Winter Poems

Winter Poems. Selected by Barbara Rogasky. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. ISBN # 0-590-42873-X

This book positively captures the different feelings and moods of winter. This is possible, in part, because of the beautiful merging of the poetry and wonderful illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman. The mood can be light like this short passage from “I Heard a Bird Sing” by Oliver Herford

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember:

An anonymous Japanese poet shows a more somber mood in “Moon”.

The moon hangs up at night;
Her beams are cold and bright;
Seeing her shadow low
The water’s frozen now.

The list of poets selected by Barbara Rogasky is like a who’s who in the last 200 years of poetry. Some of the poets included in this volume are: William Shakespeare, Wallace Stevens, Richard Wright, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg. With the list of poets just mentioned, you might think that this book is not approachable for tweens. This is not the case. As an adult, I have read this book numerous times, and I enjoy more with each new reading.