"If readers are to come to Shakespeare and to Chekhov, to Henry James and to Jane Austen, then they are best prepared if they have read Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling," writes Harold Bloom in his introduction to this enchanting and much-needed anthology of exceptional stories and poems selected to inspire a lifelong love of reading. As television, video games, and the Internet threaten to distract young people from the solitary pleasures of reading, Bloom presents a volume that will amuse, challenge, and beguile readers with its myriad voices and subjects.Here are old favorites by beloved writers of children's literature, as well as exciting rediscoveries and wonderful works penned by writers better known for their adult classics, such as Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, Edith Wharton, and Walt Whitman. Encompassing the natural world and the supernatural; childhood, romance, and death; pets, wild animals, and goblins; mystery, adventure, and humor; the selections reflect the passion and erudition of our most revered literary critic. Arranged by season,Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Agesis a must-have anthology, sure to delight readers young and old for years to come.

Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and Berg Professor of English at New York University. He has written more than twenty books, including The Western Canon, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, and How to Read and Why. He is a MacArthur Prize fellow, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the recipient of many awards, including the Academy's Gold Medal for Criticism. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and New York City.

Contents

Introduction

Book I....Spring

The Human Seasons  John Keats
The Song of the Four Winds  Thomas Love Peacock
The Wind and The Rain  William Shakespeare
The Ass Eating Thistles  Aesop
A Crazy Tale  Gilbert Keith Chesterton
How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin  Rudyard Kipling
The Message of the March Wind  William Morris
A Musical Instrument  Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Little Birds of the Night  Stephen Crane
There Was A Child Went Forth  Walt Whitman
Reflections  Lafcadio Hearn
The Owl and The Pussy-Cat  Edward Lear
Old May Song  Anonymous
"Home No More Home To Me"  Robert Louis Stevenson
The Fairies  William Allingham
Green Grass  Anonymous
"Beautiful Soup, So Rich and Green"  Lewis Carroll
"Gay Go Up, and Gay Go Down"  Anonymous
"Here We Come A Piping"  Anonymous
"Hey Nonny No!"  Anonymous
"I Had A Little Nut-Tree"  Anonymous
The Lincolnshire Poacher  Anonymous
Complements  Emile Zola

Book II....Summer

The King of the Golden River  John Ruskin
The Jumblies  Edward Lear
A Runnable Stag  John Davidson
A Pig-Tale  Lewis Carroll
The Elephant's Child  Rudyard Kipling
The Bottle Imp  Robert Louis Stevenson
"I Saw A Peacock With A Fiery Tail"  Anonymous
"In Winter, When The Fields Are White"  Lewis Carroll
"Echo's Lament For Narcissus"  Ben Jonson
The Way Through The Woods  Rudyard Kipling
The Remarkable Rocket  Oscar Wilde
Journalism In Tennessee  Mark Twain
Roaring Mad Tom  Anonymous
The Mad Gardener's Song  Lewis Carroll
The War-Song of Dinas Vawr  thomas Love Peacock
"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"  Rudyard Kipling
Uncle David's Nonsensical Story About Giants and Fairies
  Catherine Sinclair
The Fox and The Hedgehog  Aesop
The Goose-Girl  Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm
The Necklace of Princess Fiorimonde  Mary De Morgan
August  algernon Charles Swinburne
The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò  Edward Lear
The Crow and The Pitcher  Aesop
The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky  Stephen Crane
Humpty Dumpty  Lewis Carroll

Book III....Autumn

The Stag Looking Into The Water  Aesop
The Mock Turtle's Story  Lewis Carroll
The Floating Old Man  Edward Lear
The Wood So Wild  Anonymous
The Problem of Thor Bridge  Arthur Conan Doyle
Wakefield  Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Spring Lover and The Autumn Lover Lafcadio Hearn
Goblin Market  Christina Rossetti
The Three Strangers  Thomas Hardy
How Much Land Does a Man Need?  Leo Tolstoy
Ali The Persian's Story of the Kurd Sharper
  The Arabian Nights
A Leave-Taking  Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Unquiet Grave  Anonymous
Autumn  John Clare
"This is The Key of the Kingdom"  Anonymous
The Dong With A Luminous Nose  Edward Lear
"Weep You No More, Sad Fountains"  Anonymous
"Will You Walk A Little Faster?"  Lewis Carroll
The Two Pots  Aesop
Feathertop  Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Recessional  Saki
"I Loved A Lass"  George Wither
"The Splendour Falls On Castle Walls"
  Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"So, We'll Go No More A-Roving"
  George Gordon, Lord Byron
The Dalliance of the Eagles  Walt Whitman
November  Robert Bridges
Drinking Song  John Still
Love Will Find Out The Way  Anonymous
My Cat Jeoffrey  Christopher Smart
The White island  Robert Herrick
Death and Cupid  Aesop
"Who Has Seen The Wind?"  Christina Rossetti

Book IV....Winter

The Red Shoes  Hans Christian Andersen
The Signal-Man  Charles Dickens
A Merry Note  William Shakespeare
"Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind"  William Shakespeare
The Lion of Winter  William Shakespeare
Dirge in Woods  Feorge Meredith
A Wintry Sonnet  Christina Rossetti
Song  Christina Rossetti
The Silver Swan  Orlando Gibbons
Nightmare  William Schwenk Gilbert
Witches' Loaves  O. Henry
The Horla  Guy De Maupassant
Sir Patrick Spence  Anonymous
A Helen of Kirconnell  Anonymous
"I Know a Little Garden-Close"  William Morris
Night  William Blake
Snow-Flakes  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Snowstorm  John Clare
The Snowstorm  Ralph Waldo Emerson
London Snow  Robert Bridges
Bits of Straw  John Clare
The Bell-Tower  Herman Melville
In The Dark  E. Nesbit
The Hag  Robert Herrick
A Spell  John Dryden
The Old Ghost  Thomas Lovell Beddoes
Sorrow  Aubrey De Vere
Luke Havergal  Edwin Arlington Robinson
Dirge  Thomas Lovell Beddoes
The Two Spirits  Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Phantom-Wooer  Thomas Lovell Beddoes
The Portent  Herman Melville
William Wilson  Edgar Allan Poe
The Queen of Spades  Alexander Pushkin
All Souls'  Edith Wharton
The Carrion Crow  Thomas Lovell Beddoes
Badger  John Clare
The Eagle  Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Mariana  Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Kraken  Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes  H. G. Wells
The Nose  Nikolai Gogol
The Song of Triumphant Love  Ivan Turgenev
The Walrus and The Carpenter  Lewis Carroll
A Noiseless Patient Spider  Walt Whitman
Up-Hill  Christina Rossetti

Author Index
Title Index

Copyright &#; By Harold Bloom, LLC

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