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Phyllis Mcginley

Phyllis McGinley was a Pulitzer Prize winning American author of children’s books and poetry. Her poetry was in the style of light verse, specializing in humor, satiric tone and the positive aspects of suburban life.

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Awards and Movements

Grand Prix de Poésie 2011Grand Prix National de Poésie 2017Goncourt Poésie 2017Grand prix de Poésie de l'Académie franç 2011

Some Poems

Sticks and stones are hard on bones, aimed with angry art, words can sting like anything but silence breaks the heart.
Who could deny that privacy is a jewel? It has always been the mark of privilege, the distinguishing feature of a truly urbane culture. Out of the cave, the tribal teepee, the pueblo, the community fortress, man emerged to build himself a house of his own with a shelter in it for himself and his diversions. Every age has seen it so. The poor might have to huddle together in cities for need's sake, and the frontiersman cling to his neighbors for the sake of protection. But in each civilization, as it advanced, those who could afford it chose the luxury of a withdrawing-place.
The system -- the American one, at least -- is a vast and noble experiment. It has been polestar and exemplar for other nations. But from kindergarten until she graduates from college the girl is treated in it exactly like her brothers. She studies the same subjects, becomes proficient at the same sports. Oh, it is a magnificent lore she learns, education for the mind beyond anything Jane Austen or Saint Theresa or even Mrs. Pankhurst ever dreamed. It is truly Utopian. But Utopia was never meant to exist on this disheveled planet.
Women are the fulfilled sex. Through our children we are able to produce our own immortality, so we lack that divine restlessness which sends men charging off in pursuit of fortune or fame or an imagined Utopia. That is why we number so few geniuses among us. The wholesome oyster wears no pearl, the healthy whale no ambergris, and as long as we can keep on adding to the race, we harbor a sort of health within ourselves.
A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.
I do not know who first invented the myth of sexual equality. But it is a myth willfully fostered and nourished by certain semi-scientists and other fiction writers. And it has done more, I suspect, to unsettle marital happiness than any other false doctrine of this myth-ridden age.
Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy.
Sisters are always drying their hair. Locked into rooms, alone, they pose at the mirror, shoulders bare, trying this way and that their hair, or fly importunate down the stair to answer the telephone.
The Enemy, who wears her mother's usual face and confidential tone, has access; doubtless stares into her writing case and listens on the phone.
To be a housewife is ... a difficult, a wrenching, sometimes an ungrateful job if it is looked on only as a job. Regarded as a profession, it is the noblest as it is the most ancient of the catalogue. Let none persuade us differently or the world is lost indeed.
Phyllis McGinley's "June in the Suburbs"
Death at Suppertime by Phyllis McGinley
The Year Without A Santa Claus - Phyllis McGinley - Part 1
Squeeze Play by Phyllis McGinley
Dirge for a Era, by Phyllis McGinley
Wilder Phyllis McGinley Song Cycle, Van Hoesen, bsn, Jan DeGaetani, voice, Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp
"Portrait of a Girl With a Comic Book" - Phyllis McGinley
Without a cloak, by Phyllis McGinley
In Praise of Diversity by Phyllis McGinley
Phyllis McGinley top Quotes, best quotes from Phyllis McGinley
New England poem by Phyllis McGinley
Phyllis McGinley's "Twelfth Night"
On This Day... - March 21st - Phyllis McGinley | Writer, Poet, Pulitzer Prize Winner
Phyllis McGinley's "November"
Kitty On The Farm by Phyllis McGinley (Classic Kids Books Read Aloud)
About Children by Phyllis McGinley
"Ballade of Lost Objects" by Phyllis McGinley
A Phyllis McGinley Christmas Poem Sampler
[Part 1] Poetry Analysis of Daniel at Breakfast by Phyllis Mcginley l Poetry with Shing EP 10
Reflections at Dawn by Phyllis McGinley @RevdBee
How Mrs. Santa Clause Saved Christmas by Phyllis McGinley
The Year Without a Santa Claus by Phyllis McGinley
Storytime with The Minis: The Horse Who Lived Upstairs by Phyllis McGinley
We're Racing, Racing Down the Walk by Phyllis McGinley (Demo)
"Evening Musicale" by Phyllis McGinley
How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas by: Phyllis McGinley, Read Aloud, original 1961 images and text
Alec Wilder Phyllis McGinley Song Cycle
Mams Reads "The Year Without a Santa Clause" by Phyllis McGinley
"City Christmas" by Phyllis McGinley
Day 45 - Reflections at Dawn by Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978)
Phyllis Mcginley Quotes
The Horse Who Lived Upstairs By Phyllis McGinley | Storytime with Chickie
Midsummer Meditations
【朗誦節】We're Racing, Racing Down the Walk by Phyllis McGinley
Daylight Savings Time (Phyllis McGinley Poem)
Day 9: All The Days of Christmas by Phyllis McGinley
First Lesson (Phyllis McGinley Poem)
Daniel At Breakfast (Phyllis McGinley Poem)
We’re Racing, Racing Down the Walk by Phyllis McGinley - 英文朗誦示範 (第68屆香港學校朗誦節)
[Part 2] Poetry Analysis of Daniel at Breakfast by Phyllis Mcginley l Poetry with Shing EP 11
A Name for Kitty (1948) – Written by By Phyllis McGinley & Illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky
What Every Woman Knows
Light Ladies: An Evening of Light Verse & Song
The Year Without A Santa Claus
Office Party
The Magic's In The Doing (from "The Plain Princess")
What is the best quote for compromise?
TOLERANCE / TWA4
In Praise of Diversity
Ballad of Culinary Frustration

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