The Tree That Time Built

selected by Mary Ann Hoberman & Linda Winston

Sourcebooks, USA: 2009; 200pp

ISBN: 9781402225178

Genres: poetry, Science

Issues: environment, evolution

'The family tree of all life on earth might be called 'The Tree That Time Built'. It began putting down its roots millions of years ago.' (Introduction)

Subtitled, 'a celebration of nature, science and imagination', this outstanding anthology is a treasure trove of lyrical, moving, funny verse about the natural world.

Scientists and writers ask much the same questions, it is suggested - questions that involve why and how and have you noticed... but  'Scientists explore these questions through systematic methods and procedures, transforming their observations into ever-unfolding scientific knowledge. Poets, too, through observation and imagination, discover new truths about the world. But in their case they transform their insights into works of art.' (Introduction)

Mary Ann Hoberman was, at the time of publication, the US Children's Poet Laureate and some of her work is included here. 'But if I am a you and you are an I/ And the opposite also is true,/ It makes us both the same somehow/ Yet splits us each in two.' (from 'You and I' p 9) Here, too, are poems by D.H. Lawrence, Sylvia Plath, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hans Christian Anderson as well as many other great and lesser known writers. As with shells on the seashore, each verse is a small treasure – humorous, serious, passionate, sad... Poetry intensifies all experiences: it clarifies joys, underlines tragedy, shouts warnings and draws attention to the unnoticed beauties and dramas of the remarkable world around us.

Divided into sections – Oh, fields of wonder; The Sea Is Our Mother; Prehistoric Praise; Think Like a Tree and a number of others – each with their own thought-provoking introduction, this is a book that can either be read from cover to cover in the order planned by the editors or dipped into at will. Either way is equally enjoyable. Footnotes at the bottom of each page provide thinking points about each poem, encouraging readers (and teachers) to interact intellectually as well as emotionally with the verse – to think about how each poet uses language to create particular effects and provoke certain reactions.

An audio-CD is attached, featuring forty-four of the poems, including eighteen poets reading their own work.

One of the most refreshing, stimulating and thought-provoking collections I've come across in a long time, The Tree That Time Built is an essential anthology for any budding poet, scientist or lover of language.

A truly remarkable book that cannot be too highly recommended.