The Rattle Bag is an anthology of poetry (mostly in English but occasionally in translation) for general readers and students of all ages and backgrounds. These poems have been selected by the simple yet telling criteria that they are the personal favorites of the editors, themselves two of contemporary literature's leading poets.


Moreover, Heaney and Hughes have elected to list their favorites not by theme or by author but simply by title (or by first line, when no title is given). As they explain in their Introduction: "We hope that our decision to impose an arbitrary alphabetical order allows the contents [of this book] to discover themselves as we ourselves gradually discovered them--each poem full of its singular appeal, transmitting its own signals, taking its chances in a big, voluble world."


With undisputed masterpieces and rare discoveries, with both classics and surprises galore, The Rattle Bag includes the work of such key poets as William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and Sylvia Plath among its hundreds of poems. A helpful Glossary as well as an Index of Poets and Works are offered at the conclusion of this hefty, unorthodox, diverse, inspired, and inspiring collection of poetry.
Seamus Heaney received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. His many books of poetry include Opened Ground, Electric Light, The Spirit Level, Seeing Things, Station Island, The Haw Lantern, and Field Work, as well as translations of Beowulf and Diary of One Who Vanished. A resident of Dublin, he has taught poetry at Oxford University and Harvard University. In 2004, Heaney was presented with the Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement.


The British poet, translator, author, and critic Ted Hughes, born in 1930, wrote more than forty books, including, in the last decade of his life, Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being; Tales from Ovid; verse adaptations of Aeschylus's Oresteia, Racine's Phèdre, and Euripedes' Alcestis; and the bestselling Birthday Letters. Hughes served as Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II from 1984 until his death in 1998.
The Rattle Bag is an anthology of poetry (mostly in English but occasionally in translation) for general readers and students of all ages and backgrounds. These poems have been selected by the simple yet telling criteria that they are the personal favorites of the editors, themselves two of contemporary literature's leading poets.


Moreover, Heaney and Hughes have elected to list their favorites not by theme or by author but simply by title (or by first line, when no title is given). As they explain in their Introduction: "We hope that our decision to impose an arbitrary alphabetical order allows the contents [of this book] to discover themselves as we ourselves gradually discovered them—each poem full of its singular appeal, transmitting its own signals, taking its chances in a big, voluble world."


With undisputed masterpieces and rare discoveries, with both classics and surprises galore, The Rattle Bag includes the work of such key poets as William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Lewis Carroll, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and Sylvia Plath among its hundreds of poems. A helpful Glossary as well as an Index of Poets and Works are offered at the conclusion of this hefty, diverse, and inspiring collection of poetry.


Quotes
"The method employed in arranging and presenting [the contents of this book] must surely be the one for all the best anthologies . . . The Rattle Bag sets a standard which other anthologies will find it difficult to equal."—Alan Brownjohn, The Times Literary Supplement (London)


"A splendid, huge, resonant book."—The Observer (London)


"A must for anyone at all who likes poetry."—Melvyn Bragg, The Times (London)


Table of Contents
A-M
"'Adieu, farewell earth's bliss,'" Thomas Nashe
"After his Death," Norman MacCaig
n0 "After Looking into a Book Belonging to My Great-Grandfather . . .," Hyam Plutzik
"Afterwards," Thomas Hardy
"Ah! Sunflower," William Blake
"Alfred Corning Clark," Robert Lowell
"The Allansford Pursuit," Robert Graves
"'All the world's a stage,'" William Shakespeare
"Among the Narcissi," Sylvia Plath
"The Ancients of the World," R. S. Thomas
"'And death shall have no dominion,'" Dylan Thomas
"And in the 51st Year of that Century . . . ," Hyam Plutzik
"'And the days are not full enough,'" Ezra Pound
"Angelica the Doorkeeper," Anon
"'The Angel that presided o'er my birth,'" William Blake
"'Anger lay by me all night long,'" Elizabeth Daryush
"An Animal Alphabet," Edward Lear
"Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries," Hugh MacDiarmid
"'anyone lived in a pretty how town,'" e. e. cummings
"Apple Blossom," Louis MacNeice
"The Artist," William Carlos Williams
"'As I came in by Fiddich-side,'" Anon
"'As I walked out one evening,'" W. H. Auden
"'As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame,'" Gerard Manley Hopkins
"As Much as You Can," C. P. Cavafy
"'As the team's head-brass flashed out,'" Edward Thomas
"'As you came from the holy land,'" Sir Walter Ralegh
"At Grass," Philip Larkin
"At the Bomb Testing Site," William Stafford
"'At the grey round of the hill,'" W. B. Yeats
"Auguries of Innocence," William Blake
"Aunt Julia," Norman MacCaig
"Autobahnmotorwayautoroute," Adrian Mitchell
"Autobiography," Louis MacNeice
"Autowreck," Karl Shapiro
"'Aye, but to die, and go we know not where,'" William Shakespeare
"Baby Song," Thom Gunn
"The Badger," John Clare
"Bagpipe Music," Louis MacNeice
"Bags of Meat," Thomas Hardy
"The Ballad of Rudolph Reed," Gwendolyn Brooks
"Ballad of the Bread Man," Charles Causley
"Be Merry," Anon
"Beeny Cliff," Thomas Hardy
"'Before I knocked and flesh let enter,'" Dylan Thomas
"Behaviour of Fish in an Egyptian Tea Garden," Keith Douglas
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci," John Keats
"Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter," John Crowe Ransom
"'Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises,'" William Shakespeare
"Bermudas," Andrew Marvell
"Bethsabe's Song," George Peele
"Bifocal," William Stafford
"The Bight," Elizabeth Bishop
"Binsey Poplars," Cerard Manley Hopkins
"Birches," Robert Frost
"Birth of the Foal," Ferenc Juhász
"The Black Cloud," W. H. Davies
"Black Rock of Kiltearn," Andrew Young
"The Blacksmiths," Anon
"Blue Girls," John Crowe Ransom
"Boat Stealing," William Wordsworth
"Bog-Face," Stevie Smith
"'Break, break, break,'" Alfred Lord Tennyson
"Breathing Space July," Tomas Transtromer
"Brian O'Linn," Anon
"'Buffalo Bill's,'" e. e. cummings
"The Buffalo Skinners," Anon
"Bullfight," Miroslav Holub
"The Burglar of Babylon," Elizabeth Bishop
"The Burning Babe," Robert Southwell
"The Cable Ship," Harry Edmund Martinson
"'Call for the Robin Redbreast and the Wren,'" John Webster
"The Cap and Bells," W. B. Yeats
"Carentan O Carentan," Louis Simpson
"'Carry her over the water,'" W. H. Auden
"Channel Firing," Thomas Hardy
"A Charm," Anon
"The Child Dying," Edwin Muir
"A Child's Pet," W. H. Davies
"Child's Song," Robert Lowell
"The Chimney Sweeper," William Blake
"The Clod and the Pebble," William Blake
"Cocaine Lil and Morphine Sue," Anon
"Cock-Crow," Edward Thomas
"The Cold Heaven," W. B. Yeats
"The Collarbone of a Hare," W. B. Yeats
"The Comb