Poems are literary photographs. It is poetry that captures fleeting moments of childhood, such as playing with dogs, dreaming of becoming a sailor, and wondering about snowflakes. Free ebook poetry collections are available to download and print or read digitally from Google Books. All of these books are in the public domain; the poems can be copied, reused, and reprinted.
The Little Poem Book by Sarah Simons Reese
In 1920, the author of The Little Poem Book donated her poetry collection to the University of California at Berkley; her loving, handwritten dedication is one of the first pages scanned and preserved in this free ebook to download in PDF or EPUB formats. Reese explains the history of her poem collection; she wrote her poems about children in her neighborhood, and the collection grew weekly as the poems were passed within the neighborhood families. The neighborhood referred to poetry scrapbook as "the little poem book," and the name stuck.
The book is a collection of poems about children living America after the first World War. An example of Reese's simple style is found in "The Bean Blower," when neighborhood boys want leaves from her tree to make a variation of an organic spit-ball gun: "The stalk is hollow, and then, you know/ We put in the beans, and blow and blow."
The children play with dogs in "Some Interesting Friends." Sleeping baseball players awake to the news that a new boy has moved to town and pose a threat to their neighborhood team in "New Umpire." Girls collect food for neighborhood cats in "Childhood memories." People who enjoy Sarah Simons Reese's style may also enjoy the gentle, simplistic style of Edgar Guest.
Poems that Every Child Should Know by Mary Elizabeth Burt
Not all of the Poems that Every Child Should Know are about children or childhood, but the author gives a brief explanation of why she selected each poem. Some are poems that are easy to learn,or were considered easy to memorize in 1904, when the collection was originally published. Some are historically important poems, some are poems about life lessons, and some are poems written with children in mind, like Matthew Arnold's lovely "The Forsaken Mermen."
The collection has classic poems that appeal to childhood dreams, such as Epes Sargent's "Life on the Ocean Wave." Future adventurers call out, "We'll say, Let the storm come down/And the song of our hearts shall be/While the winds and the waters rave/A home on the rolling sea!" Poems that Every Child Should Know is available as a free ebook, and it can be downloaded in PDF and EPUB formats.
The Old Farm Gate by Richard Coe
The first half of Richard Coe's 1852 collection has stories and essays; the poems start at page 116. "Smiles and Tears" captures moments that slide between emotions, such as the young child who catches a butterfly and accidentally kills it by grasping it too tightly.
The Old Farm Gate shows the flaws in Google Books: poor scanning makes pages unreadable. One of Coe's most beautiful poems, "Snow Flakes" (The snow flakes, the snow flakes/The children of the sky) is marred by a bent page in the scan. When readers find improperly formatted pages, they can be submitted to Google Books through the feedback link on the download page. The Old Farm Gate is available as a free ebook in PDF and an EPUB formats.
Sarah Simons Reese's poems are accessible and fun. Mary Elizabeth Burt's collection is academic, but there are some highlights that will appeal to children. Richard Coe has nostalgic poems about children and childhood. Older collections of poems about children and childhood often has archaic language, but many of the long ago moments frozen in poetic vignettes will feel familiar to 21st century children and their parents.
Publication Information
- The Little Poem Book by Sarah Simons Reese was first published by Bauer-Peterman Company in 1920.
- Poems that Every Child Should Know by Mary Elizabeth Burt was first published by Doubleday, Page and Company in 1907.
- The Old Farm Gate by Richard Coe was first published by Daniels and Smith in1852.
Alex Sharp - Alex Sharp is a teacher who has been keeping Suite101 readers up to date with the latest in audio- and e-book gadgetry since 2008.
