And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller’s head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.Rudyard Kipling is better known as a novelist, but some of the poems in Puck of Pook’s
Hill (1906) and Rewards and Fairies (1910), such as ‘If’ are part of our culture, although
it is worth remembering that the stalwart principles of character enumerated in that
poem are directed only at boys! The children’s song from Puck, is better-known as a hymn.
Father in heaven who lovest all,
Oh, help thy children when they call;
That they may build from age to age,
An undefiléd heritage.After the First World War, light verse became popular. Rose Fyleman (1877– 1957),
whose many fairy books include Fairies and Chimneys (1918) is, surprisingly, still
anthologised, although her verse is cloyingly sweet. A much better poet is Eleanor
Farjeon (1881–1965) whose first collection, Nursery Rhymes of London Town, appeared
in 1916. The Children’s Bells (1957), contains her personal selection gleaned from the
many books of verse she wrote for the young, and Anne Harvey recently collected some
of her lesser known poems in Something I Remember (1987).
Nearly forty years after A Child’s Garden of Verses, A.A.Milne (1882–1956) published
When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927). There is no doubt that
Milne’s depiction of childhood is full of delight for many children. There is also, at worst,
arch, adult knowingness and sentimentality. If the impetus for Stevenson’s poetry was
capturing moments of his childhood, rendered as faithfully as it is possible for an adult
to do, Milne’s came from a different source. As his son, Christopher Milne put it:
Some people are good with children. Others are not. It is a gift. You either have it or
you don’t. My father didn’t—not with children, that is... My father was a creative
writer and so it was precisely because he was not able to play with his small son
that his longings sought and found satisfaction in another direction. He wrote about
him instead... My father’s most deeply felt emotion was nostalgia for his own happy
childhood.
Milne 1974:36What cannot be denied is that Milne has stood the test of time because the poetry is
good. Years of writing for the magazine Punch trained a facility for well-crafted verse
which Milne combined winningly with well-observed concerns of childhood. Ironically,
Milne regarded himself as largely a writer for adults, so did T.S.Eliot, who produced one
whimsical book for children Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939).
Outstanding among more recent poets have been James Reeves (1909–1978), with
collections such as The Wandering Moon (1950) and The Blackbird in the Lilac (1952); his
198 POETRY FOR CHILDREN