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Rhyme and Reason
Some people worry that they don't appreciate poetry; but English poetry wasn't written to be appreciated it was written to be enjoyed. For six centuries people have been reading poetry for enjoyment—for fun, for romance, for religion and for entertainment—and this is a book about those people.
What was it like to be sent a Tudor love sonnet? And how did you reply? What did people think of Wordsworth or Chaucer before they were put on pedestals? What was it like to read poetry back in the days when you didn't have to write an essay on it afterwards?
Rhyme and Reason takes you from a medieval accountant (called Chaucer) trying to entertain his lord, past a doomed love affair in the Tower of London, through adoring sonnets and notebooks filled with dirty poems, through Byromania and the Victorian hearth, understanding why people simply enjoyed poetry. From the poems of housemaids to the rhymes of kings it's the history of Britain through the poems that people read, recited and loved.
What was it like to be sent a Tudor love sonnet? And how did you reply? What did people think of Wordsworth or Chaucer before they were put on pedestals? What was it like to read poetry back in the days when you didn't have to write an essay on it afterwards?
Rhyme and Reason takes you from a medieval accountant (called Chaucer) trying to entertain his lord, past a doomed love affair in the Tower of London, through adoring sonnets and notebooks filled with dirty poems, through Byromania and the Victorian hearth, understanding why people simply enjoyed poetry. From the poems of housemaids to the rhymes of kings it's the history of Britain through the poems that people read, recited and loved.
- GenresPoetryNonfictionHistory
356 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 16, 2025
25 people are currently reading
110 people want to read
About the author
Mark Forsyth
22 books921 followersMark Forsyth is a writer, journalist and blogger. Every job he’s ever had, whether as a ghost-writer or proof-reader or copy-writer, has been to do with words. He started The Inky Fool blog in 2009 and now writes a post almost every day. The blog has received worldwide attention and enjoys an average of 4,000 hits per week.
Mr. Forsyth currently resides in London.
Mr. Forsyth currently resides in London.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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January 2, 2026This is fun to read but not that great as a history book. The writing is charismatic and direct, which makes this history on english poetry feel surprisingly fresh. It also genuinely sparked my interest with very interesting facts and different periods.
However, the chapters would be over before any deep exploration could be made. I understand that Forsyth wanted to write a general history for a reader not very familiar with poetry, but he sacrifices too much in my opinion. There were some moments where even I (someone not very knowledgeable in the history of poetry) could recognise really gross simplifications. Even — I would argue especially — as a ‘general audience’ writer, it is important to present a nuanced, thorough and reflective perspective on history. With a topic as large as english poetry you simply can’t afford to be careless.
The last few chapters on modernist poetry feel very opinionated. Modernism is explained extremely simplified, almost distorted, and the incredibly vibrant, diverse and interesting world of poetry in the modern era is nearly ignored!
This does the job of presenting a history of english poetry, however it does so in a one dimensional way. It is clearly meant to entertain along the way, and that it did well.
However, the chapters would be over before any deep exploration could be made. I understand that Forsyth wanted to write a general history for a reader not very familiar with poetry, but he sacrifices too much in my opinion. There were some moments where even I (someone not very knowledgeable in the history of poetry) could recognise really gross simplifications. Even — I would argue especially — as a ‘general audience’ writer, it is important to present a nuanced, thorough and reflective perspective on history. With a topic as large as english poetry you simply can’t afford to be careless.
The last few chapters on modernist poetry feel very opinionated. Modernism is explained extremely simplified, almost distorted, and the incredibly vibrant, diverse and interesting world of poetry in the modern era is nearly ignored!
This does the job of presenting a history of english poetry, however it does so in a one dimensional way. It is clearly meant to entertain along the way, and that it did well.
November 16, 2025
List ye reader, whilst I tell, a tale to pass the ages,
A history of poetry in near four hundred pages.
From Chaucer through to Auden, we weave our verbal way,
Exploring how the common man, enjoyed them in their day.
Or something like that…
Mark Forsyth is a rare breed – a writer whose passion for language extends both to understanding it and expressing it engagingly. Having wandered etymologically through a selection of words, passed the hours with language which reflects the time, declaimed the power of rhetoric, passed an idle hour in the company of history’s drunkards and decorated a cheery home with the story of some of our Christmas traditions, he has now written a few stanzas on the history of English verse.
