William Carlos Williams

A spring crop of poetry as well as plays in verse, both classic and contemporary, celebrate life, art and humanity. Featuring a comprehensive biography on the poets and notes on their poems, the Poetry for Young People series adds two entries. William Carlos Williams, ed. by Christopher MacGowan, illus. by Robert Crockett, collects works from across the poet's long and intriguing career. Often making use of original structures and rhythms, his poems contain vivid images of American life, both urban and rural. The volume takes readers from lesser known works such as ""Spring Strains"" (""In a tissue-thin monotone of blue-grey buds/ crowded erect with desire against/ the sky-"") to his popular ""The Red Wheelbarrow."" The poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ed. by John Maynard, illus. by Allen Garns, unfolds largely in traditional iambic pentameter and couplets, covering topics from Greek or Arthurian myths to the loss of a close friend. Excerpts from ""The Lady of Shalott"" and ""The Charge of the Light Brigade"" sit alongside the full text of ""Crossing the Bar."" In both volumes, colorful paintings act as concretely visual accompaniments.