Two years ago, poetry was given to six-year-olds. Now it's the turn of the older children. The new anthology is aimed at the country's middle school students and is being published in 160,000 copies.
There is a risk when talking about the value of reading ability as being able to participate in the public conversation. It's true and important, but reading can ultimately seem a bit instrumental. But with poetry, something entirely different emerges. A room of silence, says the Swedish Academy's permanent secretary Mats Malm.
Poetry is not something you should crack and run away from, but something you can come back to again and again. A kind of existential reading, he continues.
"A Revelation"
"Time for Poetry" contains 52 poems selected by Ann Boglind and Anna Nordlund, researchers in didactics and literature respectively. Among the authors are both older poets such as Edith Södergran and Karin Boye, as well as contemporary poets like Laleh and Mårten Melin.
Some of the poems are written directly for children, but most are not. A common thread throughout the anthology is the theme of the passage of time.
Three years ago, the Academy made a similar effort, but then for the country's six-year-olds. Mats Malm was himself surprised at how well poetry worked.
Sometimes I get letters from classes that have written their own poems and made illustrations. It was a small revelation for me, actually, says Malm.
"The Measuring Worm"
Do you have a favorite in the new anthology?
Yes, "The Measuring Worm" by Werner Aspenström. I can read it to you. "I stretch out from my cherry leaf and gaze out at eternity: eternity is far too big today, far too blue and a thousand miles wide. I think I'll stay on my cherry leaf and measure my green cherry leaf".
It takes up time in its own way, and at the same time, I think it illustrates quite well that room of silence that a poem can offer.
Being sent free of charge to all middle schools in Sweden. All schools with year 5 will receive a class set of the book before the reading break. A total of 160,000 books are involved.
Contains 52 poems from the Swedish literary treasure trove from the 17th century to the present day.
Is a collaboration between the Swedish Academy, the National Agency for Education, and the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation. Being published on October 18 and will also be available in bookstores.
