There was an old woman named Towl ref1
There was once a line ref1
They shut the road through the woods ref1
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did ref1
This is just to say ref1
Though she doesn’t know it ref1
Three Turkeys fair their last have breathed ref1
Thrice toss these oaken ashes in the air ref1
To celebrate ref1
Today we went out of school ref1
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright ref1
Uncle Edward was colour-blind ref1
Up the airy mountain ref1
Way down Geneva ref1
We are the Workhouse children ref1
‘We did sums at school, Mummy – ref1
Welcome to St Judas ref1
We’ve been at the seaside all day ref1
What is pink? A rose is pink ref1
What with getting in the way of the packing ref1
When as the rye reach to the chin ref1
When daisies pied and violets blue ref1
When Grandmamma fell off the boat ref1
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple ref1
When I am dead, my dearest ref1
When I come home from school he doesn’t bark ref1
When I come out of the bathroom ref1
When I heard the learn’d astronomer ref1
When I live in a Cottage ref1
When my baby brother ref1
When you teach me ref1
Where can I find seven small girls to be pets ref1
Who would be (A merman bold) ref1
Who would be (A mermaid fair) ref1
Wings whispered about her hair ref1
Yes. I remember Adlestrop – ref1
You live in the hollow of a stranded whale ref1
Index of Poets
Adcock, Fleur ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Agard, John ref1
Allingham, William ref1
Alma-Tadema, Laurence ref1
Anon. ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Ardagh, Philip ref1
Auden, W. H. ref1, ref2, ref3
Barrett Browning, Elizabeth ref1
Belloc, Hilaire ref1, ref2
Bernos de Gasztold,
Carmen ref1
Bethell, Mary Ursula ref1
Betjeman, John ref1
Bevan, Clare ref1, ref2, ref3
Blake, William ref1
Calder, Dave ref1
Campion, Thomas ref1
Carey, Henry ref1
Carter, James ref1, ref2
Causley, Charles ref1, ref2
Chatterjee, Debjani ref1
Coe, Mandy ref1, ref2, ref3
Coelho, Joseph ref1
Cope, Wendy ref1, ref2
Cornford, Frances ref1
Coward, Noel ref1
Crane, Nathalia ref1
Cummings, E. E. ref1
De la Mare, Walter ref1
Dean, Jan ref1
Dickinson, Emily ref1
Drinkwater, John ref1
Duffy, Carol Ann ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
Eliot, T. S. ref1
Fanthorpe, U. A. ref1, ref2
Farjeon, Eleanor ref1
Field, Rachel ref1
Fleming, Marjory ref1, ref2
Floyd, Gillian ref1
Foster, John ref1, ref2
Fyleman, Rose ref1
Godden, Rumer, tr. ref1
Graham, Harry ref1
Green, Mary ref1
Harmer, David ref1
Henri, Adrian ref1
Hood, Thomas ref1, ref2
Housman, A. E. ref1
Hughes, Ted ref1, ref2
Hulme, T. E. ref1
Jennings, Elizabeth ref1, ref2
Joseph, Jenny ref1, ref2
Kay, Jackie ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Keats, John ref1, ref2
Kipling, Rudyard ref1
Klein, Robin ref1
Lear, Edward ref1, ref2
McLoughland, Beverly ref1
Magee, Wes ref1
Marlowe, Christopher ref1
Mew, Charlotte ref1
Meynell, Alice ref1
Milton, John ref1
Monro, Harold ref1
Nagle, Frances ref1
Nash, Ogden ref1
Noyes, Alfred ref1
O’Callaghan, Julie ref1
Parelkar, Ruhee ref1
Patten, Brian ref1
Peele, George ref1
Plath, Sylvia ref1, ref2, ref3
Pope, Alexander ref1
Rawnsley, Irene ref1, ref2
Rice, John ref1
Rich, Adrienne ref1
Rossetti, Christina ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Scannell, Vernon ref1
Shakespeare, William ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Smart, Christopher ref1
Spenser, Edmund ref1
Stevenson, Robert
Louis ref1, ref2
Swinger, Marian ref1
Taggard, Genevieve ref1
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6
Thesen, Sharon ref1
Thomas, Edward ref1
Whitehead, David ref1
Whitman, Walt ref1
Williams, William Carlos ref1
Wordsworth, William ref1, ref2
Wright, James ref1
Wright, Kit ref1
Yeats, W. B. ref1, ref2, ref3
First published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2013 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-1383-3 EPUB
This collection copyright © Jacqueline Wilson 2011
All poems copyright © the individual poets
The Acknowledgements at the end of this electronic book constitute an extension of this copyright page.
