A review by andreana_k
Collected Poems for Children by Ted Hughes

4.0

I hate that I loved this book. I need to let it go and move on. But these poems were delightful, simple, clever, funny and numerous. Where did he find the time? Delightfully illustrated too with simple pencil sketches that do not distract from the words. I particularly enjoyed the Moon Whales and other Moon poems chapter, there was some quite fantastical verse in there. My only criticism is his subject matter, mostly flora and fauna, is very stereotyped. I don't think he really spent any time appreciating goats or hedgehogs or nasturtiums or the minutia of plants and animals because he comes across as so mean about them. Goats are horny and hairy, plants have bugs, hedgehogs have fleas, let me write a poem about it. Hedgehogs and nasturtiums are some of the most beautiful things in nature. But then so was Sylvia and look how he treated her.

Mermaid

Call her a fish,
Call her a girl.
Call her a pearl

Of an oyster fresh
On its pearly dish

That the whole sea sips
With gurgly slurps
And sloppy lips.

-Ted Hughes