Stressed, Unstressed: Classic Poems to Ease the Mind

by Jonathan Bate (Editor), Paula Byrne (Editor), Sophie Ratcliffe (Editor)

Can you be re-lit by poetry? This little book offers everyone one of the oldest of all remedies for stress: the reading of poetry.

Intended to help you endure some of your stressful moments and painful experiences, these poems tell us we are not alone. Again and again over the centuries great poets return to love and death and memory – remembrance of childhood joy, of happy days and beautiful places, of loved ones we have lost or feeling at peace and at one with the natural world. ‘Stressed Unstressed’ harvests an array of poems on such themes in the hope that they will speak to you when you are processing your worries or when you simply want to fill your mind with different, more positive thoughts.

Words can act as drugs, and on the bedside or in a waiting-room this little volume of poetry can help in all sorts of difficult circumstances. So here is a selection of new poems and old, enduring classics and forgotten gems. Next time you are feeling stressed or anxious, worried or sleepless, panicky or unable to cope, ‘Stressed Unstressed’ invites you to join the thousands of others who have read and remembered and loved these poems – to form a very special community. This is bibliotherapy.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Fiction, Self Help, Ebooks

215 pages, Hardcover

First published January 14, 2016

About the author

Jonathan Bate CBE FBA FRSL is an English academic, biographer, critic, broadcaster, novelist and scholar of Shakespeare, Romanticism and Ecocriticism. He is also Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and Provost of Worcester College, Oxford. A Man Booker Prize judge in 2014.

He studied at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He has been King Alfred Professor of English Literature at Liverpool University, Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick. He is married to author and biographer Paula Byrne. He has also written one novel, The Cure for Love.

Reviews

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 5 out of 5]

RATING: 4.5 STARS
2016; William Collins/Harper Collins


I have always loved reading poetry, especially classic poetry. I love the flow, imagery and words of poetry. I find that as I read them it is a way to calm my anxiety. It calms my worries more than my fears. It is a way for me to get grounded. As I learn more about myself through counseling, books and writing I am getting a better handle on what keeps me going. I requested this book in order to read cool poetry and instead I learned more about my anxiety and myself. This is a great book for discovering great poems and/or exploring yourself and your stresses.

***I received an eARC from EDELWEISS***

My Novelesque Blog

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25-4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this anthology of poems. This book definitely did what it claimed to do for me. It gave me a variety of classic poems from a poets of different countries and writing styles.

I will say that there were 3 minor changes that I would have liked a bit more of in this collection. This collection could have stood to have more short, easy to memorize poems that could be used as a mantra to help individuals calm down during highly anxious moments. There was an introduction of one of the sections covering this topic but most of these poems, while wonderful, are too long to be easily memorized. The second thing I would have liked would have been more poems from other countries like Latin and South America, African Russian, Indian and Asian would have been great! The final change would have been more of an analysis of some of the poems. The introductions covered some of the poems but not all of them. I think it would have been interesting to see what the poets were talking about more in depth.

I brought up those 3 changes I would make to this anthology, in the hopes these editors publish another collection of classic poems in the future. This book was really nice to read a chapter or two everyday. I even got to recommend it to another person at my work who loves poetry. I definitely feel like this kind of poetry book is one that I enjoy and will look for more like it in the future.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had purchased this book a while back, but can finally say I have completed it. I was intrigued by the concept: classic poems that ease or calm the mind. Jonathan Bate is one of the editors and I have always admired his work.

You have a good selection here. William Blake, John Donne, George Herbert, John Keats, Gerald Manley-Hopkins; these poets seems to have the most selections. My favorite poem was a very short one by the former Poet Laureate John Betjeman entitled The Last Laugh. Another favorite was a short poem by the Australian poet Les Murray.

The introductions in each chapter are helpful to what is being strived for, and what you can achieve by reading the poems in that chapter. The idea of a collection of poems to calm the mind is an excellent one. Although I cannot say that I agree with all of the selections, the cause here is a noble one and it should be recognized.

[Sophie Gaft · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really good poems! I like that they were sorted into "chapters/feelings" but I did feel like some of them didn't belong to where they were placed. I suppose everyone reads a poem differently.
I was elated to read some familiar work, and even the familiarity calmed me down, so the book did what it said it would do on the cover.
I also discovered some beautiful poems that I'd never read before, which was lovely.
Definitely worth a read if you need to take a few moments out of your day to clear your head.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love the concept of this book and I found it very helpful. A variety of various poems to help you unstress and fill your mind with positive thoughts. This was a great read and really made me feel better after I read it! I was sent this book by the publisher Harper 360 for a fair and honest review. Highly recommended!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and the way it is structured. Must finish the course that the book was based on. This is one I will continue to dip in and out of for many years.

