Childrens Poetry

In May this year I visited an exhibition on Childrens Poetry at the British Library. Would love to share some with you -

My Mother Saw A Dancing Bear by Charles Causley

The Spider And The Fly by Mary Howitt

The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast by William Roscoe - jaha na jaye ravi...waha jaye kavi....what wonderful imagination!

Who Has Seen The Wind by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Monday's Child the well known nursery rhyme! According to the poem I'm supposed to be full of woe!!! Ohhh ho!

Colin Mc Naughton's version of the nursery rhyme is quite funny too!

The Months by Sara Coleridge. If the days of the week are learnt it time to learn the months :) ! A wonderful composition...but I don't think I'd have been able to relate to it growing up in India.

Halfway Down by A A Milne. The poem is as simple and sweet as his Winnie the Pooh... a long time favourite.

First Day at School by Roger Mc Gough - Bring back some childhood memories of how I'd look up at everyone & school did seem a millionbillionwillion miles away from home!

The Lamplighter by Robert Louis Stevenson - I love the way the 'little child' sets out what he wants to do when he's older. I guess we all go through the phase of ' I want to be...'. My nephew figured that he needs to know how to read & write cause only then would he get to be a truck driver & get a licence!


Children are Kites

Thanks Amrita for making me aware of this poem...I wouldn't have found it on the net!

You spend a lifetime trying to get them off the ground.
You run with them until you are both breathless.
They crash. They hit the rooftop.
You patch and comfort, adjust and teach.
You watch them lifted by the wind and assure them that someday they will fly.
Finally, they are airborne;
They need more string and you keep letting it out;
But with each twist of the ball of twine, there is a sadness that goes with joy.
The kite becomes more distant and you know it won’t be long before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that binds you two together and will soar, free and alone.
Only then do you know that you did your job.

Preeti got me all nostalgic with Mera Naya Bachpan by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan. I remember learning this poem in school....but I realised what a truly fine poem it is only now. It also reminded me of a poem I had studied in Class 3! I haven't found it on the net & can't remember anything but a few verses -

Socha karte hai hum bacche, Kya rakha hai bachpan mein
Sheeghra bade ho jaye hum bhi, Chah yahi rehti hai mann mein
Hum bhi rob jamaye sabh par, Moochche rakhkar badi badi
Overcoat pehankar ghoomein, Liye haat mein ek chhadi
.....
it ends with the line -
Bacche honge bade...badon ko bachcha kaun banayega!


& theres more soon! Watch this space....