Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night: The strange country of the night

Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, a 2011 Newbery Honor-award winning poetry volume for children, combines factual prose with soaring poetry to demonstrate to young readers that the night is a strange and wondrous place. Long after the reader has gone to bed, a new world of animals creeps out into the woods to eat, play, and grow. Some of these creatures are terrifying; some of these creatures are timid. But what is most impressive about Sidman's work is the way that she grounds even her most fanciful poetry in facts about the animal's biology and actual living habits.

For example, I had never heard of a primrose moth until reading "Love Poem of the Primrose Moth." In the poem, the natural phenomenon of a moth that is small and dainty and feeds only on primrose becomes characterized as a protagonist in a love story between the moth and the flower the moth must eat to survive. Instead of being a fact about the moth's biology, its feeding habits become the subject of a passionate love story about the insect and the flower. The moth spins forth an ode to the primrose: "At dawn I fold my sherbet-colored wings/and become / a primrose." It is as if the moth, by virtue of eating so many primroses, has become as beautiful as a primrose itself, despite its rather prosaic, insect appearance. There is beauty in the moth because of what it feasts upon and its ability to appreciate the flower. "I have only one true love; / it is the primrose." The moth cannot decide if "night flight" or the "nectar of a primrose" is sweeter, reflecting the fact that the moth flies incessantly and seeks out food at night -- it loves both.

This favorite poem underlines the fundamental theme of all of the poems of the book: the night is beautiful and magic, yet the curiosities we observe are produced by natural phenomena. Sidman underlines these themes by presenting a poem and then immediately juxtaposing it on the following page with information about the science behind the behavior of the animal she is describing. Some of these scientific facts are just as compelling as the poem itself, such as the way the moths are able to camouflage themselves in the primrose stems, since they are of the same shade, and the fact that the primrose flowers only open at dusk.

The poem "Love Poem of the Primrose Moth" is told from the perspective of a moth, but the poem "Dark Emperor" which forms the title of the book has perhaps the most unique perspective: that of a mouse that is hiding itself from the super-sensitive senses of a predatory owl. The mouse is a complex character: he is fascinated by the owl's perspective, yet hopes to escape it. "What fills the/cool moons of your mesmerizing/eyes," the mouse asks his tormentor. The mouse prays to the bird as if is a kind of god: "O Dark Emperor / of hooked face and hungry eye: turn that / awful beak away from me." The owl is both beautiful and terrible, and the mouse is fascinated by the being which will surely attempt to ensnare him.

Given the multi-layered nature of poems such as "Dark Emperor," more simplistic poems like "I Am a Baby Porcupette," which have a nursery rhyme-like quality are somewhat disappointing. "I am a baby porcupette. / I cannot climb up branches wet." However, all of the poems are followed with compelling facts about these often little-known nocturnal creatures, such as the fact that the mother and baby porcupine must hide on the ground while the mother lives in the tree during the day and that they 'sing' to one another as the porcupette nurses.