Like Sorrow or a Tune: Poems by Eleanor Farjeon

When my sons  were little, I often read them a poem or two before their bedtime stories. Eleanor Farjeon was one poet who always seemed to know how to please them with her gentle rhymes and playful wit. Though Farjeon (1881-1965) is known in England as a prolific writer of poems, stories and plays, she is most known in the U.S. for penning the words to the hymn, "Morning Has Broken." And although Goodreads lists 99 of her books, my Michigan library had access to just one of them.

Like Sorrow or a Tune is a compilation of her poems written for children and adults. It contains quite a bit of biographical information and a smattering of her lesser-known poetry.

Sometimes she reminds me of Emily Dickinson with her compact profundity: Words and the body have always been much pain to me, little fetters and drags on immensities.

But other rhymes are beautiful in their simplicity:

When the heat of the summer made drowsy the land,
A dragonfly came and sat on my hand,
With its blue jointed body and wings like spun glass, 
It lit on my fingers as though they were grass.

If you enjoy good children's poetry, I hope you can find Farjeon in your local library. I don't recommend this particular book as the best place to start because it seemed like an odd assortment, but it does give a bit of insight into her adult poetry.

The title of the book comes from one of her most famous poems for children:

The night will never stay,
The night will still go by, 
Though with a million stars
You pin it to the sky, 
Though you bind it to the blowing wind
And buckle it to the moon,
The night will slip away,
Like sorrow or a tune.

Blessings,