Poetry Friday: Elsa Beskow

May comes but once a year,
the dancing month,
the sky light and high,
the birch trees bursting.
May-daisy time,
and cowslip
and primrose
and harebell
and dancing anemones.
Deep down in the meadow grass,
they're all dancing
with delight,
lily-of-the-valley
nodding,
ringing her bells,
the silver trunks
lordly and slim,
their branches and silvery twigs
dancing
too
to the tune of Spring.
~Elsa Beskow

From Around the Year: a picture book by Elsa Beskow. Elsa Beskow is a big part of our lives. Our children eat off of Elsa Beskow plates; wee Elsa Beskow prints adorn our house; her books are in our most-frequently-read pile.

She is the children's book embodiment of all that I love about the Swedish designer Carl Larsson. Charming, whimsical, colorful, and full of small forest people. I'm not qute certain that Carl Larsson's home in Sundborn was full of small forest people, but I am quite certain they would have been welcome there.

Here are some of our favorite titles from these two Swedish artists.

:: this post is included in the poetry round-up is over at Big A, little a.