CHILDREN'S CHOICE OF POEMS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 407, 16 January 1909, Page 9

CHILDREN'S CHOICE OF POEMS.

The 'supply- of anthologies (say s an English exchange) is becoming, prodigious, and now we have one selected.'for children by.cliildrem Miv Henry Frowde" has just published ; "The Tripled Crown," which is made up of English, Scotch,- and Irish' pieces "for the age of six to and arranged by "three of ; that .age." We' should like to know whether .they include, a veritable critic of ■ six,. or ..anything . near it, and whether be bad fair play on Selection Board. Was, be . outvoted on the question of including "Sing,a Song .o':'Sixpence,"'or made'to see by peaceful -persuasion, that the; "Ode to the West Wind" was.really,;a.better thing?. As it is, this ;anthology, : looks , remarkably like others; and these ybuiig people, we suspect, have not strayed." far from a good" library stocked, perhaps, with good anthologies. Perhaps they have even heard their elders talk, but this kind; of difficulty, stands in the way of any sincere expression of preferences, and the collection does, them credit anyhow. . It is a relief to come upon two or-:three. lon'gj ish poems by William Aytoun, and to . reflect that, he is not so. very good; our old friend, Mrs. Hemans,:is permitted a. modest-share; and we are reassured by. the occasional irruption of rhetoric and sentiment, which are capital in their place.' Theso young compilers, however, have chosen many first-rats things, and wo want to know what kind of chance , has., induced the choice, from all Keats's pooms, of the "Ode to Autumn," whether the selection of Mr. VeS'ts's poem was'unanimous, and whether "The Pied Piper" was rejected as an unworthy concession to a. wrong conception "of childish tastes. It is good to induce an early love for poetry, and if the quest be stimulated by some element, of; sport : there. c'aii_ bo no great harm in that. A keen, aspiring .set of ' young people might make . lists of their twenty favourite poems or books each Christmas, and the 'discards and. substitutions' would denote" the course of a liberal education. '