Poetry for Children

Summer 2005 Poetry for children By a happy conjunction of events, the A long experience of teaching English current issue of IBBYLink, on poetry literature in Higher Education has for children, is being put together dur- taught me that there are many adults, ing the same period as the celebration including those with a passion for liter- of the latest CLPE award for a book of ature, who are afraid of poetry, proba- poetry for children, won for the sec- bly because as children they were made ond year running by Roger McGough. to feel that they lacked the expertise It is good to see an increasing reali- to analyse it properly, or perhaps were sation of the importance of children given a diet comprised too exclusively becoming aware of poetry, for, as pre- of a kind of poetry that did not appeal senters of the award (last year Estelle to them. I always remember a session Morris, Minister for the Arts, this year with a group of teachers who had the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion) have old qualification of the Certificate in observed, poetry is a vital element in Education, who were studying for an in- nourishing the imaginations of young service B.Ed. degree, and taking a mod- children. ule on Literature in the Curriculum. At a session about poetry for children, The whole question of poetry for chil- two spoke, with some passion, about dren can, however, be a contentious their own experiences as school pupils. one. Should they be given – and in The first one stated that she always the past made to commit to memory hated poetry at school because it was – poems originally written for adult all that Keats and Wordsworth kind of readers, or should they have a diet stuff. She only came to enjoy it when specially composed for them, which one teacher gave them some up-to-date may be regarded as inferior to ‘proper poetry about things that meant some- poetry’? Are all subjects relevant to continued on back page young readers, or should children be preserved from poems which do not present a positive attitude towards life? Should young children be given mostly CONTENTS humorous verse, rather than that on 2 A Place for Poetry • Anne Harvey more serious subjects? Does it matter 3 Writing, Publishing and Performing if poetry uses language that is far from Poetry for Children • Richard Tysoe the everyday? How far can what children themselves write be described as 5 Recommended Collections of Poetry for poetry? I can’t claim that this issue of Children • Pam Robson IBBYLink even attempts to answer all 8 The Poetry Library • Miriam Valencia these questions, though the article by 9 The CLPE Poetry Award • Ann Lazim Anne Harvey, a distinguished antholo- 10 CLPE Poetry Award Ceremony 2005 gist, may certainly stir some readers Pat Pinsent to challenge her views about the suit- ability or otherwise of some topics. 11 Reviews Richard Tysoe’s account of his experi- 12 IBBY News • Ann Lazim ence both of writing poetry for chil- 13 Jacqueline Wilson: Children’s Laureate dren and of encouraging children to Pat Pinsent write is likely also to be of interest to 14 Hans Christian Down Under educationalists. Additionally, the lists Patricia Crampton of poetry books, both already in print and newly published, offer resources to 14 Hans Christian at the British Library those who want children to encounter June Hopper more poetry. 16 Other news, events, conferences A Place for Poetry Anne Harvey poetry for Earlier this year, a poet friend sent me POETRY. You would find it less easy to a copy of a general letter that had been meet a child who knew about poets, past sent to poets (and would-be poets) by an and present, who knew something of the editor requesting poems for forthcoming craft and mystery of poetry, or who had anthologies. My friend (who must remain learnt some poems ‘by heart’. children nameless) thought at first that the sug- gestions for subjects were a parody of the There are, of course, good, lasting, typical, cheap, vulgar publications which anthologies for young readers, their con- are invariably all that one finds on the tents well-chosen by discerning editors POETRY shelves of bookshops. From a such as Anne Fine, Roger McGough, wide choice of the editor’s requirements Michael Morpurgo and James Berry. I have picked a few: These do not reach enough children. It is not easy, publishers will say, to sell Skeletons monsters vampires slim volumes of poetry by a single poet, fangs injections unless the slim volume is comic and very devils cannibals nursery rhyme rip-offs contemporary. knickers silly stories sick toe-nails The American Catholic Library lavatories dog-poo Association has, for its motto, words writ- cowpats nose-hairs dandruff… ten by Walter de la Mare in 1942: ‘…only the rarest kind of best in anything can be I think that’s enough, and you know as good enough for the young’. I think of well as I do that many children enjoy these words whenever I see examples of these topics and are pretty good at mak- shoddy writing, especially in poetry. ing their own rude and nasty verses. As Flanders and Swann once sang in a skit I want children to be stirred and moved on ‘kids’: ‘Mum’s out…Dad’s out…let’s and delighted by words, to discover, talk rude… PEE…PO…BELLY…BUM… as Edward Thomas wrote in his poem DRAWERS…’ ‘Words’, that words can be ‘tough as oak’, ‘precious as gold, as poppies and corn’. I The question is, do children need adults want children to find out that the follow- to provide such writing for them, or ing writers were right when they said… might adults be expected to introduce them to ideas that stretch their minds Poetry gives room to think and dream… and imaginations? (John Betjeman) I am not naive enough to suggest that If a line of Poetry strays into my mem- we feed to-day’s young on a diet of ory it sends shivers down my spine… Wordsworth, Tennyson, Masefield, de la (A.E.Housman) Mare – although I have introduced those four to junior school classes on ‘poetry The poet is something much more excit- ing and interesting than a conjuror: he is iBBYLink days’ and received lively, intelligent not trying to entertain by means of illu- The British IBBY response. My own grand-daughter, on sion or tricks, but to discover for himself Newsletter hearing Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely and he hopes for others, some truth about Summer 2005 as a cloud’ was convinced that the poet must have been inspired by his own sur- experience and the world he lives in… (Elizabeth Jennings) Pat Pinsent name. What I am suggesting is that chil- Editor dren deserve as much quality in poetry The real work of a writer is to enrich a as Jamie Oliver has determined they get in food. child’s heritage of words… not diminish it… Kathleen Fedouloff (Rumer Godden) Design & Layout I don’t think it is an over-generalisation to suggest that today ‘Creative Writing’ To sponsor a future issue of has taken over in schools from ‘Poetry IBBYLink, Appreciation’. You would be hard put please contact Pat Pinsent to find a child of junior school age who [email protected] has not written a poem, illustrated it, and had it displayed on a board headed Writing, Publishing and Performing Poetry for Children poetry Richard Tysoe for I began writing poems when I was in seems still to be travelling round the primary school. I know that the Rupert world. However, my other poems found no children Bear cartoons in the newspaper were doorway to the wider world, until in 1991 part of the initial inspiration. When I I decided to publish the poems myself, was only five, I found the rhyming cou- with my own illustrations. The first edition plets beneath each picture a faster way to of The Watercycle Ride was without colour, read the story than ploughing through knocked out a hundred at a time through all the text. I was critical even then of the local printers. I got on my old bicycle the occasionally strained use of English and visited just about every school around. to make the rhymes work, but took note Teachers loved it, and I was soon employed that the same story could be told in dif- in poetry workshops in schools. I offered ferent ways. But writing poetry myself? I to tie in with whatever topics classes might remember my uncle’s scathing reaction I be pursuing with appropriate poetry; this was seven or eight, when I told him I had gave me some challenging themes to write written a poem. He took down a large upon: space, music, ghosts and ancient tome from a bookshelf, and showed me Greeks were some of the tougher tasks. I formidable pages of small-print, columns soon had the material for a second book, with never a picture between. He did not but this time it had to be a smarter book sit down with me to read the book aloud, with colour in the cover, that I could offer but jabbed a finger on the opened page: for sale through bookshops ‘Poetry, eh? That’s poetry!’ I was somehow guided to ProPrint, of I was not put off from trying; I just did Peterborough, who specialised in help- not show any further works to Uncle Bill. ing struggling poets to produce their My mother and my big sister were much work.

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