Seldom does a book of poems appear that is definitely a response to
demand and a reflection of readers' preferences. Of this collection that
can properly be claimed. For a decade NORMAL INSTRUCTOR-PRIMARY PLANS
has carried monthly a page entitled "Poems Our Readers Have Asked For."
The interest in this page has been, and is, phenomenal. Occasionally
space considerations or copyright restrictions have prevented compliance
with requests, but so far as practicable poems asked for have been
printed. Because it has become impossible to furnish many of the earlier
issues of the magazine, the publishers decided to select the poems most
often requested and, carefully revising these for possible errors, to
include them in the present collection. In some cases the desired poems
are old favorite dramatic recitations, but many of them are poems that
are required or recommended for memorizing in state courses of study.
This latter feature will of itself make the book extremely valuable to
teachers throughout the country. We are glad to offer here certain
poems, often requested, but too long for insertion on our magazine
Poetry Page. We are pleased also to be able to include a number of
popular copyright poems. Special permission to use these has been
granted through arrangement with the authorized publishers, whose
courtesy is acknowledged below in detail:
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY--_The Raggedy Man_, from "The Biographical
Edition of the Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley," copyright 1918.
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS--_Seein' Things_ and _Little Boy Blue_, by
Eugene Field; _Gradatim_ and _Give Us Men_, from "The Poetical Works of
J.G. Holland"; and _You and You_, by Edith Wharton, copyright 1919.
HARPER AND BROTHERS--_Over the Hill to the Poor-House_, _The Ride of
Jennie M'Neal_, _The Little Black-Eyed Rebel_, and _The First Settler's
Story_, by Will Carleton.
THE DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY--_The Moo Cow Moo_ and _The Young Man
Waited_, by Edmund Vance Cooke.
LOTHROP, LEE AND SHEPARD COMPANY--_The House by the Side of the Road_
and _The Calf Path_, by Sam Walter Foss.
LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY--_October's Bright Blue Weather_, by Helen
Hunt Jackson.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY--Poems by John G. Whittier, Alice Cary, Phoebe
Cary, James T. Fields, and Lucy Larcom.