Anyone expecting a dry and dusty tome telling us about the historical truths exposed by Chaucer, or a diatribe on the effect of drugs on the romantics has not read the author’s works before. Forsyth understands that poetry doesn’t quite have the same cache with a modern audience whose nearest appreciation comes with singing along to Oops I Did it Again than it did for the standees in the Jacobean theatre. What he tells, therefore, is the story of how English poetry was appreciated by the common man through the ages, from its emergence as a cultural force in the fourteenth century, through to its becoming a drudge of students in the twentieth. Along the way we are treated to tales such as how the simple act of putting a roof on a theatre transformed the way plays were written, how the romantic era was – like free love in the 1960s – largely something that happened to other people, and how attempting to bring appreciation of poetry into the classroom led to the rise of poetry that nobody appreciated. The book sparkles with more witty asides than a Coward play and a joy of language worthy of Wodehouse.
If there’s one sin in the book, it is one of omission. Whilst you can’t expect a book such as this to cover everything – certainly not to include everyone’s favourite poem – one thing that does seem to be missing is the eighteenth century vogue for using poetry in situations you wouldn’t expect. So, the fact that Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles, wrote his own theory of evolution as a long-form poem is sadly missed. This doesn’t detract from what is, as with the all the author’s works, an engaging and enjoyable read, recommended to anybody who loves reading – not just those who scratch out sad little homilies on the inequities of modern society in iambic pentameter. Definitely one for somebody’s Christmas list.
A history of poetry in near four hundred pages.
From Chaucer through to Auden, we weave our verbal way,
Exploring how the common man, enjoyed them in their day.
Or something like that…
Mark Forsyth is a rare breed – a writer whose passion for language extends both to understanding it and expressing it engagingly. Having wandered etymologically through a selection of words, passed the hours with language which reflects the time, declaimed the power of rhetoric, passed an idle hour in the company of history’s drunkards and decorated a cheery home with the story of some of our Christmas traditions, he has now written a few stanzas on the history of English verse.
Anyone expecting a dry and dusty tome telling us about the historical truths exposed by Chaucer, or a diatribe on the effect of drugs on the romantics has not read the author’s works before. Forsyth understands that poetry doesn’t quite have the same cache with a modern audience whose nearest appreciation comes with singing along to Oops I Did it Again than it did for the standees in the Jacobean theatre. What he tells, therefore, is the story of how English poetry was appreciated by the common man through the ages, from its emergence as a cultural force in the fourteenth century, through to its becoming a drudge of students in the twentieth. Along the way we are treated to tales such as how the simple act of putting a roof on a theatre transformed the way plays were written, how the romantic era was – like free love in the 1960s – largely something that happened to other people, and how attempting to bring appreciation of poetry into the classroom led to the rise of poetry that nobody appreciated. The book sparkles with more witty asides than a Coward play and a joy of language worthy of Wodehouse.
If there’s one sin in the book, it is one of omission. Whilst you can’t expect a book such as this to cover everything – certainly not to include everyone’s favourite poem – one thing that does seem to be missing is the eighteenth century vogue for using poetry in situations you wouldn’t expect. So, the fact that Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles, wrote his own theory of evolution as a long-form poem is sadly missed. This doesn’t detract from what is, as with the all the author’s works, an engaging and enjoyable read, recommended to anybody who loves reading – not just those who scratch out sad little homilies on the inequities of modern society in iambic pentameter. Definitely one for somebody’s Christmas list.
January 28, 2026
There’s no other author who can make me laugh out loud quite like Mark Forsyth. An insightful overview of English poetry that acts as a springboard for a deeper dive into periods, poets and how they were received.
November 17, 2025
A very agreeable book about a subject that strikes ordinary people with fear: English poetry. Author Mark Forsyth shows us that from its origins in Chaucer, poetry was for centuries as natural an expression as breathing, something that entertained and served as communication, something that had rhythm. He leads us gently through iambic pentameter and the variations on it which followed over the centuries, building up an appreciation of how poetry evolved and how verse was a part of the day-to-day communication and entertainment for many generations of English people.
In doing so, Forsyth shows us how disappointing it is that poetry reached the point that a book like this Rhyme & Reason, gently coaxing us like a frightened deer through a 'scary' topic, is even considered necessary. Poetry lost its natural place to radio and other technological and social changes, and was then killed off entirely when it was placed into the curriculum and joylessly dissected by generations of unwilling schoolchildren, in complete contrast to what it was intended for.
