Abraham Chear

Abraham Chear († 1668 ) was an English clergyman and author of children's and youth literature .

Chear was a Baptist clergyman and poet. He wrote his children's stories and poems in prison. Henry Jessey collected the texts and published them under the title A Looking-glass for Children: Being a Narrative of God's Gracious Dealings with Some Little Children (1672).

Chear's poems, which also appear in letter form and as rhymed lyrics, take up childhood stories from the Old Testament ; the religious approach is of great importance in this. The book A Looking-glass was considered a great success and was published four times by 1708. Other Chear poems have been published without an author's name, such as Nathaniel Crouch 's book, Youth's Divine Pastime .

Chear is best known to 20th century literary critics for his poem To a Sweet Virgin . The chorus, "'Tis pitty, such a pretty maid / As I should go to Hell" is considered repulsive to modern readers. Nevertheless, it is well proven how successful and popular Chear was in front of his (partly puritanical ) audience.

Works

• A Looking-Glass for Children: Being a Narrative of God's Gracious Dealings with Some Little Children . London, 1673.
• Sighs for Sion, or, Faith and Love . London, 1657.

literature

• Ronald Reichertz: The Making of the Alice Books : Lewis Carroll 's Uses of Earlier Children's Literature . Montreal, 1997, p. 171.
• Morag Styles: From the Garden to the Street: An Introduction to 300 Years of Poetry for Children . London, 1998.