Page:Poems Elliott.djvu/12

 of her child's work to afford material of some value to those interested in the psychological development of children.

In the present volume, poems have been selected, written at an interval of two years, beginning with the first, at the age of four, and ending with the "Victuri Salutamus," written in response to her unanimous election by her comrades to the honor of Class Poet.

Her earliest expressions of poetic thought might perhaps come under the head of "Free Verse," having a certain rhythm, but without rhyme. Then follows one prose poem. The first rhyming verse is the one called "A Child's Faith," written at the age of four. From then on "free verse" seems to have been discarded.

This little volume is published at the present time, and before the Author's eighteenth birthday, as a souvenir, to be presented to a few appreciative friends, on her graduation from the Ithaca High School in June, 1917. Owing to the timeliness of the subject, her graduating essay, "Three Hero-Poets," has also been included. Thanks are due to the Ithaca Journal and to the Ithaca High School Tattler for permission to reprint the poems which have already appeared in those publications.

C. E. E.

Ithaca, June, 1917.