+ − Springf’d Republican p11a Je 13 ’20 240w
CONKLING, HILDA. Poems by a little girl. *$1.50 Stokes 811
20–7794
The author of these poems is now nine years old. Amy Lowell writes a long preface to the book in which she says: “It is poetry, the stuff and essence of poetry.... I know of no other instance in which such really beautiful poetry has been written by a child.... What this book chiefly shows is high promise; but it also has its pages of real achievement, and that of so high an order it may well set us pondering.” With some biographical data on the child Miss Lowell describes her manner of working, which she considers to be largely subconscious and perfectly instinctive. The poems are grouped according to the child’s age into: Four to five years old; Five to six years old; Six to seven years old; and Seven to nine years old.
“The book as a whole is convincing, and a number of the poems are beautiful.”
+ Ath p644 N 12 ’20 620w + Booklist 16:305 Je ’20
“Charming and unusual. Here is a book of poems instinct with the spirit of childhood and so childlike in much of its phrasing as to make a direct and permanent appeal to children and grown people.” A. C. Moore
+ Bookm 51:314 My ’20 1000w
“Her thought has not the incoherence that might be expected of a child; she paints in each poem a complete picture, step by step, usually leading up to the last line with a fine feeling for climax. In economy of words and in power of connotation these poems resemble the translations from the Chinese and the Japanese which have lately attracted the attention of occidental poets, but there is a richness of detail that we are accustomed to associate with the tradition of English literature.” N. J. O’Conor