When I was in the UK this spring, I found a delightful poetry anthology called I Like This Poem: A collection of poems chosen by children for children in aid of The International Year of the Child. The book was published in 1979 as a fundraiser and was unique insofar as the poems had been selected and recommended by children from ages 6-15. The anthology is divided into age categories, so a parent or children themselves, can select the section appropriate to their age or the age of their child. As to be expected, I had differing experiences reading the poems to my twelve year old son and my eight year old daughter.
One of the nice details in this anthology is the inclusion of a child’s comment on why s/he liked the particular poem. I found with reading the poetry to my son — some of it difficult to grasp or opaque to him — that it helped to have another child’s comment on why the poem was liked or meaningful. Indeed, it also helped me as a reader better experience the poem as well! My son preferred funny poems, but I was struck by several comments by readers about how the ‘beauty’ in the poems moved them.
With my daughter, I had an entirely different reading experience. My daughter responded best to poems that played with sounds. Midway through our readings, she got it into her head that she would like to act out the poems. A particular favorite was “On the Ning Nang Nong” by Spike Milligan. A playful-with-words kind of poem, it goes like this:
On the Ning Nang Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
And the Monkeys all say Boo!
There’s a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the tea pots Jibber Jabber Joo.
Watching my daughter happily ‘booing’ like a monkey and ‘bonging’ like a cow, I felt she was experiencing poetry at its most exuberant and celebratory best.
This week’s Poetry Friday host is Kate Coombs at Book Aunt.