OLIVER COLLECTION
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CHILDREN’S POETRY
The Oliver Collection has a large selection of children’s
literature. This display concentrates
on nursery rhymes and poetry.
The first identifiable children’s poet was probably Isaac Watts, whose
jingles "Divine Songs for Children", published in 1715 proved
immensely popular. At about this time
collections of nursery rhymes began to appear, and in 1804 Ann and Jane Taylor
published "Original Poems for Infant Minds" which included
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star".
Many of the collections of poems in the 19th and 20th centuries were
written by authors who were also well known for their adult works e.g.
Wordsworth, Browning and Belloc. Many
have a strong moral tone (e.g. "Meddlesome Matty", "Cautionary
Tales for Children", "A Moral Alphabet" and "The Pied Piper
of Hamelin") or contain a hidden moral as in "The Hunting of the
Snark", a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.
Others were to be read simply for enjoyment, although Wordsworth’s
"Poems for the Young" would be difficult to understand even by the
more sophisticated "young" of today.
1. TAYLOR, A & J. Meddlesome Matty and other poems. (1925 ed. with a foreword by Edith Sitwell)
2. WORDSWORTH, W. Poems for the very young. 1863.
3. CARROLL, Lewis. The hunting of the snark. 1876 (1924 ed)
4. BROWNING, Robert. The Pied Piper of Hamelin. 1889.
5. BELLOC, Hilaire. A moral alphabet. 1899.
6. BELLOC, Hilaire. Cautionary tales for children. 1908.
7. MILNE, A A. When we were very young. 1921 (1924 ed)
dated – 20 July 2004