Because a Fire Was in My Head

by Michael Morpurgo

A wonderful anthology of poems to set fire to the imagination.


We only have to 'remember, remember the 5th of November' to see a dark night filled with fireworks and bonfires. In their many different ways - through their sounds, rhythms, stories, surprises and jokes - these poems will set the fireworks crackling in our own heads.


Michael Morpurgo has brought together poems by writers as diverse as Spike Milligan and Louis MacNeice, Stevie Smith and John Lennon, Jo Shapcott and Lewis Carroll. Once read, they won't be forgotten - some even beg to be learned by heart. This is anthology will form the cornerstone to a lifetime's enjoyment of poetry.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 8, 2001

About the author

Sir Michael Andrew Morpurgo, OBE, FRSL is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the Second World War, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up 'Farms for City Children' with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were invested a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to youth. In 2003, he was advanced to an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2004. He was knighted in the 2018 for his services to literature and charity. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly splendid anthology, chosen by the excellent Michael Morpurgo and with tremendous illustrations from Quentin Blake. It will reach out to children of a wide range of different ages and introduce them to some wonderful poems.

Some in the selection offer simply light-hearted fun, more are well worth returning to over and over. There are plenty of indifferent anthologies cashing in on the latest fad. Here, the words of the publishers about learning the difference between the genuine and the shoddy are borne out in the words of gifted poets, whose work has withstood the test of time. There are some outstanding individual pieces here from Shakespeare to Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost and so many more. As with all good books for children, this one affords great delight to adults as well. I look forward to reading them all with my niece, who is sure to respond with enthusiasm.

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This edited collection by Michael Morpurgo contains 101 poems to mention R.L. Stevenson, John Lennon, Rudyard Kipling, Edward Lear, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, H.W. Longfellow, Ted Hughes, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Walter De La Mare, T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats.
I enjoyed reading:
"Soldier, Soldier, Will You Marry Me?" (Anonymous)
"The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt
"All the World's A Stage" by William Shakespeare
"Friends" by Elizabeth Jennings
and
my favourite poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

The illustrations are by Quentin Blake.

[Eryn Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the book that got me into poetry in the first place.

[Graham Sillars · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection. Varied and engaging.

[Leo Margetts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of poems were really good it was illustrated by Quentin Blake so the illustrations were really good I liked a lot of the poems because they were really funny. I liked this poem called lullaby especially because it was telling a young boy a lullaby by telling the things the writer will get him.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fairly uninspiring and badly ordered volume of poems aimed at interesting children in poetry – nicely illustrated by Quentin Blake.

[Sinead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book as part of research into a poetry session I was organising for a teenage reading group. It was brilliant going through it and it reminded me of all the poems I had grown up with and some more besides, including songs and Shakespeare quotes along the way. I would recommend for those trying to get their children into reading rhymes or poems as the illustrations by Quentin Blake are excellent and the poems range from the absurd (I Eat My Peas with Honey - Anonymous) to the dramatic (Stop All the Clocks - W D Auden)

[W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this at Tate Modern in London (it has nothing to do with modern art, really, but I liked it). It has some of my favorite poems, paired with Quentin Blake's whimsical illustrations