Silver Pennies

A Collection of Modern Poems for Boys and Girls

By Blanche Jennings Thompson

 

This beautiful little book caught my eye while I was browsing the vintage table at a used book sale.  Of course, it was just one in a stack of books that found their way home with me!  I didn’t look at it right away, but when I finally did, I was so pleased to find that this poetry anthology is even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside!

“You must have a silver penny to get into Fairyland” is what Thompson has reasoned, and she put this collection together so that “no child will be kept out of the fairyland of modern poetry for the lack of a silver penny.”  Each poem begins with a question for the reader to encourage them to think and feel more deeply about the poem.  What is nice is that the questions are simple and personal, not academic – with no right or wrong answer.  She knows that a poem will bring different feelings and memories to each reader, depending on past experiences and current emotions.  

Here is one that caught my attention this week:

           I Meant to Do My Work Today

I meant to do my work today –

           But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
           And a butterfly flitted across the field,
           And all the leaves were calling me.

           And the wind went sighing over the land,
           Tossing the grasses to and fro,
           And a rainbow held out its shining hand –
           So what could I do but laugh and go?

                       ~Richard Le Gallienne

This poem must explain the reason I, after several years of a weekly blog post, completely forgot to write one last week!  It just completely slipped my mind.  Distractions!  The beautiful summer days, the garden, actual paid work, family, my 50^th birthday – apparently caused too much distraction to stay focused.  But that’s okay.  I was just collecting silver pennies.  And silver pennies are necessary for life!