EDITED BY
KATHERINE D. BLAKE
PRINCIPAL, GIRLS' DEPARTMENT PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 6,
NEW YORK CITY
AND
GEORGIA ALEXANDER
SUPERVISING PRINCIPAL, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
1906
Poetry is the chosen language of childhood and youth. The babyrepeats words again and again for the mere joy of their sound:the melody of nursery rhymes gives a delight which is quiteindependent of the meaning of the words. Not until youth approachesmaturity is there an equal pleasure in the rounded periods ofelegant prose. It is in childhood therefore that the young mindshould be stored with poems whose rhythm will be a present delightand whose beautiful thoughts will not lose their charm in lateryears.
The selections for the lowest grades are addressed primarily tothe feeling for verbal beauty, the recognition of which in themind of the child is fundamental to the plan of this work. Theeditors have felt that the inclusion of critical notes in theselittle books intended for elementary school children would be notonly superfluous, but, in the degree in which critical commentdrew the child's attention from the text, subversive of thedesired result. Nor are there any notes on methods. The best way to teachchildren to love a poem is to read it inspiringly to them.The French say: "The ear is the pathway to the heart." A poemshould be so read that it will sing itself in the hearts of thelistening children.
In the brief biographies appended to the later books the humanelement has been brought out. An effort has been made to callattention to the education of the poet and his equipment for hislife work rather than to the literary qualities of his style.