Stevenson's Treasure Island is perhaps my favorite book, so I may be slightly biased in his favor, but he is pretty skilled with a pen. In addition to many excellent novels, he wrote several poetry collections, but this is my favorite of his. This stanza from "Winter-Time" is especially apposite today:
Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.
I am much more a fan of poetry for the youth than for adults. They just seem to be filled with such wonder or tell better stories. I would take Lewis Carroll over Ezra Pound any day. Probably to Abbie's annoyance, I frequently browse a poetry anthology we have at home and grace the family with random tidbits that strike my fancy.
One of my favorite activities that go down in Anne of Green Gables are the poetry concerts in which Anne participates. Once Abbie and I start raising the next generation, I intend to be an avid promoter of weekly household poetry concerts.
4 comments:
I don't get annoyed but sometimes when I ask you to do the dishes and you break out with something like, "oh dishes are like little wishes, the swim with the fishes, and make me misses," it gets a little trying.
Pay no attention to Abbie's comment; it is a gross mischaracterization.
I never thought of the fact that I also love children's poetry, but am not interested in grown-up poems. It was charming to see the link to the blog devoted to memorizing poetry. I think it is a shame that kids don't memorize poems in school anymore, since it can be such a source of enjoyment.
RO RO said....I can hardly wait to talk to your next generation when they become a teenager!It's amazing what teen and twenty-somethings repeat back to parents that you never thiought that you were making an impression!
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