It
is a pity to make children acquire what they will soon despise when they
might learn something that they will grow up to and prize as long as
they live. There are beautiful things that they can understand, if
something is wanted for to-day, which have at the same time a life that
will never be outgrown. There are poems with two aspects, one of which
is acceptable to a child and the other to the grown-up mind; these, one
is glad to find in anthologies for children. But there are many poems
about children of which the interest is so subtle as to be quite
unsuitable for their collection. Such a poem is "We are seven." Children
can be taught to say it, even with feeling, but their own genuine
impression of it seems to be that the little girl was rather weak in
intellect for eight years old, or a little perverse. Whereas Browning's
"An incident of the French camp" appeals to them by pride of courage as
it does to us by pathos. It may not be a gem, poetically speaking, but
it lives. As children grow older it is only fair to allow them some
choice in what they learn and recite, to give room for their taste to
follow its own bent; there are a few things which it is well that every
one should know by heart, but beyond these the field is practically
without limits.
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