As he takes us on this journey, Forsyth shows us how the history of English poetry is not what we would assume; how poets that are lionised today were obscure or even unknown in their time, and only later became famous to fit interpretations of their era. Blake, for example, should be labelled a 20th-century poet because that was when he became famous (pg. 190), whilst the anti-war poets that have become synonymous with our understanding of World War One were almost entirely unknown in their time. The popular poems at the time were about how the sacrifice was justified, and are now long forgotten.
As we go along, Forsyth fleshes out the evolution of English verse, showing for example how Byron brought along the popular idea of the poet's biography contributing to the experience of the poem itself. He gives us a sense – incredible to us today, considering poetry's relegated and even maligned status – of just how central verse was to some generations (on page 61, he notes that the famous Globe theatre held a proportion of the London population that would be equivalent to 150,000 today – modern Wembley holds 90,000).
There are some mis-steps – I thought the decision to omit Shakespeare entirely from mention was a glaring mistake, particularly as Forsyth is then finally obliged to discuss him in a lengthy Postscript – but in general this is a wonderful night-light in the now dark room of poetry, showing that there are no scary monsters on the wall or under the bed here, only wonderful lines that in the last hundred years we have mistreated by forgetting our roots and by dissecting, analysing and hyper-educating them rather than allowing them to breathe. Rhyme & Reason is a commendable step in remedying this injustice.
In doing so, Forsyth shows us how disappointing it is that poetry reached the point that a book like this Rhyme & Reason, gently coaxing us like a frightened deer through a 'scary' topic, is even considered necessary. Poetry lost its natural place to radio and other technological and social changes, and was then killed off entirely when it was placed into the curriculum and joylessly dissected by generations of unwilling schoolchildren, in complete contrast to what it was intended for.
As he takes us on this journey, Forsyth shows us how the history of English poetry is not what we would assume; how poets that are lionised today were obscure or even unknown in their time, and only later became famous to fit interpretations of their era. Blake, for example, should be labelled a 20th-century poet because that was when he became famous (pg. 190), whilst the anti-war poets that have become synonymous with our understanding of World War One were almost entirely unknown in their time. The popular poems at the time were about how the sacrifice was justified, and are now long forgotten.
As we go along, Forsyth fleshes out the evolution of English verse, showing for example how Byron brought along the popular idea of the poet's biography contributing to the experience of the poem itself. He gives us a sense – incredible to us today, considering poetry's relegated and even maligned status – of just how central verse was to some generations (on page 61, he notes that the famous Globe theatre held a proportion of the London population that would be equivalent to 150,000 today – modern Wembley holds 90,000).
There are some mis-steps – I thought the decision to omit Shakespeare entirely from mention was a glaring mistake, particularly as Forsyth is then finally obliged to discuss him in a lengthy Postscript – but in general this is a wonderful night-light in the now dark room of poetry, showing that there are no scary monsters on the wall or under the bed here, only wonderful lines that in the last hundred years we have mistreated by forgetting our roots and by dissecting, analysing and hyper-educating them rather than allowing them to breathe. Rhyme & Reason is a commendable step in remedying this injustice.
December 22, 2025
'This is a book about poetry and the people who read it. So far as possible, the poets have been left out. People blather on far too much about poets, and their lives, and their childhoods, and their educations, and their houses, and their portraits, and the details of the private lives, which were, at best, boring, and, at worst, immoral.
The poetry is the important thing, and the people that it was written for – the people who read it and recited it and copied it out and enjoyed it.'
An interesting angle to approach the history of English poetry - focussing on what people read, heard and enjoyed, rather than only those poets and poems now considered 'great'. a particularly interesting example was the section on how a few first world war poets that were barely known at the time became 'the' poets of the war thanks to a rewriting of history 50 years later which saw the war as only a senseless and futile event - in contrast to almost all of the popular poetry at the time which saw the war as fighting for a just cause with honour.
Although a fairly simple overview, it filled in a few gaps in my knowledge, and managed to be fairly amusing and interesting throughout.
The poetry is the important thing, and the people that it was written for – the people who read it and recited it and copied it out and enjoyed it.'
