How to Eat a Poem

Seventy lighthearted, much-loved poems cover everything from books and imagination to friendship and the beauty of the natural world. Includes such notable poets as Lewis Carroll, Ogden Nash, and Marianne Moore.

Focusing on popular verse from the nineteenth century through today, this anthology invites young readers to sample a taste of irresistible poems that will nourish their minds and spirits. Selected for both popularity and literary quality, seventy charming poems cover a wide range of subjects: poetry, books, words, and imagination; the beauty of the natural world; travel, adventure, sports, and play; love, friendship, sadness, hope, and other emotions. Included are:
"Prickled Pickles Don't Smile," Nikki Giovanni
"W. D., Don't Fear that Animal," W. D. Snodgrass
"A Jelly-Fish," Marianne Moore
"The Porcupine," Ogden Nash
"Annabel Lee," Edgar Allan Poe
"The Falling Star," Sara Teasdale
"Sick," Shel Silverstein
"Casey at the Bat," Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"With Kitty, Age Seven, At the Beach," William Stafford
"Hope is the Thing with Feathers," Emily Dickinson
. . . . and sixty other notable works.
Chosen by the American Poetry & Literacy Project and the Academy of American Poets, two of the nation's most respected nonprofit poetry organizations, these much-loved and highly readable poems promise young readers and poetry lovers of all ages hours of reading pleasure.

MAGIC WORDS -- POEMS ABOUT POETRY, BOOKS, WORDS, AND IMAGINATION

The First Book, Rita Dove
There Is No Frigate Like a Book, Emily Dickinson
from "Magic Words," Inuit (Eskimo) passage
Introduction to Poetry, Billy Collins
The Poem, Amy Lowell
Ars Poetica, Archibald MacLeish
How to Eat a Poem, Eve Merriam
Six Words, Lloyd Schwartz
Prickled Pickles Don't Smile, Nikki Giovanni
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Wallace Stevens
This Is Just to Say, William Carlos Williams
Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Koch
Today is Very Boring, Jack Prelutsky
The Unwritten, W. S. Merwin
Write, Do Write, Marilyn Chin

MY HEART LEAPS UP -- POEMS ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF THE NATURAL WORLD

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold, William Wordsworth
W. D., Don't Fear That Animal, W. D. Snodgrass
Swift Things Are Beautiful, Elizabeth Coatsworth
Summer, Kawabata Bosha
Autumn, Arakida Moritake
Winter, Takarai Kikaku
Spring, Matsuo Basho
Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost
The Desert Is My Mother, Pat Mora
El desierto es mi madre, Pat Mora
maggie and milly and molly and may, E. E. Cummings
A Jelly-Fish, Marianne Moore
The Eagle, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Eagle Poem, Joy Harjo
Considering the Snail, Thom Gunn
The Porcupine, Ogden Nash
The Crocodile, Lewis Carroll
The Tyger, William Blake
Steam Shovel, Charles Malan
Cartoon Physics, part 1, Nick Flynn
The Falling Star, Sara Teasdale
Halley's Comet, Stanley Kunitz
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer, Walt Whitman

I THINK OVER AGAIN MY SMALL ADVENTURES -- POEMS ABOUT TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, SPORTS, AND PLAY

Sick, Shel Silverstein
Travel, Edna St. Vincent Millay
Insomnia, Marilyn Nelson
Harlem Night Song, Langston Hughes
The Rider, Naomi Shihab Nye
The Jogger on Riverside Drive, 5:00 A.M., Agha Shahid Ali
First Love, Carl Lindner
Skier, Robert Francis
Skater, Ted Kooser
The Acrobat, Wislawa Szymborska
Baseball, Linda Pastan
Casey at the Bat, Ernest Lawrence Thayer
One Art, Elizabeth Bishop
I Think Over Again My Small Adventures, Anonymous
Bed In Summer, Robert Lewis Stevenson
from The Bed Book, Sylvia Plath
Summons, Robert Francis

HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS -- POEMS ABOUT LOVE, FRIENDSHIP, SADNESS, HOPE, AND OTHER EMOTIONS

Shirley Said, Dennis Doyle
Oranges, Gary Soto
The Floor and the Ceiling, William Jay Smith
Annabel Lee, Edgar Allan Poe
Sympathy, Paul Lawrence Dunbar
Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley
Spring and Fall, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Trees, Walter Dean Myers
With Kit, Age Seven, At the Beach, William Stafford
At the End of the Weekend, Ted Kooser
Little Old Letter, Langston Hughes
from "I Am a Black Woman," Mari Evans
homage to my hips, Lucille Clifton
Childhood Morning--Homebush, James McAuley
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers, Emily Dickinson
Quintrain, Said 'Aql

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PERMISSIONS

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF POETS, TITLES AND FIRST LINES