The right of the individual poets to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.
Acknowledgements
The compiler and publisher would like to thank the following for permission to use copyright material:
Fleur Adcock, ‘Tunbridge Wells’, ‘Sidcup, 1940’, ‘Halfway Street, Sidcup’, ‘St Gertrude’s, Sidcup’ and ‘Drury Goodbyes’ all from Poems 1960–2000 (Bloodaxe Books, 2000); John Agard, ‘Spell to Bring a Smile’ copyright © John Agard; Allan Ahlberg, ‘It Is a Puzzle’, by permission of the Penguin Group Ltd; Philip Ardagh, ‘St Judas Welcomes Author Philip Arder’, by permission of the author; W. H. Auden, ‘Stop All the Clocks’ and ‘The More Loving One’ from Collected Works, copyright © 1976, 1991, the Estate of W. H. Auden; Hilaire Belloc, ‘Grandmamma’s Birthday’ and ‘Tarantella’ from Complete Verse by Hilaire Belloc (copyright © Hilaire Belloc is reproduced by permission of PFD [www.pfd.co.uk] on behalf of Hilaire Be
lloc); Carmen Bernos de Gasztold, ‘The Prayer of the Little Ducks’ from Prayers from the Ark, trans. Rumer Godden, 1963, by permission of Macmillan Children’s Books; Claire Bevan, ‘The Housemaid’s Letter’ from The Works 2, ed. Brian Moses and Pie Corbett, Macmillan Children’s Books (2002), by permission of the author; ‘The Spider’ from Fairy Poems, Macmillan Children’s Books (2004), by permission of the author; ‘The New Girl’ from Spooky Schools, ed. Brian Moses, Macmillan Children’s Books (2004), by permission of the author; Dave Calder, ‘Changed’ from Dolphins Leap Lampposts, Macmillan Children’s Books (2002), by permission of the author; James Carter, ‘Love You More’ from Time-Travelling Underpants, Macmillan Children’s Books (2007), by permission of the author; ‘The Moon Landing’ from Greetings, Earthlings! by Brian Moses and James Carter, Macmillan Children’s Books (2009), by permission of the author; Charles Causley, ‘Annabel-Emily’ and ‘On St Catherine’s Day’ from I Had a Little Cat, Macmillan Children’s Books (2009); Debjani Chatterjee, ‘My Sari’ is reprinted from Unzip Your Lips: 100 Poems to Read Aloud, Macmillan Children’s Books (1998), copyright © Dr Debjani Chatterjee 1998, reprinted by permission of the author; Mandy Coe, ‘Me & You’ from Read Me, chosen by Gaby Morgan, Macmillan Children’s Books (2004), by permission of the author; ‘Sensing Mother’ from Sensational!, chosen by Roger McGough, Macmillan Children’s Books (2004), by permission of the author; ‘Wish’ from Fairy Poems, chosen by Gaby Morgan, Macmillan Children’s Books (2006), by permission of the author; Joseph Coelho, ‘Make It Bigger, Eileen!’, by permission of the author; Wendy Cope, ‘Sporty People’ and ‘Where Am I?’ published by Faber and Faber Ltd; Frances Cornford, ‘The Old Witch in the Copse’, by kind permission of the Trustees of the Mrs Frances Crofts Cornford Will Trust; Noel Coward, ‘The Boy Actor’, copyright © Oxford University Press; E. E. Cummings, ‘maggie and milly and molly and may’ copyright © 1956, 1984, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust; Walter de la Mare, ‘The Stranger’, The Literary Trustees of Walter de la Mare and The Society of Authors as their representative; Jan Dean, ‘Colouring In’ first published in Mice on Ice, ed. Gaby Morgan, Macmillan Children’s Books (2004); John Drinkwater, ‘Moonlit Apples’ from Collected Poems, 1923 – reprinted by permission of Pan Macmillan; Carol Ann Duffy, ‘Prior Knowledge’, ‘Your Grandmother’, ‘The Giantess’, ‘Toy Dog’, ‘Teacher’ and ‘Halo’ all published by Faber and Faber Ltd; ‘Rooty Tooty’ and ‘The Counties’, by permission of Rogers, Coleridge and White Ltd; T. S. Eliot, ‘The Song of the Jellicles’ published by Faber and Faber Ltd; U. A. Fanthorpe, ‘Dear True Love’, from U. A. Fanthorpe New and Collected Poems, Enitharmon Press, 2010, with acknowledgement to Dr R.V. Bailey; Eleanor Farjeon, ‘Cottage’ from Then There Were Three published by Michael Joseph by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd; Gillian Floyd, ‘Mrs Mackenzie’, by permission of the author; John Foster, ‘My Baby Brother’s Secrets’ and ‘Inside Sir’s Matchbox’, both by permission of the author; Rose Fyleman, ‘A Fairy Went a-Marketing’, by permission of The Society of Authors; Wilfrid Gibson, ‘The Ice’, by permission of Pan Macmillan; Mary Green, ‘Ms Fleur’ first published in When Teacher Isn’t Looking, poems chosen by David Harmer, Macmillan Children’s Books (2001); David Harmer, ‘We Lost Our Teacher to the Sea’, copyright © David Harmer; Adrian Henri, ‘What Are Little Girls . . .’ published in Not Fade Away (Bloodaxe Books 1994), copyright © Rogers, Coleridge and White Ltd; Ted Hughes, ‘Cow’ and ‘Foxgloves’ published by Faber and Faber Ltd; Elizabeth Jennings, ‘Friends’ and Given an Apple’ from A Secret Brother and Other Poems for Children and A Spell of Words, both published by Macmillan Children’s Books, by permission of David Higham Associates Ltd; Jenny Joseph, ‘Warning’ from Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books 1992), copyright © Jenny Joseph, by permission of the author; ‘Expecting Visitors’ from Nothing Like Love, published by Enitharmon Press 2009, copyright © Jenny Joseph, by permission of the author; Jackie Kay, ‘Sassenachs’, ‘Summer Romance’, ‘New Baby’, ‘Grandpa’s Soup’, ‘The Frog Who Dreamed She Was an Opera Singer’ and ‘Brendon Gallacher’ all by permission of the author; Wes Magee, ‘The Day After’ copyright © Wes Magee; Frances Nagle, ‘Dream Team’, by permission of the author; Ogden Nash, ‘The Adventures of Isabel’, by permission of Carlton Books Ltd; Alfred Noyes, ‘Daddy Fell into the Pond’, by permission of The Society of Authors; Julie O’Callaghan, ‘Sister in a Whale’, by permission of the author; Ruhee Parelkar, ‘A Poetry on Geometry’, copyright © Ruhee Parelkar; Brian Patten, ‘A Small Dragon’, by permission of the author; Sylvia Plath, ‘Balloons’, ‘You’re’ and ‘Morning Song’ all published by Faber and Faber Ltd; Irene Rawnsley, ‘Purple Shoes’ from House of a Hundred Coats 1988, reproduced by permission of the author; John Rice, ‘The Fairy School under the Loch’ from Fairy Poems, chosen by Gaby Morgan, Macmillan Children’s Books (2006); Vernon Scannell, ‘Uncle Edward’s Affliction’, by permission of The Estate of Vernon Scannell; Stevie Smith, ‘Human Affection’, ‘My Hat’, ‘The Singing Cat’, ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ and ‘The Heavenly City’, copyright © Estate of James MacGibbon and New Directions; Marian Swinger, ‘The Girl Who Could See Fairies’ from Fairy Poems, chosen by Gaby Morgan, Macmillan Children’s Books (2006); Sharon Thesen, ‘Animals’, by permission of the author; David Whitehead, ‘Squirrels and Motorbikes’ from School Year, Macmillan Children’s Books, by permission of the author; William Carlos Williams, ‘This Is Just to Say’ by permission of Carcanet Press Limited.
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked then the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.