The Ballad of Biddy Early - Hardcover

Nancy Willard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394884140 ISBN 13: 9780394884141

Publisher: Alfred A Knopf, 1989

Synopsis

A collection of poems about Biddy Early, the Wise Woman of Clare, and her animal, human, and supernatural associates.

About this title

Reviews

Grade 4 Up-- These 15 poems praise Biddy Early, the wise woman of Ireland's County Clare who lived from 1798 to 1874. Beginning with the ballad of the title, Willard invites listeners in with limericks, songs, and poems. The poems tell of magic and mystery, witchcraft, the supernatural, and murder; how nature and animals revered Biddy Early; how she read the future and cured illness. There are limericks from her cat, a song from her speckled hen, and a final remembrance from her friends. Meter, rhyme, structure, and rhythm vary throughout. Each of Moser's luminous watercolors focuses on a single element; his irregular rectangles rest on white pages and play with light and dark. They are exquisitely composed of haunting images, showing thick-walled cottages, gleaming Irish pipes, eerie cats. Like A Visit to William Blake's Inn (HBJ, 1981) , this is not for everyone, but the rich word play and imagery of the poetry and the power of the art should thrill readers who seek enchantment. --Leda Schubert, Vermont Department of Education, Montpelier
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This glorious collection of poems, songs, limericks and ballads celebrates the memory of Biddy Early, a 19th-century Irish peasant woman blessed with the power of healing. In a mere 15 selections, Willard's words weave an indelible portrait any biographer would be proud to claim. The legendary "wise woman of Clare" is heard about from humans and animals alike: in "A Noisy Story of Honor and Glory," Honor the fox confides to Glory the lark, "I hear Biddy's house is as broad as an ark . . . and even the crickets are watered and fed." A gypsy woman tells of consulting Biddy to heal a lame pony in "How the Queen of the Gypsies Met Trouble-And-Pain"; the curse invoked herein is positively blood-curdling. In "Her Friends Remember Biddy Early," there are several grim tasks associated with the grand lady's passing; it is agreed that Biddy's chronicler will be the seven-toed cat. These vignettes come in all sizes as well: in the long narrative verse "How Biddy Hid Mick the Moonlighter's Sleep in Her Sleeve," Biddy gives aid to an admitted murderer, while "The Cat's Second Song" tells in five lines of a bear, ridden by Biddy, that "ate candles and hay / till it twinkled away / down a tunnel of emerald air." Moser's paintings possess a haunting, brooding quality that further illuminates this unique character's mystique. By turns comic, tragic, irreverent, this heartfelt story--for it is a story, despite its fragmented, poetic form--cannot fail to impress and move. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0394884140
• ISBN 13: 9780394884141
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Barry Moser
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40