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Over the River and Through the Wood: An Anthology of Nineteenth-Century American Children's Poetry
Over the River and Through the Wood is the first and only collection of its kind, offering readers an unequaled view of the quality and diversity of nineteenth-century American children's poetry. Most American poets wrote for children—from famous names such as Ralph Waldo Emerson to less familiar figures like Christina Moody, an African American author who published her first book at sixteen. In its excellence, relevance, and abundance, much of this work rivals or surpasses poetry written for adults, yet it has languished—inaccessible and unread—in old periodicals, gift books, and primers. This groundbreaking anthology remedies that loss, presenting material that is both critical to the tradition of American poetry and also a delight to read.
Complemented by period illustrations, this definitive collection includes work by poets from all geographical regions, as well as rarely seen poems by immigrant and ethnic writers and by children themselves. Karen L. Kilcup and Angela Sorby have combed the archives to present an extensive selection of rediscoveries along with traditional favorites. By turns playful, contemplative, humorous, and subversive, these poems appeal to modern sensibilities while giving scholars a revised picture of the nineteenth-century literary landscape.
Complemented by period illustrations, this definitive collection includes work by poets from all geographical regions, as well as rarely seen poems by immigrant and ethnic writers and by children themselves. Karen L. Kilcup and Angela Sorby have combed the archives to present an extensive selection of rediscoveries along with traditional favorites. By turns playful, contemplative, humorous, and subversive, these poems appeal to modern sensibilities while giving scholars a revised picture of the nineteenth-century literary landscape.
592 pages, Hardcover
First published December 13, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 7, 2021
I'd like to own a copy of this, so I can mark it up.
Some favorites toward the beginning of the anthology:
- "Tree Feelings" by Gilman
I wonder if they like it - being trees? (...) How long their roots are, and the earth how leal!
- "Maple Leaves" by Henry De Wolfe, Jr.
While the splendor of their color hides the tokens of decay / Still the cold is waxing stronger, / Days are shorter, nights are longer, / While the nipping breezes chill what the frost has failed to kill, / And the voices of the summer sound no more on plain or hill. / Now the maple leaves decayed / Fall and fade, / And the parent tree dismayed / Writhes and tosses, while the whirlwind, from its icy cave set free, / Shouts around the naked branches in demonic jubilee.
- "The Pine Lady" by Richard Le Gallienne [nice and creepy!]
O come and hear the Pine Lady / Up in the haunted wood!
- "Plant a Tree" by Lucy Larcom
- "Daisies" by Frank Dempster Sherman [sweet! stars are daisies, mom is maiden picking them]
- "Iris Flowers" by Mary McNeil Fenollosa
[Mother] pointed out the rows o 'flowers'; - /I saw no planted things,/ But white and purple butterflies / Tied down with silken strings.
- "The Mushroom's Soliloquy" by Hannah Flagg Gould
...What was I yesterday? and What will be, / Perchance, tomorrow, seen or heard of me? / Poor, lone, unfriended, ignorant, forlorn, / To bear the new, full glory of the morn./ (...) Untaught of my beginning or my end, / I know not whence I spring or where I tend: / Yet I will wait, and trust (...)
- "The Petrified Fern" by Mary L. Bolles Branch [:-)]
In a valley, centuries ago,/ Grew a little fern-leaf, green and slender...
- "What the Lichens Sang" by Tacie Townsend Purvis
I heard the lichens singing / One cold and frosty morn; / (..) If it were always summer / And the land were filled with flowers / What eye would mark the lichens / That bloom in wintry hours?
-"Secrets" by Jennie G. Clarke
What is the secret the pine-trees know / That keeps them whispering soft and low?
-"Four Winds" by Margaret Sangster
The wind o' the West / I love it best / The wind o' the East / I love the least / The wind o' the South / Has sweet in its mouth. / The wind o' the North / Sends great storms forth.
