The Oxford Treasury Of Classic Poems

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Oxford collection, not only for children
Review: This excellent Oxford anthology edited by Michael Harrison presents a great choice of mostly classic, well loved poems and some newer works. The poems are accompanied by lovely, funny and effective illustrations in black and white or colour by diverse artists, which capture the tone of the poems very well.

I think the younger children will especially enjoy the nonsense verse by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll or the funny poems by Hilaire Belloc. Children and parents can read this anthology together and let the cadenzas and rhythms of the poems suffuse their minds and hearts. Since for me, on these pages Blake's 'Tiger' again burned bright, I felt the tragedy of Noyes's 'Highwayman', was enchanted by Tennyson's 'Lady of Shalott' and Keats's 'La belle dame sans merci'. Shakespeare cast his own spell with his beautiful sonnets and I had great fun with Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. As a sailor's daughter I enjoyed the sounds, smells and sights of Masefield's 'Sea fever' and Yeats's 'Wild swans at Coole' and 'Innisfree' have always been favourite poems.

A great introduction to wonderful poetry and not only for children.