[maxime · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fairly recent explorer of poetry and as a non-native English speaker, this was my biggest introduction to English poetry. I think the concept of this anthology is great, I'm just not sure if it worked for me. Maybe it's because I didn't read the poems out loud, so they didn't have the calming effect on me they were 'supposed' to have. Nevertheless, I loved the majority of the poems and they introduced me to different poets and for that reason I'm glad I got to read this (thanks to my friend for gifting me this). It is truly a wonderful collection and the themes that were touched upon were close to my heart. I'll definitely come back to this anthology often in the future.

[Amy Hazelton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading this poetry anthology for years and have finally completed it! I have really enjoyed it and can’t wait to read more poetry.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very nice idea for an anthology and reasonably well-executed, but I wish there were more diversity and more poems by people of color. There are a few, but not enough, in my opinion.

[D.A. Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Perhaps I'm not in the right mood for this kind of poetry. I took the excellent MOOC course about literature and mental health (future learn?) and this book is the outcome of that. It doesn't glimmer the way the poems and segments of writing did in the course. Perhaps I need to read them out loud.

[sar]

4.5

[LudmilaM · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It is really hard to rate this, because despite of peaceful title, lot of the poems were quite depressing, which in my case might lead to stress. Poems with difficult topics might be catharsic (that's the reason they were there), but that's only 50/50 chance. Also the poems were selected into categories, which can be tricky because perception of poem is so personal.
Although lots of poems were great, I didn't get what I expected (I didn't really get that unstressed); that might have influenced my rating. Maybe next time I read the book with different approach I might enjoy it more.

[Little Red · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having completed a Future learn course looking at Literature and Mental Health led by the compilers of this anthology, I was interested in furthering my understanding. This anthology was perfect. It embraces mindfulness through the reading of poetry and the careful selection of poems covers twelve themes which can be challenging life events. The introduction to each theme gave further insight into the lines, phrases or contexts of the poems, enhancing the practise further. A must-have companion for life!

[Krish C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I could not understand certain words in certain poems or conceptualise and comprehend some poems, due to the old english that was used, I deeply enjoyed reading this book. I loved the entire concept of this book and the introduction to every theme of poems. I hope I’ll come back to this book when I’m older and understand more poems from it. We need poetry books like this.

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can’t work out who this is aimed at. It’s a bit too ‘high art’ to offer any relief to me as an English teacher with ongoing mental health issues - there are so many better poems.

Linton Kwesi Johnson’s poem was probably my favourite but again - it was incredibly sad.

I don’t think this book achieves what it sets out to do at all.

Don’t recommend

[Pam Cummins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely book which has sections such as ‘meditating ‘, ‘releasing ‘ and ‘positive thinking’. Some of the poems were known to me and I also enjoyed reading new to me ones. Something to keep and dip into when you need to practice a bit of self-care.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

And breathe...

Lovely book to keep coming back to whenever you need a little pick me up. A few poems are a bit old-timey, and I don't really connect with them, but there's such a wide range that's not an issue - every time I pick it up I seem to find a new poem

[Aditi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slightly slow read, but still had a calming effect as promised.

[Tahieuba Chaudhry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some really good poems that come under specific emotions we as humans go through. Great for those needing a boost in their lives.

[Jardin Telling · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 / 5 stars - some beautiful imagery in here. At times the introductions to the chapters were a bit too wordy, but I greatly enjoyed the message portrayed by the works in each section overall.

[Azilah · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyed reading this book while listening to the violin melodies.

[Abi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

[Mollie Connelly-MacNeill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stellar concept and execution. Reading poems as therapy is a beautiful and life-giving experience.

[Suna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this for work. The selection of poems is excellent (if very dead-white-man heavy), but I did not enjoy the neoliberal approach to mental health (sprinkled with orientalism for good measure).

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of poems

[Kathryn Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book in a class that focused on bibliotherapy, and it worked well. It's a great collection of poetry. The supplementary material could be more robust.

[Leonard Singer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would be 5 stars if had some commentary to guide reader through some of the more difficult poems.

[Charlotte Cowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

7 / 10

This is anthology of classical poems categorised into various categories, designed to help calm the mind.

I enjoyed this book, especially as we covered one of these poems in uni today and I recognised it 🤣 Some poems were especially good such as those written by Charlotte Bronte but there were others that I didn't enjoy.

[Judith Munroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend sent me this book and it is a little treasure. It has many well known poems and some not so well known, and applies some of the principles of mindulness to reading poetry. It is the sort of book to dip in and out of, and I am sure it will be one I will return to again and again.

[Chip Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

If someone were to ask you 'why do people read poetry', you could do a lot worse than to shove this book into their hands.