Tyger Tyger Burning Bright: Much-Loved Poems You Half-Remember

by Ana Sampson (Editor)

A comprehensive collection of verses from more than 80 of the world's greatest poets, spanning from the thirteenth century to the present day Including such leading luminaries as Burns, Keats, Tennyson, T. S. Eliot, Philip Larkin, and Carol Ann Duffy, this is a marvelous reminder of the poetry many of us once knew by heart, as well as a collection of some of the finest poems in the English language. Arranged thematically in chapters that cover childhood and youth, nature, love and romance, home and travel, elegies, and more, and enlivened with Ana Sampson's crisply witty introductions and notes on the poets, this is the ultimate poetic compendium for language lovers everywhere.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

Ana grew up in Kent. She studied English Literature at the University of Sheffield and gained a BA and MA before starting a career in publishing PR. Ana has contributed articles to various publications including Writers’ Market UK, The Book Club Bible (Michael O’Mara, 2007), Cringe and The Bookseller. I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud: And Other Poems You Half-Remember From School, her first anthology of well-loved poems, was the third bestselling poetry book of 2009. This was followed by Tyger Tyger Burning Bright: Much-Loved Poems You Half-Remember, Poems to Learn by Heart, Green and Pleasant Land: Best-Loved Poems of the British Countryside and Best-Loved Poems: A Treasury of Verse. She has appeared on television and radio discussing books, book clubs, teenage diaries and poetry. Ana lives in Surrey with her husband, two daughters and two demanding cats.

Reviews

[eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good collection, but i had never heard of the majority of these and there were many a skip

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,
in the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?’

Kicking off my bright, abundant, and diverse year of reading, Tyger Tyger, Burning Bright was a mixed-bag anthology of half-remembered poetry - lines and verses and words that stick in our memories from childhood and beyond, invoking memories of classroom annotations and the puzzling intricacies of iambic pentamter. The concept of this collection is endearing and heartfelt, pulling readers back into the past, into misremembered sonnets and rhymes, including many of the Greats - household names like William Wordsworth and Ted Hughes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and, my particular favourite, Lewis Caroll. I wasn’t familar with a lot of the poems included within the anthology, and discovered plenty of lovely, uncharted waters in terms of wordsmiths, as well as a lot of skippable ones, too, though I cannot claim to be well-versed enough in poetry to offer any substantial criticism. I love how the poems were divided and arranged thematically, covering childhood and love, war and strife, travel and nature. The last twenty or so pages included a glimpse into each poet’s life, like a minature biography, which was an interesting and compelling addition to the anthology. 3 stars.

[Maia Miyuki · Rating 1 out of 5]

TW; suicide and asshole sympathizers.

"His achievements have been overshadowed in the popular imagination by his tempestuous relationship with first wife Sylvia Plath, who killed herself after discovering his affair with Assia Wevill." ASSHOLE WAS LITERALLY CONDEMNED FOR BURNING HER MANUSCRIPTS AND DIARIES. Both of his wives died by suicide and talked about his abuse on multiple occasions. Oh too bad his achievements were overshadowed when his wife killed herself after finding out that HE cheated on her.

I really loved the collection of poems, some are even my favourites. But I can't stand by the asshole husband of the amazing Sylvia Plath sympathizers.

"... in which he at last addressed the fascinating relationship with Plath that saw him demonized for many years." HE WAS THE DEVIL INCARNATE. OF COURSE HE WAS DEMONIZED.

And then this is a direct quote from her section in the book.

"... and legend has it she bit his face. He was underterred: they married and had two children, ... during a freezing February of 1963, she gassed herself, having first sealed the room to keep her children safe."

It's 2025, why are we romanticizing violence and abuse?
Why are we talking about how she made sure her kids were safe? Why did we have to know how she died? That it was a freezing February?

I can't. I can't support this.

[Rosemary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this a poor sequel. Lots of filler to get this second volume onto the market.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully presented volume comprising a selection of poetry billed as the much-loved poems we half-remember from school days and childhood, and it is divided into eight sections of poems, under different general headings or themes including love, death, childhood, and the natural world. There is a very useful and entertaining section at the back of the book with a short little snippet of information about each poet and poem, which is a very nice inclusion, and tempts the reader to go off and discover more about any favourites featured here. The index is also very helpful; as well as listing the poets, you can quickly find the poem you are searching for by title, first line or well-known lines.

This is a lovely selection to dip into and enjoy at leisure. It will make a good addition to any book or poetry lovers’ home, and would be an ideal gift. It’s a nice size with a pleasing variety of verse from different eras, with the inclusion both of some very well-known poems and others a little lesser so. I was particularly pleased by the inclusion of one of my all-time favourites, Dylan Thomas’ wonderful poem on childhood, ‘Fern Hill’, and three by John Donne including ‘Sonnet 10: Death, Be Not Proud’, both of which took me drifting back to my A-level English Literature days.

[windinthewilloreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a joy to be able to complete the poems that ive known lines from since i was a child .

