Childrens Poetry: Friend or Foe?
When I was a little girl, my mom would read me childrens poetry since I practically begged her to. Shel Silverstein was my absolute favorite. My fourth grade teacher had introduced me to all of his books and I bought them immediately after. Even the school librarian at my elementary school would read us poetry every week. At that age it seemed so fun and harmless to listen to it. This past week, though, we went over childrens poetry in our class. I could not believe what I was picking up in it. There are such harsh issues included in childrens poetry, why would an author put such strong emotions in literature for children? Most children may not be able to understand what the author is really saying but now that I’ve experienced more in life and can pick up on these things, I was able to. Maybe there’s a child out there who was gone through hardship with a real understanding of things that could potentially pick up on the poetry too. At a young age poetry seems cute and fun, but now I’m not so sure. I think that maybe childrens poets should lighten up with the intensity of their poems, after all they are only for children.