Poetry Please!

by Charles Causley (Editor)

A selection of poems from the successful Radio 4 series, including Auden, Betjeman, Hopkins and MacNeice, with an introduction by Charles Causley.

Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

Charles Stanley Causley was born in Launceston in Cornwall, and spent most of his life there. After serving in the navy in the second world war (an experience he wrote about in Hands to Dance and Skylark), he worked as a teacher in Launceston and began publishing verse in the 1950s. His poetry includes many references to Cornwall and its legends, and in his later years he published many books of verse for children, several of which have been illustrated by prominent artists.

In addition to his poetry, Causley wrote plays, short stories and opera librettos. He was also a prolific editor of collections of poetry. In 1958 Causley was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded a CBE in 1986. Other awards include the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1967. He was presented with the Heywood Hill Literary Prize in 2000. Between 1962 and 1966 he was a member of the Poetry Panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain.

Causley was very highly regarded by his fellow poets, and on his 70th birthday, many of them, including Ted Hughes, Elizabeth Jennings, Roger McGough and Seamus Heaney contributed to a collection of poetry and prose tributes published in his honour.

Charles Causley died in 2003.

Reviews

[Kira · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading and analysing a poem from this anthology everyday for 80 days, my connection to these poems has grown over time. With some I loved and resonated with and others … not so much … I am glad that I completed my challenge as it had given me an insight into the various poetical forms, structures and contexts throughout poetry as well as morals and narratives. With such a diverse selection, I feel the anthology took me on a journey of contrasting poetry past to present, life to death, country to city and love to hate, each poem offering a different perspective on the rules of life. Overall, I would recommend this collection and would definitely read it again, but next time definitely not analyse all 80!
Personal favourites: Snake - D.H Lawrence, A wish - Lawrence Lerner, Renouncement - Alice Meynell, The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry Please 100 poems from the BBC Radio 4 programme



This is a wonderful book. I do not know where and how I’ve got it, but I found it again on a shelf and read through it. When I was 15, 16 I had a great teacher of literature- Chevorchian. I keep remembering and mentioning him, because he was a wonderful, kind, intelligent and well read man. He told us what to read and gave us the names of a number of poems which we could learn. He saw the seeds of what would become a fondness for poetry, which lasted –and the proof is the joy I experienced reading Poetry Please which has some poems which I simply LOVE! Here are some of them:



Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?
by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.







Code Poem For The French Resistance

The life that I have is all that I have

And the life that I have is yours.

The love that I have of the life that I have

Is yours and yours and yours.



A sleep I shall have

A rest I shall have,

Yet death will be but a pause,

For the peace of my years in the long green grass

Will be yours and yours and yours.



desiderata - by max ehrmann



Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann c.1920

Indian Prayer by Anonymous



When I am dead
Cry for me a little
Think of me sometimes
But not too much.


Think of me now and again
As I was in life
At some moments it’s pleasant to recall
But not for long.


Leave me in peace
And I shall leave you in peace
And while you live
Let your thoughts be with the living.



My Mind to me a Kingdom is

My mind to me a kingdom is;
Such perfect joy therein I find
That it excels all other bliss
Which God or nature hath assign'd.
Though much I want that most would have,
Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

No princely port, nor wealthy store,
No force to win a victory,
No wily wit to salve a sore,
No shape to win a loving eye;
To none of these I yield as thrall,--
For why? my mind despise them all.

I see that plenty surfeit oft,
And hasty climbers soonest fall;
I see that such as are aloft
Mishap doth threaten most of all.
These get with toil and keep with fear;
Such cares my mind can never bear.

I press to bear no haughty sway,
I wish no more than may suffice,
I do no more than well I may,
Look, what I want my mind supplies.
Lo ! thus I triumph like a king,
My mind content with anything.

I laugh not at another's loss,
Nor grudge not at another's gain;
No worldly waves my mind can toss;
I brook that is another's bane.
I fear no foe, nor fawn on friend,
I loathe not life, nor dread mine end.

My wealth is health and perfect ease,
And conscience clear my chief defence;
I never seek by bribes to please,
Nor by desert to give offence.
Thus do I live, thus will I die,--
Would all did so as well as I!

