A CHILD'S TREASURY OF SEASIDE VERSE

In the manner of this anthologist's A Child's Treasury of Animal Verse (1989), etc., here are more than 70 poems—mostly from well-known 19th-century British poets—handsomely illustrated with contemporary paintings, engravings, and silhouettes. The poetry, much of it familiar, is of generally high quality (the mixture of Empire and the Victorian view of childhood provides a rich lode), though there are some unabashedly overblown passages (``Dimpled feet swift treading/The huge billow's track,/Rosy fingers flinging/Merry kisses back''). The artists are mostly less familiar, ranging from a real Turner and the Turneresque to romantic landscapes and some precursors of Norman Rockwell. The unusually attractive format and accessible inclusions like ``The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens'' and bits of Carroll and Lear may lure unsuspecting readers into the pleasures of more demanding fare—Tennyson, Wordsworth, Shakespeare. Brief sketches of the 33 poets; list of the painters; index of first lines. (Poetry. 6+)