Poetry is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics.
“There’s a lemur in my lunch box
My banana’s just a peel,
And my candy bar’s a wrapper
This is not a happy meal.”
Fish tanks in classrooms and a hamster or two aren’t unusual. But when Miss Darling’s students ask for a pet, they get one, in poetry form, for every letter in the alphabet.
Yes, even little animals have to go to sleep. When night falls, little fawns and little bears close their eyes under the watchful care of their mothers and fathers. Sally Lloyd-Jones’s rhythmic text paired with Jane Chapman’s depiction of a nighttime world settling down for slumber will make any reluctant sleepyhead want to curl into bed.
Come in . . . for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein’s world begins. You’ll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist. Shel Silverstein’s masterful collection of poems and drawings is at once outrageously funny and profound.
