The rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb� told in the style—and substance—of the great English poets from Edmund Spenser to Stevie Smith.   In The Lamb Cycle, David R. Ewbank achieves the unthinkable—he writes so convincingly in the style of the great English poets that one could be lulled into thinking that Shakespeare himself was inspired to muse upon the subject of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.� Ewbank captures not only the style of each of the poets he chooses, but also their preoccupations and subject matter. So D.H. Lawrence’s Mary longs for her lamb as any woman longing for her lover, whilst T.S. Eliot’s Mary is recollected by an old man looking back on his life. Alexander Pope writes an “An Essay on Lambs,� and Tennyson’s lotus eaters become “The Clover Eater.� Brilliantly written, sophisticated, and laugh-out-loud funny, these poems, enhanced by Kate Feiffer’s charming illustrations, will enchant anyone who has ever read an English poem.  

Everyone has only nice things to say about my mom.
Everyone likes her.
She looks nice.
She bakes great cookies and makes me feel better when I have a bad day.
But would a really nice mom do embarrassing things like kiss me in public and tell loud jokes that no one thinks are funny? Well, my mom does those "terrible" things and worse - that's why I am sure that I have the most embarrassing mom in the world and that my mom is trying to ruin my life...
"Or is she"?