The Mulberry Men

Helen M. Dobie was a teacher-librarian living in Woodstock, Ontario.

David Solway has put together a collection of juvenile poetry covering many subjects and themes common to the lives of children. Some of the poems have a distinctly Greek flavour. “Hanio and Gisela” walk out to find and admire relics of antiquity then return to their home whose “stones date from the founding of Rome.” Some have the taste and the sound of the sea (“Beach Wars,” “Seasons,” “the waves are nuzzling at the shore and arching up like cats”). Others speak of children who are the same anywhere with their squabbles, jealousies, fears, and joys. It is an interesting collection. The five black-and-white illustrations by Maureen Maxwell add little to the understanding or enjoyment of the poems they are meant to illustrate. I rather doubt that many children would appreciate them, yet the poems themselves will appeal. “Sibling Chess” and “The Father of Fanatics” will certainly strike a chord with boys or girls who have been bitten by the chess bug. “A House Guest” will remind many of guests they were happy to see depart. “Sonnet from My Daughter” is a delightful description of an infant a few months old from the child’s point of view.

Solway’s language is graphic and earthy. I kept hearing little eight- and ten-year-old boys. He has used a variety of styles in the poems. There are rhyming and unrhymed ones. There is a formal sonnet; there are poems with the sing-song rhythms so dear to childhood. Some of his rhymes are quite Odgen Nashian: “Ulfa the magician / furnished up my house / and that explains why all I do / is quite preposterous.”

But most of the rhymes are quite simple and will appeal to children, who are often much less adventuresome in their poetry style preferences than they will be when they become a little more blasé and world-weary. They want their rhymes to sing and their rhythms to swing. These do.