Hello, I'm Richard Nicholas Nimz, prospector of the written word. I don't think I'm far off the mark in calling poetry a bit of a niche market. While most stories have a plot readers can get engaged with, a lot of poetry does not, meaning that it has a reputation for being ephemeral. Also, while the effort a poet put into a poem can be easily recognized by a layman through rhyme, meter, and even music, many poems have none, which can make them just seem like sentences that were chopped into funny shapes. Finally, a popular and untrue reputation of poets as being overly vague elitist drama-llama snobs makes them seem undesirable. Poetry advocates have said that they need to teach children poetry while they're young, and to such people, I recommend Dark Emperor.
Citation: Allen, R. i., & Sidman, J. (2010). Dark emperor and other poems of the night. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcount.
Summary: When the sun goes down, the poets of the night come alive. One-by-one they introduce themselves, first in verse, than in prose. Many different styles are given as the creatures of the night come and go. Finally, with the break of day, the moon itself gives its final ubi sunt, and bows before the light.
Impressions: I actually want to buy this book for myself. It includes good poetry from a variety of genres, such as shape poems and free verse. In fact, this book contains the first free verse that I actually 'got'. Furthermore, after each poem comes interesting information about the subjects of the poems. My only regret is that it doesn't tell you what kinds of poems each poem is, but that wasn't the point of the book. Not only would this be useful in introducing children to poetry, but if the library ever decided to have a library night, this would be useful in introducing children to nature at night.
Second Opinion: " Each poem captures the unique voice of the flora and fauna of the woods through a nighttime lens using the perfect blend of poetic devices, description and imagery... The beautiful prose, informational facts, and glossary, coupled with Allen's detailed hand-colored linoleum cut prints, make this a must-have poetry collection for connecting science, art, and language arts."
Source: M., N. (2011). Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night. Journal Of Children's Literature, 37(2), 50-51.
No comments:
Post a Comment