Silly Molly - when I first saw this book on my bookshelf, I thought it was full of shorter poems by someone named Alexander. No, no... it is an edited volume, edited by W. J. Alexander, professor of English literature at "University College, Toronto", which of course eventually became one of the colleges within the greater University of Toronto, which I attended several years ago.
I read the preface, and this is where I discovered my silliness, above. The preface also gave me some insight into school some 90 years ago. Back in 1924, it was "proper" to read some 3,000 lines of poetry per year in high school. Now, I did read some poetry in middle and high school, but I can guarantee that I did not read 3,000 lines a year. I really didn't grow into an appreciation of poetry until university. I think my difficulty was that I enjoyed reading poetry, but despised analyzing it. I just wanted to read it and experience it without criticizing it. Alexander put it perfectly in the preface: "The chief means of arriving at the enjoyment of good music is to listen to it; of painting, to see it; of literature, to read it."
This book has been a good and gentle reintroduction into the world of poetry. It is mostly filled with short (as per its title), rhyming, relatively 'simple' poems, and it browses through all of the classic poets. Byron and Keats are my favorites.
This book, because it presents many of the 'classic' poems by some of these poets, has allowed me to discover out who wrote some of my favorite lines. "She walks in beauty like the night" - Byron. "A thing of beauty is a joy forever" - Keats. The poem of the Lady of Shalott - Tennyson. "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" - Keats. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" - The Raven - Poe. "'Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all" - Tennyson. It has been a magical read, and I'm thankful that it is all 12,000 of those proper high-school lines, rather than shorter. I have about fifty pages left.
