Children's Poetry

The Romantic era was an extraordinary time for children's literature. Cultural understandings of ‘the child’ were redefined, children became a major publishing market, and rising literacy rates and the Sunday School movement created a voracious need for literature for young readers. The hymn, dramatic monologue, and verse fable were re-envisioned for children, and new genres came into being, such as the children's novel-in-verse and papillonade. Robert Southey, Matthew Lewis, and William Wordsworth dabbled with children's poetry. William Godwin established a children's press. Charlotte Smith and Richard Lovell Edgeworth authored prose works introducing poetry to children, and other writers versified, for the benefit of children, everything from the history of Rome to an introduction to shooting etiquette and the game-laws. Publishers Darton and Harvey, Benjamin Tabart, and John Harris (successor of the Newbery imprint) specialized in children's books and developed sophisticated marketing techniques by which books were available individually or as the set, and could be purchased with toys, maps, and ready-made book cabinets.