- "Out in the Snow" by Louise Chandler Moulton
They saw the snow, when they rose in the morning, / Glittering ghost of the vanished night
-"Daddy Longlegs" by Anne L. Huber
A big old daddy longlegs / creeping on the wall, / I wish that he would go away, / I don't like him at all. / I know he will not hurt me, / But I don't want him here, / So get you gone, old daddy, / And don't come again so near.
-"An Old Cats Confessions" by Christopher P. Cranch
For cats that have good constitutions / Have eight more lives than a man; / Which proves we are better than humans / To my mind, if anything can
-"Catching the Cat" by Margaret Vandegrift
This story has a moral - / It is very short you see; / So no one, of course, will skip it, / For fear of offending me. / It is well to be courageous, / And valiant, and all that, / But - if you are mice - you'd better think twice, / Before you catch the cat.
-"The Little Man of Michigan" by Agnes Lee [would be fun to know/recite by heart]
-limerick from 'St. Nicholas' by Isabel Francis Bellows
There once was an Ichthyosaurus, / Who lived when the earth was all porous, / But he fainted with shame / When he first heard his name, / And departed a long time before us.
-"Hurry and Worry" by CCS
Hurry and Worry were two busy men; / They worked at the desk till the clock struck ten. / They gained high station, power, and wealth, / And lost youth, happiness, and health.
Some favorites toward the beginning of the anthology:
- "Tree Feelings" by Gilman
I wonder if they like it - being trees? (...) How long their roots are, and the earth how leal!
- "Maple Leaves" by Henry De Wolfe, Jr.
While the splendor of their color hides the tokens of decay / Still the cold is waxing stronger, / Days are shorter, nights are longer, / While the nipping breezes chill what the frost has failed to kill, / And the voices of the summer sound no more on plain or hill. / Now the maple leaves decayed / Fall and fade, / And the parent tree dismayed / Writhes and tosses, while the whirlwind, from its icy cave set free, / Shouts around the naked branches in demonic jubilee.
- "The Pine Lady" by Richard Le Gallienne [nice and creepy!]
O come and hear the Pine Lady / Up in the haunted wood!
- "Plant a Tree" by Lucy Larcom
- "Daisies" by Frank Dempster Sherman [sweet! stars are daisies, mom is maiden picking them]
- "Iris Flowers" by Mary McNeil Fenollosa
[Mother] pointed out the rows o 'flowers'; - /I saw no planted things,/ But white and purple butterflies / Tied down with silken strings.
- "The Mushroom's Soliloquy" by Hannah Flagg Gould
...What was I yesterday? and What will be, / Perchance, tomorrow, seen or heard of me? / Poor, lone, unfriended, ignorant, forlorn, / To bear the new, full glory of the morn./ (...) Untaught of my beginning or my end, / I know not whence I spring or where I tend: / Yet I will wait, and trust (...)
- "The Petrified Fern" by Mary L. Bolles Branch [:-)]
In a valley, centuries ago,/ Grew a little fern-leaf, green and slender...
- "What the Lichens Sang" by Tacie Townsend Purvis
I heard the lichens singing / One cold and frosty morn; / (..) If it were always summer / And the land were filled with flowers / What eye would mark the lichens / That bloom in wintry hours?
-"Secrets" by Jennie G. Clarke
What is the secret the pine-trees know / That keeps them whispering soft and low?
-"Four Winds" by Margaret Sangster
The wind o' the West / I love it best / The wind o' the East / I love the least / The wind o' the South / Has sweet in its mouth. / The wind o' the North / Sends great storms forth.
- "Out in the Snow" by Louise Chandler Moulton
They saw the snow, when they rose in the morning, / Glittering ghost of the vanished night
-"Daddy Longlegs" by Anne L. Huber
A big old daddy longlegs / creeping on the wall, / I wish that he would go away, / I don't like him at all. / I know he will not hurt me, / But I don't want him here, / So get you gone, old daddy, / And don't come again so near.
-"An Old Cats Confessions" by Christopher P. Cranch
For cats that have good constitutions / Have eight more lives than a man; / Which proves we are better than humans / To my mind, if anything can
-"Catching the Cat" by Margaret Vandegrift
This story has a moral - / It is very short you see; / So no one, of course, will skip it, / For fear of offending me. / It is well to be courageous, / And valiant, and all that, / But - if you are mice - you'd better think twice, / Before you catch the cat.
