De La Mare brought us another story previously, with his telling of a vane Little Red Riding Hood. Some of his other poems are also sort of dark, which shows a similar voice to what we saw with his previous story. I found his poetry sort of dull, I feel like it lost something in time. The rhyming does flow still, but many of the topics I feel kids would have more of a fun time just saying than actually knowing exactly what it’s about. “The Penny Owing” almost sounds like some sort of reaper or ghost coming with a final penny for blind Tam. Beggars are something we have today as well, so they could understand this enough, but I don’t think they’d see the same meaning as I do, which is fine still. Some of the words aren’t common ones for children, like “abide” and “grudged” so it can work for extending vocabulary as well. Again, maybe this could also introduce children to the idea of money and counting change, suggesting they save their pennies and such.

Aren't some of his poems a little lighter? Good, if general, on the vocabulary benefits and differing interpretations.