What has happened to the lost art of memorising poetry? Why do we no longer feel that it is necessary to know the most enduring, beautiful poems in the English language 'by heart'? In his introduction Ted Hughes explains how we can overcome the problem by using a memory system that becomes easier the more frequently it is practised. The collected 101 poems are both personal favourites and particularly well-suited to the method Hughes demonstrates. Spanning four centuries, ranging from Shakespeare and Keats through to Auden and Heaney, By Heart offers the reader a 'mental gymnasium' in which the memory can be exercised and trained in the most pleasurable way. Some poems will be more of a challenge than others, but all will be treasured once they have become part of the memory bank.
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Book Description
A collection of classic poems well-suited to learn 'by heart' with an introduction by one of Britain's most popular poets
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957 by Faber and Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children. He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for two consecutive years for his last published collections of poetry, Tales from Ovid (1997) and Birthday Letters (1998). He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By dc_x
I never cared for poetry before, but this book has stirred me to learn about 30 poems so far and I'm very grateful for Ted Hughes challenging me to learn them 'by heart'. I actually bought the book for my wife a few years ago, and I only looked at it after hearing some quote of Macbeth's famous 'Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow' speech on the radio and thinking I should make some effort to learn it (since I'd done Macbeth at school). The speech is in this book, and from there and I've been going through the book picking out poems that either I vaguely knew or liked the sound of. I practice while driving to work, and it's surprising how the poems stick in your head once you've managed to remember them once. I even managed to memorise Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey' which is over 5 pages long!
The only bad thing about this book is there's really a lot of poems about death or misery in one form or another, which perhaps reflects Hughes' outlook on life (I don't know much about him, but he died soon after this book was published, I think).
Despite this, I highly recommend the book as it has some great poems in it, and it managed to single-handedly convert me into someone who actually likes poetry now.
57 of 58 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
By Heart is a collection of 101 great poems.
Says who? Says Ted Hughes, the late poet laureate. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book; Hughes tells how to memorize poems using the creative, intuitive right brain.
The collection includes old favourites by Robert Frost, Coleridge, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot and Emily Dickenson. But everyone will find revelations here. Brilliant poems by poets you've never heard of. Or brilliant poems by poets you've heard of but just never come across. For me, the poems of a previous poet laureate - John Betjemen - were a wonderful discovery.
As a parent and teacher, I highly recommend this book to parents and other teachers. These are poems to teach your children! You might want to start with 'The Eagle' by Tennyson:
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
My grandparents were of a generation that took pleasure in memorising poetry and reciting it long after any requirement from their schooling compelled them to do so. And my grandmother first instilled an interest in poetry after I found and enjoyed her book of poems by Edgar Allen Poe. However I never really "got" the whole learning by heart ritual. Years later, in a moment of open-mindedness and very much a convert to the means of committing to memory advocated by Ted Hughes in the introduction (image association to connect words and phrases) I borrowed this book from the library with the slightly Quixotic idea that I would learn all 101 poems, employing my walk to work to achieve this piecemeal.
Now having committed the first 11 poems to memory - including my grandmother's favourite, On Westminster Bridge, I have started to "get it" and bought the book so someone else can enjoy the library copy. On learning the words and removing the requirement to read them from a page as one recites, it is much easier to inhabit the poems and appreciate them for what they are, a series of words strung together in a pleasing way to articulate an emotion, scene or story. The learning of the poems has also coincided with the birth of my first child, and being able to intersperse night-time lullabies with these poems has also been something I have enjoyed (and found very handy in a darkened room).
I have also learned not to pre-judge a poem before I've learned it. And though I may not have found myself gravitating to some of these poets before memorising their verse I have found a new-found respect for them after absorbing the verses.
If one measures a book by the hours of enjoyment one has derived from it, this would be my favourite book, with every poem to date seeming well-chosen and rewarding.
Now having committed the first 11 poems to memory - including my grandmother's favourite, On Westminster Bridge, I have started to "get it" and bought the book so someone else can enjoy the library copy. On learning the words and removing the requirement to read them from a page as one recites, it is much easier to inhabit the poems and appreciate them for what they are, a series of words strung together in a pleasing way to articulate an emotion, scene or story. The learning of the poems has also coincided with the birth of my first child, and being able to intersperse night-time lullabies with these poems has also been something I have enjoyed (and found very handy in a darkened room).
I have also learned not to pre-judge a poem before I've learned it. And though I may not have found myself gravitating to some of these poets before memorising their verse I have found a new-found respect for them after absorbing the verses.
If one measures a book by the hours of enjoyment one has derived from it, this would be my favourite book, with every poem to date seeming well-chosen and rewarding.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
By Heart
A lovely book and this copy is in first class condition. I have realy enjoyed rereading favourite poems. Will look for more similar.
Published 11 months ago by Kay Lesley Reeves
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not short poems
Don't expect these to be 12 or 14 line poems. Some are large chunks of much longer poems, good but too long to learn by heart unless you have a lot of enthusiasm or a lot of free... Read more
Published 16 months ago by P. Mcdermott
5.0 out of 5 stars
By Heart is a great gift for friends
This is a small treasure of poetry to give friends of all ages for birthdays and other special occasions.
Published on 20 Mar 2009 by E. Uram
1.0 out of 5 stars
Been there. Done that.
Sorry but this was a great disappointment. As a collection it bears a close resemblance to a school primer and offers no signs of the poems having been chosen except on the basis... Read more
Published on 2 Nov 2007 by J. R. Moss
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