An anthology of American poems, arranged chronologically, from colonial alphabet rhymes to Native American cradle songs to contemporary poems.

Includes indexes.

Preface -- Chant to the fire-fly -- She will gather roses -- Mother's song to a baby / Anonymous Naive American -- Alphabet / The New England Primer -- A visit from St. Nicholas / Clement Clarke Moore -- The three little kittens / Eliza Lee Follen -- Mary's lamb / Sarah Josepha Hale -- The cow-boy's song / Anna Maria Wells -- The New-England boy's song about Thanksgiving day / Lydia Maria Child -- Fable / Ralph Waldo Emerson -- Village Blacksmith / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -- Barbara Frietchie / John Greenleaf Whittier -- The blind men and the elephant / John Godfrey Saxe -- I'm nobody, who are you? -- There is no frigate like a book / Emilly Dickinson -- The twins / Henry S. Leigh -- The lazy pussy -- The mouse's lullaby / Palmer Cox -- The camel's complaint / Charles E. Carryl -- Little Orphant Annie / James Whitcomb Riley -- The origin of the snake / Anonymous African American -- Wynken, Blynken, and Nod / Eugene Field -- Antonio -- Eletelephony / Laura E. Richards -- The ostrich is a silly bird / Mary E. Wilkins Freeman -- The considerate crocodile / Amos R. Wells -- Casey at the bat / Ernest Lawrence Thayer -- I wish that my room had a floor -- The purple cow / Gelett Burgess -- Habits of the hippopotamus / Arthur Guiterman -- The last word of a bluebird / Robert Frost -- Fog -- We must be polite / Carl Sandburg -- The little turtle -- The moon's the north wind's cooky / Vachel Lindsay -- The Rabit / Elizabeth Madox Roberts -- Macavity: the mystery cat / T.S. Eliot -- Counting-out rhyme / Edna St. Vincent Millay -- No shop does the bird use -- Song of the rabbits outside the tavern / Elizabeth Coatsworth -- In just / E.E. Cummings -- Something told the wild geese / Rachel Field -- Books fall open / David McCord -- Adventures of Isabel -- The Panther / Ogden Nash -- Mother to Son -- April rain song -- Hope / Langston Hughes -- Incident / Countee Cullen -- Too many Daves / Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) -- Triolet against sisters / Phyllis McGinley -- The sloth -- Dinky / Theodore Roethke -- About the teeths of sharks / John Ciardi -- Catch a little rhyme / Eve Merriam -- Michael is afraid of the storm / Gwendolyn Brooks -- The floor and the ceiling / William Jay Smith -- Cardinal ideograms / May Swenson -- Some opposites / Richard Wilbur -- One winter night in August / X.J. Kennedy -- The folk who live in Backward Town / Mary Ann Hoberman -- The witches' ride / Karla Kuskin -- Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out / Shel Silverstein -- The king of cats sends a postcard to his wife / Nancy Willard -- To P.J. (2 yrs old who sed write a poem for me in Portland, Oregon) / Sonia Sanchez -- Listen children / Lucille Clifton -- The pancake collector / Jack Prelutsky -- Castanet clicks -- Tall walking woman / Pat Mora -- Knoxville, Tennessee / Nikki Giovanni -- Ode to Señor Leal's goat / Gary Soto -- (poems in Spanish and English) Laughing tomatoes -- Morning sun / Francisco X. Alarcon -- Good hot dogs / Sandra Cisneros -- Good luck gold -- One to ten / Janet S. Wong.