Poetry

‘Country rhimes’ and ‘fingle-fangles’ both come from John Bunyan’s book of verse for the young which had a complicated publishing history and was variously titled Divine Emblems, A Book for Boys and Girls and Country Rhimes for Children. The tension between the improving instincts of adults and what children choose to read is nowhere more keenly demonstrated than in the anthologising of verse for the young. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, most poetry for children was didactic and severe, expressed through lessons, fables, improving verse and hymns, although the latter also included some of the most lyrical literature available to the young. Isaac Watts published Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children in 1715. The visionary and humanising influence of the Romantic movement also exerted a huge impact on writing for children, if not immediately. The Taylors’ influence is also evident in the work of one of the greatest Victorian poets, Christina Rossetti.