-"The Little Man of Michigan" by Agnes Lee [would be fun to know/recite by heart]
-limerick from 'St. Nicholas' by Isabel Francis Bellows
There once was an Ichthyosaurus, / Who lived when the earth was all porous, / But he fainted with shame / When he first heard his name, / And departed a long time before us.
-"Hurry and Worry" by CCS
Hurry and Worry were two busy men; / They worked at the desk till the clock struck ten. / They gained high station, power, and wealth, / And lost youth, happiness, and health.
July 18, 2020
I really like how the book focus on the nineteenth century and children poetry. Children will learn about the historical culture events.
August 23, 2016
Originally posted on my blog, A Lovely Bookshelf on the Wall:
Oh, what a gem this book is! I'm ordering a copy first thing January 5th. 592 pages of high quality children's poetry from 19th century America. Who knew there was so much out there?! The introduction is a brief but fascinating look into how we define "children's poetry," the advent of children's publishing, and the various ways in which children find poetry relevant to their lives.
Over the River and Through the Wood is cleverly organized by topic: TWENTY of them, in fact. Talk about an educator's dream! Topics range from "Creepy Crawlies" and "Landscapes and Seasons" to "Learning Lessons" and "Politics and Social Reform," as well as anything and everything in between. There's even a section for nonsense poems. I'm already chock full of ideas for incorporating some of these into our homeschooling days.
My 4-year-old has already found a new favorite. She's had me read aloud Eliza Lee Cabot Follen's "The Three Little Kittens" more times than I can count!
The poems are diverse in every possible way, faithfully representing our country as a "melting pot." You'll find familiar and not-so-familiar poems by beloved writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Emily Dickinson, as well as be introduced to a vast number of poems and writers you may have never heard of. Truly, this collection is a gold mine.
Oh, what a gem this book is! I'm ordering a copy first thing January 5th. 592 pages of high quality children's poetry from 19th century America. Who knew there was so much out there?! The introduction is a brief but fascinating look into how we define "children's poetry," the advent of children's publishing, and the various ways in which children find poetry relevant to their lives.
Over the River and Through the Wood is cleverly organized by topic: TWENTY of them, in fact. Talk about an educator's dream! Topics range from "Creepy Crawlies" and "Landscapes and Seasons" to "Learning Lessons" and "Politics and Social Reform," as well as anything and everything in between. There's even a section for nonsense poems. I'm already chock full of ideas for incorporating some of these into our homeschooling days.
My 4-year-old has already found a new favorite. She's had me read aloud Eliza Lee Cabot Follen's "The Three Little Kittens" more times than I can count!
The poems are diverse in every possible way, faithfully representing our country as a "melting pot." You'll find familiar and not-so-familiar poems by beloved writers such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Emily Dickinson, as well as be introduced to a vast number of poems and writers you may have never heard of. Truly, this collection is a gold mine.
Read
March 6, 2014Angela Sorby, AM'89, PhD'96
Coeditor
From our pages (Mar–Apr/14): "In their new anthology, Karen L. Kilcup and Angela Sorby resurrect hundreds of 19th-century American children's poems—many of which have languished in obscure periodicals and primers for more than a century—with themes ranging from creepy crawlies to politics and social reform. Including kid-friendly period illustrations, Over the River and through the Wood features well-known names such as Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as less familiar figures like Christina Moody, an African American author who published her first book at 16."
Coeditor
From our pages (Mar–Apr/14): "In their new anthology, Karen L. Kilcup and Angela Sorby resurrect hundreds of 19th-century American children's poems—many of which have languished in obscure periodicals and primers for more than a century—with themes ranging from creepy crawlies to politics and social reform. Including kid-friendly period illustrations, Over the River and through the Wood features well-known names such as Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as less familiar figures like Christina Moody, an African American author who published her first book at 16."
Read
June 13, 2014811.30809 O962 2014
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews