Fairyland in Art and Poetry

By: Doyle, Richard

Poetry to delight anyone who still believes in magic. "When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies." - J. M. Barrie, Scottish, 1860-1937, from Peter Pan The art of Englishman Richard Doyle offers lush glimpses into the world of the wee folk. Doyle's fairies troop through meadows, twirl in the moonlight, and enlist birds and bugs in games and mischief. His whimsical illustrations, chosen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection, are paired with poems by William Shakespeare, John Keats, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Butler Yeats, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Stevie Smith, and Langston Hughes, among others.Fairy sweethearts among the roses illustrate Wilder's "The Fairies in the Sunshine," elf babies in a snail race match Robert Graves's "I'd Love to Be a Fairy's Child," and a fairy queen carried by butterflies reimagines Shakespeare's popular "Queen Mab" soliloquy. A magical treasury that will enchant readers of all ages.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805070060
• ISBN13: 9780805070064
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.4" x 0.5" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 8 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 4

Customer Reviews

Lovely Art, Lovely Poetry

The fairy art in this is unique and exquisite. Each image goes very well with the sweetly written poetry along side it. Wonderful to read to a child or yourself to lift you spirits!

A SUPERB PAIRING OF ART AND POETRY

British artist Richard Doyle (1824-1883), the son of a portrait painter and caricaturist, may be best remembered by some as the creator of the cover design for Punch, which was used for over a century. He also illustrated a number of children's books and created beguiling paintings of fairies, the wee folk. It is the latter that is used to illustrate this lovely keepsake volume. Doyle's paintings are imaginative and incandescent, luminous illustrations of fairies astride snails, perched on a beetle or relaxing on a verdant hillock. Each illustration perfectly accompanies a poem, such as a tiny one sipping from a cowslip's bell in Shakespeare's "Ariel's Song" or fairies engaged in a tug-of-war with a grasshopper in "An Explanation of the Grasshopper" by Vachel Lindsay. Other poets represented include John Keats, Robert Louis Stevenson, William Butler Yeats, and Langton Hughes. The pairing of art and poetry is superb, thoughtfully conceived and executed. This slim volume deserves a place in everyone's library. - Gail Cooke