Waco: Some Afterthoughts on Poetry, Verse and Criticism

Abstract

Waco:Some Afterthoughts on Poetry, Verse and Criticism Myra Cohn Livingston (bio) The recognition that children's literature deserves only the best in criticism was spelled out by Francelia Butler in the first volume of Children's Literature, published in 1972. Dr. Butler's assessment as to why "clear critical standards"1 had not been implemented by humanists and critics, up to that time, struck me as valid. Her challenge, reflected in the essays which appeared in that volume, "to stimulate the writing, teaching and study of children's literature by humanists—to encourage humanists with the best (and open) minds to enter the field"2 has met with response through subsequent issues of Children's Literature and through the Children's Literature Association Newsletter by those interested in fiction, myth, history, folk tales, fantasy and illustration. To a much lesser degree, however, has poetry been included. A quick glance through the publications concerning themselves with literature for children, including both the Newsletter and Children's Literature, corroborates the fact that attention to original poetry, to major poetry anthologies and to serious study and critique of this genre has yet, from my point of view, to be cultivated and achieved. The reasons for this lack are somewhat understandable. It is no secret that most critics, humanists or no, are frightened by the very word Poetry. It seems to bespeak some mysterious, esoteric branch of literature comprehensible to the very few. In spite of a burgeoning interest in adult poetry, in spite of what can be called a Golden Age for poetry, written for an anthologized [End Page 16] for young people during the past 25 years, poetry is, in comparison to other areas of literature, neglected. Reviewing does appear at times. Occasional articles have been written, but tend to focus more on historical research rather than interest in poetics. Many lean toward a vehicle for what A.E. Housman called the "rawness of personal opinion."3 Still others juxtapose the work of established poets with children's writing, serious anthologies with slap-dash minor collections of verse built around a popular theme. With few exceptions, there is a lack of the ability to differentiate between light verse, nonsense and serious poetry, between the poet's craft and what John Ciardi labels as "spillage of raw emotion."4 Little attention is paid to important new voices while large amounts of space and effort are apportioned to minor work. Liberties are taken with books of poetry that would never be tolerated in other fields of literature. The closest analogy I can dream up in to imagine a scholarly and thoughtful piece on the importance of beautiful prose as found in the work of George Macdonald, Judy Blume, Eleanor Cameron, the Walt Disney Cinderella and the writers of the Nancy Drew books. To say that all of these authors write prose is true, but to compare them in terms of literary merit is plainly ridiculous. Yet this has been done often in the field of poetry and/or light verse. During the Seventh Annual Conference of the Children's Literature Association in Waco, I directed an appeal to those who attended to become more aware of—and to take seriously—the field of poetry; to become familiar with the wealth of contemporary poets writing for children, and while not neglecting poets of the past who still speak of the universals of childhood, to view their work in a reasonable perspective. This request was precipitated by my growing concern with various newspapers and periodicals where the level of reviewers' knowledge is patently preposterous. To call a book by a single poet "an anthology," to compare Valerie Worth with Marchette Chute, to be totally unaware of the work of Eve Merriam, to recognize "Someone" by Walter de la Mare as a new poem, to criticize an anthology on the basis of how many of the selections start with the words "A" or "The" or to judge by illustration rather than the merit of the book is only a beginning of a list of grievances I can cite. I am enough of a realist, however, to understand that poetry is a stepchild—a Cinderella, if you...