Evening
Now the drowsy sunshine
Slides far away
Into the happy morning
Of someone else's day.
The Dream
One night I dreamed
I was lost in a cave,
A cave that was empty
And dark and cool,
And down into nothing
I dropped a stone
And it fell like a star
Far and alone,
And a sigh arose
The sigh of a wave
Rippling the heart
Of a sunless pool.
And after a while
In my dream I dreamed
I climbed a sky
That was high and steep
And still as a mountain
Without a cave,
As still as water
Without a wave,
And on that hill
Of the sun it seemed
That all sad sounds
In the world fell asleep
Harry Behn, Windy Morning, Harcourt, Brace, 1953.
I have two little volumes of children's poems by Harry Behn written in the late 40's or early 50's; full of generally cheerful, happy poems. They are the kind of poems you might expect would be right for the classrooms and nightstands of the "Leave it To Beaver" generation--my own sometimes idealized generation. There were many happy traditional-values families like the Cleavers on TV--including Father Knows Best and Ozzie and Harriet among others. The parents and the children all had well-defined roles within the home and without. The view of children as reflected in literature, too was constrained by the gender and age expectations of the times. They were expected to be happy and sheltered from the unpleasant things in life.
So did children actually like Behn's poems? I'm not certain. I am not blown away by his verse, but I'd have to say that I really like these little books--I like their size, their clean design, the font style and size and the small enigmatic one color pictures that the author created to accompany his poems. Books have an aesthetic of their own, outside of their content or of the reputation of their author. They can give pleasure just by being held or gazed at; a pleasure that ebooks are challenged to match. Sometimes you can actually judge a book by its cover!
But let's speak of the author. Harry Behn (1898-1973) is not a well-known literary figure, but a surprisingly interesting character. Born near Prescott, AZ,(he named one of his son's Prescott) he attended Stanford and graduated from Harvard in 1922. He went to Sweden for a year on a fellowship. Shortly after returning from Sweden he went to work in the relatively new field of screenwriting in Hollywood. Later he taught creative writing at the University of AZ, created their radio bureau (writing scripts for radio shows); established the University of AZ Press, as well as the Phoenix Little Theater and was vice-president of the Tucson Regional Plan. He wrote 21 books for children, winning Graphics Arts awards for 3 of them. He seemed to have many talents and used them all in pursuit of his dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment