The Golden Staircase
Poems and Verses for Children (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Golden Staircase: Poems and Verses for Children

My apology for venturing to rush in where even poets have trod with but a measure of success must be that compilers of existing anthologies have had, it seems to me, a more intimate acquaintance with poetry than with the boys and girls for whom their selections have been made. If you talk to a child, you will find that an insight into the working of his little mind, an appreciation of his likes and dislikes, will stand you in better stead than a profound knowledge of your subject. Write, edit or compile a children's book, and again the same holds true. The first qualification for the task is love and knowledge of the little readers.

But time alone can justify the publication of The Golden Staircase. When well-worn copies are found on nursery or schoolroom bookshelf, then only shall I feel that I have vindicated my right to compile an anthology for children. My ultimate object is to guide boys and girls to those harvest-fields of poetry in which they may wander at large, but primarily the book has been planned with a view to their enjoyment by the way.

The Golden Staircase has two hundred steps. If a child begins to climb when he is four years old, and climbs twenty steps each year, on his fourteenth birthday he will reach the top.

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