Carol Ann Duffy’s The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems is a wonderfully illustrated compilation of some timeless poetry, such as “My Heart Leaps Up,” “Death, Be Not Proud,” and “Until I Saw the Sea.” Not necessarily poems you would think of in the context of children, but that is one of the things I like about it: Neither the poems nor the illustrations talk down to kids the way so many “kids’ books” do. Instead, both assume the reader is filled with a lively imagination, one light and expectant yet dark and melancholy at the same time, which is how I and likely many others would sum up childhood. As Duffy writes in her introduction, “Poetry, of all arts, offers us moments in language that preserve or celebrate, explore or elegize, transform or enhance our human joys and sadnesses.”
And the same could be said of her art. Look at this gorgeous painting she did for William Blake’s “Tyger” and notice how the image adds another layer of meaning to the poem.
What a great gift this book makes for your favorite child, the illustrations throwing open a portal into the rich world of poetry.