[Rachelle Immelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of poetry includes several well-known, much-loved, but half-remembered poems that you’ve probably come across somewhere in life. It was lovely to reread faintly familiar poems, and I think Ana picked the poems well, but there are a few poems I think would’ve been great additions, too. I’ll have to read her other anthologies to see if she maybe used them elsewhere.

The book is divided into eight chapters, each with its own theme: The Natural World, Childhood, Home and Abroad, Talking to Gods, Love, Battle, Death, and A Ragbag (an amalgamation of poems that can’t be linked to one particular theme). Overall, I enjoyed the romantic poetry most, especially those about nature and love.

What I liked most, though, were Ana's notes on the poets and poems at the back of the book. I really enjoyed the brief biographies and anecdotes of these eccentric poets and their crazy lives, especially all the affairs, mental breakdowns and knickerless cartwheels. I really wish Ana had elaborated more in this section! I have the urge now to read more about these wild artists and see how their misfortunes and adventures inspired their famous works.

[Rebecca (Twili) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the book. Concise and categorised into different segments under ‘love’ or ‘death’ and so on. Really liked the suggested bibliography at the back for further reading. I was fascinated by the small, short bibliographies of each poet at the back of the book giving a quick window into their lives with a line of witty humour here or there. Really painted each poet as their own individual character. Would really recommend the book to anyone getting into poetry that would like a selection of famous poems from the most famous of poets through the years. (Predominantly 1750-1950 with a couple exceptions.)

[Javeria Zaidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chanced across this gorgeous volume while on vacation in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. We found the cutest, most magical bookshop. This was one of the books I picked up from there.

It’s a diverse collection, including everything from popular verses to obscure, difficult-to-understand verses. As someone who has been out of touch with poetry for a long time, this book whetted my appetite. It reminded me of what I was missing.. the beauty of rhyme, the layered meanings, the staring-off-into-space with the impact of strong feelings..
If you’re thinking of diving back into English poetry, I would suggest this book.. you will either rediscover your love or wonder why you ever bothered! 😉

[Julie Thomason · Rating 3 out of 5]

An eclectic selection of familiar poetry in English. I liked that the poems were themed. It was interesting to read them and it confirmed my own personal taste that contemporary poetry reflects English natural tonality that poetry that formed classi forms copied from Latin languages. That is not to say theer have not been wonderful poems written through the ages, it is my humble opinion. It served as a good revison exercise but collections are very personal and it lacked many poets and poems I would have liked to have been included.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really enjoyable anthology of poetry. Some fun and some thoughtful. Definitely a collection I'll be re-reading over and over.

4.5 stars, rounding down to 4 because I didn't enjoy all of the poems.

[Ashly Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

RTC

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good selection of well - known poems.

[Michael Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book of popular verse.

[Patty Mapes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of poems-however,the best and most interesting part of the book, in my opinion, was the final 23 pages This section contained anecdotal biographies of the poets.

[ENZO MOSCHETTA · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good and famous poems. Most of it is a poor quality selection apart some classic authors.
Overall decent.

[Libbie Stokes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely mixed bag of poems with some I remember fondly, some I just remember and others completely new to me, definitely a collection that I will reread many more times.

[Liz Polding · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were indeed a lot of favourites here, Plath, Hughes and Heaney, to name a few. This is a pleasing anthology and made me want to return to the originals and read them again (some poems are complete, some are extracts). There are a few poems in this book that I expected to see (Kipling's If, for example) and some that I did not, like Waltzing Matilda. Blake's work is always startling, no matter how many times I read it and Coleridge's Kubla Khan in all its opiate-induced glory is always a pleasure. I read AA Milne and Edward Lear to my children and reading them again made me smile. Unfortunately Gerard Manley Hopkins has been renamed Gerald, which is a pretty big oversight, so I'm afraid that did not make me smile.

It was inevitable that Wordsworth, the old plagiarist, would be here, although mercifully, no daffodils. All in all, I enjoyed this (I skipped the Wordsworth - I'm afraid they are fully, not half remembered. Unfortunately) and I hope this is not the last such anthology. Only next time, could we have Goblin Market? And please, no daffodils.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a nice selection of poems in this small hard-cover book. There were poems here that I remember having first read in school, also some poems that I remembered the famous parts of or had to memorize. For sure there were some I haven't read again since grade school, and I was happy to have them brought back to mind here. And where many books of poetry go on for many, many pages, this one is short--in fact, I was surprised that I was at the end of the book.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid collection--lots of familiar as well as unfamiliar poems and poets, and a commendable range of years, styles, and subjects. The helpful index includes titles, first lines, and "well-known lines." On the downside, the section introductions were trite, and I wish the author/selector hadn't tried so hard to be entertaining in the brief poet bios at the end of the book.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

That subtitle ('much loved poems you half-remember') seemed calculated to pique my interest, and some of them were indeed in that category, while some of them I knew well, and many not at all. At any rate there are some excellent poems here, mixed in with a few utterly banal ones.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just a random pick up in the library. Lots of great poems - honestly, I was not all that familiar with most of them. The notes on the authors and poems in the back was great - probably my favorite part of the book.

[Helen K]

Linnet