Joseph T. TOHMAS, Poetry’s Playground: The Culture of Contemporary American Children’s Poetry, Detroit, Wayne State University Press (Landscapes of Childhood), 2007, 196 p.
ISBN 978-08143-3296-2
SUMMARY
While the study of children’s poetry has always had a place in therealm of children’s literature, scholars have not typically consideredit in relation to the larger scope of contemporary poetry. In thisvolume, Joseph T. Thomas, Jr., explores the “playground” of children’spoetry within the world of contemporary adult poetic discourse,bringing the complex social relations of play and games, cliques andfashions, and drama and humor in children’s poetry to light for thefirst time.
Poetry’s Playground considers children’s poetry publishedin the United States from the mid twentieth century onward, a timewhen many established adult poets began writing for young audiences.Through the work of major figures like Robert Frost, Gwendolyn Brooks,Carl Sandburg, Randall Jarrell, Theodore Roethke, Shel Silverstein, andJack Prelutsky, Thomas explores children’s poems within the criticaland historical conversations surrounding adult texts, arguing at thesame time that children’s poetry is an oft-neglected but crucial partof the American poetic tradition. Canonical issues are central to Poetry’s Playground.The volume begins by tracing Robert Frost’s emergence as the UnitedStates’ official school poet, exploring the political and aestheticdimensions of his canonization and considering which other poets werepushed aside as a result. The study also includes a look at eight majoranthologies of children’s poems in the United States, offering adescriptive canon that will be invaluable to future scholarship.Additionally, Poetry’s Playground addresses poetry actuallywritten and performed by children, exploring the connections betweenfolk poetry produced both on playgrounds and in the classroom.
Poetry’s Playground is a groundbreaking study that makesbold connections between children’s and adult poetry. This book will beof interest to poets, scholars of poetry and children’s literature, aswell as students and teachers of literary history, culturalanthropology, and contemporary poetry.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Public Poetry and Politics: Robert Frost and the Emerging Canon of Mid-Century American Children’s Poetry
2. “Levels and Opposites” in Randall Jarrell’s The Bat Poet
3. Child Poets and the Poetry of the Playground
4. Street Cries: Mother Goose, Urchin Poetry, and Contemporary U.S. Children’s Poetry
5. A Defense of Visual Poetry for Children
Coda: Toward a Canon of U.S. Children’s Poetry
Appendix A: Most Commonly Anthologized Poets
Appendix B: Most Commonly Anthologized Poets Grouped by Nationality
Appendix C: Most Commonly Anthologized U.S. Poets and the Poems Representing Them: A Descriptive Canon
Appendix D: Award-Winning Books of Contemporary U.S. Poetry
Notes
Works Cited
Index
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph T. Thomas, Jr. is assistant professor of English at California State University.