Edited by John N. Serio
Illustrated by Robert Crockett
Poetry
For ages 9 and up
Sterling, 2005, 978-1-4027-1254-8
For hundreds of years poets have been inspired by the ambiences
and scenes that we experience as the seasons shift from spring to summer,
summer into fall, fall into winter, and thence back to spring again. Thinking
of the seasons summons up memories in us that are touched by colors, sounds,
tastes, and smells. When we think of fall we think of yellow and red leaves, we
smell cold smoky air, and hear feet crunching through fallen leaves. Our mouths
water as we remember the taste of a crunchy apple or the sweet spiciness of
pumpkin pie.
For this
wonderful collection John N. Serio has selected poems that beautifully capture
the flavor of each of the four seasons. For each season there are three haiku,
a poetry form that is “traditionally built around the seasons.” The haiku are
followed by a variety of poems that were written by contemporary poets and
poets that lived long ago.
We begin with
summer, reading about an old dog that is “Much too lazy to rise and run” and
who prefers to spends the hot summer days lying in the sun. Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow gives us a picture of what it is like when there is a summer rain
which gives us much needed relief from “the dust and heat.” His descriptions
remind us that rain can indeed be a beautiful thing. Later in the book we meet
Maggie, Milly, Molly, and May, four little girls who go to the beach to play.
e. e. cummings describes how the girls find all kinds of little treasures on
the beach, some which are wonderful and one which is not.
In the section
dedicated to autumn, we find a poem by Thomas Hood which is, in a manner of
speaking, an ode to November. It is clear straight away that the poet has no
great fondness for this month when there is “No sun – no moon!” and when there
is “No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees” and nothing else that is
cheerful and cheering. Emily Dickinson gives us are far more positive picture
of autumn, telling us about a maple tree with its “gayer scarf” and the field
with its “scarlet gown.”
Like e. e.
cummings, who does not care for November, T.S. Eliot does not seem to like
winter much. He describes a grim, cold, grimy winter in a city where the rain
beats down “On broken blinds and chimney-pots,” and where “grimy scraps” of
“withered leaves” blow about. William Carlos Williams paints a much more attractive
picture of trees, now bare of their leaves, that “stand sleeping in the cold”
as “A liquid moon / moves gently among / the long branches.”
The poems for
spring are all positive, celebrating the beauty of flowers and tree blossoms,
and capturing the lifting feelings of hope and joy that people get in their
hearts when the sun starts to shine and the sky is blue. Emily Dickinson in
particular shows us how happy she is to see March in her poem ‘Dear March, come
in!” It is delightful to see how to talks to March as if the month was a person
who needs to be invited in and to whom she has “so much to tell.”
This is
wonderful collection that readers of all ages will enjoy. The editor has
written introductions for each of the poems, which tell us about the poet and
his or her work. Sometimes the form of the poem is explained or discussed as
well.
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