An interesting angle to approach the history of English poetry - focussing on what people read, heard and enjoyed, rather than only those poets and poems now considered 'great'. a particularly interesting example was the section on how a few first world war poets that were barely known at the time became 'the' poets of the war thanks to a rewriting of history 50 years later which saw the war as only a senseless and futile event - in contrast to almost all of the popular poetry at the time which saw the war as fighting for a just cause with honour.
Although a fairly simple overview, it filled in a few gaps in my knowledge, and managed to be fairly amusing and interesting throughout.
January 7, 2026
A funny book about the history of poetry.
This book had me laughing from the first line. It is a history, not of poets, or even of poetry, but rather of the world in which poetry existed and the people who read it. This is such an interesting approach. Throughout the book the author asks ‘who was this poem written for?’ and throughout the book, and history, the answer to that is often surprising. Those answers reveal a lot about how literature was viewed at the time it was published. The wonderful revelation is that it was mostly not a rarified addendum to literature but something that everyone tried their hand with and enjoyed. To write all this and drop a joke every other paragraph makes it a joy to read.
I would highly recommend this for people who are studying English. It grounds poetry and removes some of the mystique.
Thank you to the publisher for a review copy of this book.
This book had me laughing from the first line. It is a history, not of poets, or even of poetry, but rather of the world in which poetry existed and the people who read it. This is such an interesting approach. Throughout the book the author asks ‘who was this poem written for?’ and throughout the book, and history, the answer to that is often surprising. Those answers reveal a lot about how literature was viewed at the time it was published. The wonderful revelation is that it was mostly not a rarified addendum to literature but something that everyone tried their hand with and enjoyed. To write all this and drop a joke every other paragraph makes it a joy to read.
I would highly recommend this for people who are studying English. It grounds poetry and removes some of the mystique.
Thank you to the publisher for a review copy of this book.
January 15, 2026
Good book that follows the history of english language poetry. I learned a lot interesting facts that I can sprinkle into conversation to seem more educated.
One star off for the rather superior and smug style of the author. Despite going to pains to show that there is no ‘proper’ way to read poetry, and that we do not need to (or indeed should) close read poetry, he still takes the time to take snide jabs at northeners, scot’s and the uneducated. It just felt very Oxbridge in a way that raises my hackles at times.
3 stars
One star off for the rather superior and smug style of the author. Despite going to pains to show that there is no ‘proper’ way to read poetry, and that we do not need to (or indeed should) close read poetry, he still takes the time to take snide jabs at northeners, scot’s and the uneducated. It just felt very Oxbridge in a way that raises my hackles at times.
3 stars
Review of advance copy
Goodreads is going to pot. This is the second book in a week that they claim has not been published yet, despite them having been bought in bookshops 7 weeks ago.
Anyway, this is a an amusing, highly informative, and enjoyable history of poetry from the earliest times to the 1950s, and its’ subtitle: for People who Don’t Usually Read Poetry, ery much applies to me and was the reason I bought it.
One star is deducted for a complete failure to recognise/ mention the importance of poetry in Mediaeval Wales, though early Scottish poetry gets a write up.
Anyway, this is a an amusing, highly informative, and enjoyable history of poetry from the earliest times to the 1950s, and its’ subtitle: for People who Don’t Usually Read Poetry, ery much applies to me and was the reason I bought it.
One star is deducted for a complete failure to recognise/ mention the importance of poetry in Mediaeval Wales, though early Scottish poetry gets a write up.
January 15, 2026
My 3rd or 4th book by this author and I enjoyed this thoroughly too.
It was a joy to read about the history of evolution of English poetry with some detail of the structure of poetry and a social history. I found some interesting old English words and came across some great poems. Has inspired me to read more English poetry.
It was a joy to read about the history of evolution of English poetry with some detail of the structure of poetry and a social history. I found some interesting old English words and came across some great poems. Has inspired me to read more English poetry.
January 6, 2026
I think the success of Mark Forsyth’s earlier books has gone to his head. This is really very thin and patchy and, scarcely believably, two of our very finest poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Philip Larkin, are never even mentioned.
October 20, 2025
Both fascinating and hilarious in true Mark Forsyth style.
November 16, 2025
Amusing and engaging 🧡
November 19, 2025
I enjoyed this so much. A favourite of 2025. More thoughts to follow.
January 20, 2026
Liked it a lot.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews