The verse offered in that book was drawn from
nursery rhymes and from a few of the great masters of poetical form; the
prose was furnished by a selection of proverbs, some of the simplest
folk stories, and two passages, closing the book, from the Old and New
Testaments.
The pupil, upon laying down his _Primer and Reader_ and proposing to
enter the promised land of literature, could find a volume of prose
consisting of _Fables and Folk Stories_, into the pleasures of which he
had already been initiated; but until now he could find no volume of
poetry especially prepared for him which should fulfill the promise of
the verse offered to him in his _Primer and Reader_. Be it remembered
that he was not so much to read verse written expressly for him, as to
overhear the great poets when they sang so simply, so directly, and yet
with so penetrating a note that the burden of their song, full, it may
be, to the child's elders, would have an awakening power for the child
himself. As so often said, a child can receive and delight in a poem
through the ear long before he is able to attain the same pleasure
through the eye; and there are many poems in such a book, for example,
as Miss Agnes Repplier's _A Book of Famous Verse_, wholly delightful for
a child to listen to which yet it would be impossible for him to read to
himself.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25