Sir Edward Dyer





Because I Have loved Life



Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.
I have sent up my gladness on wings, to be lost in the blue of the sky.
I have run and leaped with the rain, I have taken the wind to my breast.
My cheek like a drowsy child to the face of the earth I have pressed.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I have kissed young Love on the lips, I have heard his song to the end,
I have struck my hand like a seal in the loyal hand of a friend.
I have known the peace of heaven, the comfort of work done well.
I have longed for death in the darkness and risen alive out of hell.
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

I give a share of my soul to the world where my course is run.
I know that my another shall finish the task I must leave undone.
I know that no flower, nor flint was in vain on the path I trod.
As one looks on a face through a window, through life I have looked on God,
Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

Amelia Josephine Barr

[Giki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, I have owned a copy for many years, I read aloud to my kids at bed time. It is a wonderful short anthologhy, quite a broad range of poems without being swamped in volume. The selection is well thought out and although the order is alphabetical (by poets name) there is still a great flow from one poem to the next - there are whole sections that we love to read out loud, Robert Louis-Stevenson 'the vagabond' followed by Muriel Stuart's 'the seed shop, then Tennyson 'the brook', Tessimond 'black Monday lovesong', Dylan Thomas 'fern hill', and finally Adelstrop by Edward Thomas is a real favorite. Of course the book ends on WB yeats 'The lake isle of Innisfree', other favorites include John Mansfield's 'sea fever', AE Housman's 'loveliest of trees the cherry now, Hilaire Belloc's 'Tarantella' and Henry Charles Beeching's 'going down a hill on a bicycle'. There are many more, just waiting between the pages to be discovered. Despite being slim and inexpensive there is a huge amount of treasure in here.

[Roger Pettit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry Please! has been one of the mainstays of BBC radio in the UK since the late 1970s. It was first broadcast as a ten-minute programme in 1979. Each edition now lasts 30 minutes. The format of the programme is simple. Actors recite poems that listeners have requested to hear. This book is a collection of some of the most popular poems aired on the programme in its early years.

Poetry Please! contains 100 poems. It is a very varied, entertaining and thought-provoking collection. The featured poems cover a range of styles, emotions and timescales. Amongst my favourites are: "Farewell", a short, sad poem by Anne Bronte; "The Water Mill", a charmingly bucolic poem by Sarah Doudney (a poet of whom I was unaware until reading this book); "Diary of a Church Mouse", one of John Betjeman's most popular poems; and Jenny Joseph's "Warning", a wonderful poem about the delights of independence and rebellion in old age.

There is something in this very good book for anyone who enjoys reading poetry. It is a delightful read - and, like all good collections of this sort, is something to dip into from time to time. I recommend the book (and, if you are in the UK, the radio programme on which it is based: it is broadcast on Sunday afternoons at 4:30pm on BBC Radio 4 in several short series for about 30 weeks of the year). 8/10.

[JMJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of nicely lyrical poems, particularly useful if the reader wanted to read them aloud. The only issue I have is that probably more than half of these poems bang on no end about god or christianity.

[Katherine Morton]

Great collection of poems! This collection of Poems is more for the adult population however could be introduced for those in upper key stage two who are willing to take risks and push their poetry ability.

[Jo Larkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous collection of well known, popular and memorable poems, this edition quirkily illustrated. Several worth learning by ♥

[Claireybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

[Helen Pomfrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovey book to dip into.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is an abridged selection of poems from a bbc radio program where people request poems be read, so, some of the most popular poetry in the UK from 1979 - 1985. it's accordingly a mixed bag. there is a lot about death. a fair few about the stout hearts of the english at war or other misadventures. some of my favorites were thomas hardy's the darkling thrush, dylan thomas' fern hill, dh lawrence's snake, yeats' the lake isle of innisfree, alfred noyes' the highwayman (because my dad used to read that one to me). there are a lot of the usual suspects here - shakespeare, gerald manley hopkins, wordsworth, john clare, rupert brooke, william blake. when I am an old woman I shall wear purple, that one, not waving but drowning, also. invictus, of course. it's not the best collection I've ever read, and it was all rather just jumbled together - more so than usual with a poetry collection because this is an everyman's poetry volume, a cheap two pound paperback, and the poems aren't on their own separate pages, sometimes there are three on a two page spread. it was nice to revisit some familiar friends.