ABSTRACT
Poetry and song came early in the development of Western civilization. Much of what we have left to us of the earliest literary works—Beowulf or Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey—were probably recited in chanted or sung versions long before they were written down, their forms and places fixed forever in literary history. Moreover, many of the narratives that came later, whether they appeared first in oral or written form, were poetic rather than prose. So, too, poetry and song come early in the lives of children. Before they begin to attend school and even before they begin to associate with others of their own age, they encounter poetry and song. Although much folklore is passed on from older to younger members within a generation, whether it is a generation of college students or a generation of “neighborhood kids,” the first traditional poetry and song a child hears comes from another generation. The child’s mother, usually, but more often these days the father, too, talk, chant, and sing to the child almost from the moment he or she makes an appearance in the world. Much of that chanting and singing is functional; that is, it is used by the parent to soothe a restless child, to help the child drift off to sleep, or to interest the active or fussy child. One parent that I know sang the alphabet to her older child when he was small so that he would hold still while she changed his diapers.
