Ted Hughes has written some of the most captivating verse for children in recent times. This volume collects, for the first time, four decades of Hughes's children's poems, from Meet My Folks! (1961) to The Mermaid's Purse. Lavishly illustrated by Raymond Briggs, with two hundred original illustrations, the edition is carefully prepared by reading age, beginning with poems for younger readers and working up to Hughes's material for young adults. The Collected Poems for Children is a delight for children and adults alike. The only poet of such stature to have written so prolifically for children Beautifully illustrated throughout by the acclaimed and award-winning illustrator and writer Raymond Briggs All his children's poems collected together and arranged according to age for the first time An essential poetry collection for children of all ages and a perfect gift book Greens, blues, the goldfish adore them! Winter-long they're thankful for them. When snowy winds are slicing in through all the little crannies The shrubs and birds in our neighbours' gardens envy those in my granny's. ears, And cats that come asking for 'Titbits please' Go trotting away with little bootees. A frosty Octopus received a stout eight-fingered mitten. A Camel whose important hump tended to get frost-bitten Has a tea-cosy with tassels on it. A grass-snake has a sock with a bonnet. Folks can buy clothes at some shop or other. The creatures depend on my grandmother. My Other Granny My Granny is an Octopus At the bottom of the sea, And when she comes to supper She brings her family. She chooses a wild wet windy night When the world rolls blind As a boulder in the night-sea surf, And her family troops behind. The sea-smell enters with them As they sidle and slither and spill With their huge eyes and their tiny eyes And a dripping ocean-chill. Some of her cousins are lobsters My Aunt You've heard how a green thumb Makes flowers come Quite without toil Out of any old soil. Well, my Aunt's thumbs were green. At a touch, she had blooms Of prize Chrysanthemums - The grandest ever seen. People from miles around Came to see those flowers And were truly astounded By her unusual powers. At her water-can showers. Day by day it grew With ragged leaves and bristles Till it was tall as me or you - It was a King of Thistles. 'Prizes for flowers are easy, ' My Aunt said in her pride. 'But was there ever such a weed The whole world wide?' She watered it, she tended it, It grew alarmingly. As if I had offended it, It bristled over me. 'Oh Aunt!' I cried. 'Beware of that! I saw it eat a bird.' She went on polishing its points As if she hadn't heard. Pig I am the Pig. I saw in my sleep A dreadful egg. What a thing to have seen! And what can it mean That the Sun's red eye Which seems to fry In the dawn sky So frightens me? Why should that be? The meaning is deep. Upward at these Hard mysteries A humble hog I gape agog. But I'm all heart - Heart that could not Softer soften! 'An ugly girl, But often, often With a pearl.' Sea-anemone For such a tender face A touch is like a danger. But the dance of my many arms To the music of the sea Brings many a friend to me. None can resist my grace. All fall for my charms. Many a friend, many a stranger, Many an enemy Melts in my embrace. I am anemone