Best-Loved Poems

By Neil Philip

Book Overview

This highly accessible collection gathers together the best-loved gems of English language verse, from the deeply moving to the hilariously silly. The poems span the entire range of verse from high drama to stuff-and-nonsense and are presented in nine sections: Poems of Childhood and Youth; Poems of Love and Marriage; Poems of Life; Poems of Loss and Comfort; Poems of War and Peace; Poems to Read Aloud; Poems to Read Quietly; Poems of Animals and Nature and Poems of Magic and Mystery.

The anthology includes works by William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, Robert Burns, T S Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, W B Yeats and many, many more. The poems have all been chosen and arranged by Neil Philip and the volume is illustrated throughout with watercolour borders and decorative motifs by Isabelle Brent, glowing with her trademark gold leaf.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316724386
• ISBN13: 9780316724388
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Little Brown and Co. (UK)
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Interesting poetry compilation

The editor of this book selected what appear to be his favorite poems, some of which are famous but others are certainly not, as the comments on the back cover admit. So the title of this book refers to his own personal tastes rather than any assessment of public popularity, but this is still a fine book. The book is divided into nine themes, these being (1) childhood and youth, (2) love and marriage, (3) life, (4) loss and comfort, (5) war and peace, (6) poems to read aloud, (7) poems to read quietly, (8) animals and nature, ending with (9) magic and mystery. Given these themes, some poems fit more than one theme and they aren't always classified as you might expect them to be. The index of titles and first lines, mixed together with titles italicized, is useful in locating specific poems. A separate index of poets immediately precedes the titles and first lines index, with all anonymous poems listed together. The book is attractively illustrated, which enhances the book and does not distract from the poetry. Regarding the selection of poems, there are some such as Daffodils (William Wordsworth) and If (Rudyard Kipling) that no self-respecting poetry book could omit while claiming to be about best loved poems. Beyond that, there is plenty of scope for argument about what has been included or omitted. Robert Burns is represented with one of his famous poems (A red red rose, more usually titled My love is like a red red rose) and one that must be here as an editor's choice (O wert thou in the cold blast) because there are plenty of more famous Burns poems (for example, To a mouse) that weren't included. Still, at least you know that if you already have other poetry compilations, you won't just get all the same poems that you've already got, though you will get some of those. Really, that's why I generally prefer to by individual author anthologies, though I appreciate the appeal of multi-author poetry compilations, just as I appreciate the occasional multi-artist music compilation. The editor's favorite poets, based on the numbers of poems selected, are Thomas Hardy (ten), William Blake (eight) and William Shakespeare (six), while he has selected five each by Alfred Tennyson, D H Lawrence, A E Housman and Emily Dickinson. The emphasis is clearly on poetry more than a century old. W H Auden and Dylan Thomas are represented by just one poem each while John Betjeman is un-represented. Could this be because the publishers didn't want to pay copyright payments? I don't know, but I know that some record labels specialize in releasing music old enough to avoid copyright payments, so I wouldn't rule out the possibility. There is much to like about this book, which is no doubt aimed at people who don't read much poetry, but given the selection policy, I suspect that even avid poetry fans might find a few poems here that they don't already know. And even if they don't, they could use this book to introduce others to the world of traditional poetry.

great book of poetry!

the title says it all, in this volume i ran across almost all my favorite poems, plus plenty that were new to me, and i thoroughly enjoyed the whole book.

Poetry to warm the cockles of your heart

What an ABSOLUTE gem of a book! I just got it today and I can't believe I haven't come across it before! Beautifully illustrated with gold trimmed pages, and arranged into nine thematic sections that cover many subjects including war, youth, love and life etc. I sat with my mom and read out poems she had read to me when I was a child, along with ones she remembered from her childhood in the 1940s. Who can forget such first lines as "Tyger, Tyger, burning bright in the forest of the night" (Blake) or "She walks in beauty like the night," (Lord Byron) and this is just a tiny taster of what is hidden in these wonderful glossy pages that make up this much understated book. You have a cacophony of poets to choose from such as G.K.Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling, Christina Rossetti, Leigh Hunt, Rupert Brookes, Percy Shelley, and even sonnets from Shakespeare himself! Don't miss the Philip Larkin's satirical ode to family relationships and Dorothy Parker's caustic ditty about life and death. This is a book of poetry for all tastes, and all ages and if you can find a copy grab it and horde it away for those nights when there is nothing on TV and all you want to do is sit by the fire and read a jolly good book of verse.