will not lose their charmin later years.

The selections for the lowest grades are addressedprimarily to the feeling for verbal beauty, the recognitionof which in the mind of the child is fundamentalto the plan of this work. The editors havefelt that the inclusion of critical notes in these littlebooks intended for elementary school children wouldbe not only superfluous, but, in the degree in whichcritical comment drew the child's attention from thetext, subversive of the desired result. Nor are thereany notes on methods. The best way to teach childrento love a poem is to read it inspiringly to them.The French say: "The ear is the pathway to theheart." A poem should be so read that it will singitself in the hearts of the listening children.

In the brief biographies appended to the later booksthe human element has been brought out. An efforthas been made to call attention to the education ofthe poet and his equipment for his life work ratherthan to the literary qualities of his style.

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CONTENTS