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Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book
Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book is a beautiful gift hardback collection of poetry with poems inspired by The Natural History Museum. It covers everything from the depths of space to the very centre of the earth - there are poems about the solar system, planet earth, oceans and rivers, birds, dinosaurs, fossils, wildlife, flowers, fungi, insects, explorers and palaeontologists. Each section includes an introduction and some footnotes about particularly interesting species.
The museum has a collection of over eighty million objects and behind the scenes of its twenty-eight galleries crowd kilometres of preserved specimens, libraries of rare books and artworks, wonders gathered on some of the most famous voyages in history, rooms packed with pressed plants, warehouses teeming with stuffed animals and freezers full of DNA. As well as a museum, it is a state-of-the-art centre for discovery with over three hundred resident scientists and over ten thousand visiting researchers each year, investigating everything from dinosaurs to life on other planets.
The collection is made up of brand new and classic poems and is illustrated with botanical drawings and engravings from the museum’s collections.
This fantastic collection speaks of the wonder of nature and shows us why we need to look after our incredible planet.
The museum has a collection of over eighty million objects and behind the scenes of its twenty-eight galleries crowd kilometres of preserved specimens, libraries of rare books and artworks, wonders gathered on some of the most famous voyages in history, rooms packed with pressed plants, warehouses teeming with stuffed animals and freezers full of DNA. As well as a museum, it is a state-of-the-art centre for discovery with over three hundred resident scientists and over ten thousand visiting researchers each year, investigating everything from dinosaurs to life on other planets.
The collection is made up of brand new and classic poems and is illustrated with botanical drawings and engravings from the museum’s collections.
This fantastic collection speaks of the wonder of nature and shows us why we need to look after our incredible planet.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published September 2, 21
2 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Ana Sampson
26 books126 followersAna 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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 10, 2022
There’s nothing not to love in this anthology.
Ana Sampson has collected an assortment of great poetry by masters old and new, all for the Natural History Museum and all nature themed.
My first visit to the Natural History museum happened to be on one of the hottest days on London’s record. The heat capacity of brick façade cooked me and the other visitors inside like a furnace. That coupled with the cramped crowds and the unending background baby crying noises made my visit short and uncomfortable.
That was unfortunate because that was the most important collection of natural objects in the world. With upwards of 80 million objects, less than 1% of it is ever on display at any time. It’s an unmatched nourishment for the eyes and soul of any lover of nature.
On my way out of the museum I picked this book from the gift shop. I learned more about the museum and the history of its collection from this book than from my short visit.
It has many great poems from writers I already love and many that were new to me.
“My child, the Duck-billed Platypus
A sad example sets for us:
From him we learn how Indecision
Of character provokes Derision.
This vacillating Thing, you see,
Could not decide which he would be,
Fish, Flesh, or Fowl, and chose all three.
The scientists were sorely vexed
To classify him; so perplexed
Their brains, that they, with Rage at bay,
Called him a horrid name one day,--
A name that baffles, frights and shocks us,
Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus.”
Oliver Hertford
“held any amber? A solid block of honey,
clear and gold, old as time? If you're lucky,
you will find there's a bug stuck inside
when that thick 'n sticky syrup would
have oozed then dried. And it's all we'll
ever see of that sky-scraper, forest-maker
ghost of a tree. Like a poem, built to last:
it's a gift from the past, in your hand a
small reminder, yellow wonder,
precious chunk of ancient amber.”
James Carter
Ana Sampson has collected an assortment of great poetry by masters old and new, all for the Natural History Museum and all nature themed.
My first visit to the Natural History museum happened to be on one of the hottest days on London’s record. The heat capacity of brick façade cooked me and the other visitors inside like a furnace. That coupled with the cramped crowds and the unending background baby crying noises made my visit short and uncomfortable.
That was unfortunate because that was the most important collection of natural objects in the world. With upwards of 80 million objects, less than 1% of it is ever on display at any time. It’s an unmatched nourishment for the eyes and soul of any lover of nature.
On my way out of the museum I picked this book from the gift shop. I learned more about the museum and the history of its collection from this book than from my short visit.
It has many great poems from writers I already love and many that were new to me.
“My child, the Duck-billed Platypus
A sad example sets for us:
From him we learn how Indecision
Of character provokes Derision.
This vacillating Thing, you see,
Could not decide which he would be,
Fish, Flesh, or Fowl, and chose all three.
The scientists were sorely vexed
To classify him; so perplexed
Their brains, that they, with Rage at bay,
Called him a horrid name one day,--
A name that baffles, frights and shocks us,
Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus.”
Oliver Hertford
“held any amber? A solid block of honey,
clear and gold, old as time? If you're lucky,
you will find there's a bug stuck inside
when that thick 'n sticky syrup would
have oozed then dried. And it's all we'll
ever see of that sky-scraper, forest-maker
ghost of a tree. Like a poem, built to last:
it's a gift from the past, in your hand a
small reminder, yellow wonder,
precious chunk of ancient amber.”
James Carter
June 9, 2025
"you have learned the size of
our throats but not the
sound of our song"
- This is How We Walked by Jane Burn
our throats but not the
sound of our song"
- This is How We Walked by Jane Burn
June 11, 2022
Beautifully curated selection of poems and fascinating facts about The Natural History Museum.
October 30, 2021
📖 Scott's Thoughts 📖
-
Title: Wonder - The Natural History Museum Poetry Book
Author: Ana Sampson
Publication Year: 2021
Page Count: 238
-
I am going to start this off by saying that I have never read poetry before, unless it was when at school or when I'm preparing lessons in school now. So, for me to read a poetry book, is something quite new, so please excuse my ignorance.
-
Wonder, like the museum itself, is split into many sections. Featuring poems based on dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, space, plants and so much more!
-
I have to say, I loved this book! I loved, not only the poems, but the amount that I have managed to learn. The pages are just bulging with facts from history and about the Natural History Museum itself. There are so many moments where I stopped reading and had to jump onto Google to do some more research!
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Featuring poems from the likes of; William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Frost, Neil Gaiman, Thomas Hardy, John Keats, Rudyard Kipling, Dylan Thomas, Walt Whitman and William Wordsworth!
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My favourite section had to be the dinosaurs. My tabbing of poems certainly increased in here. My favouirte probably being a poem called Dinosaurs Walked here by Elli Woollard.
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I cant wait to use this in my classroom and I just k ow the children will live hearing some of these delightful poems. So thanks again to @ana for allowing me to have this beautiful collection.
-
bookstagram #review #bookstagram #thenaturalhistorymuseum #Wonder #anasampson #review #poetry
-
Title: Wonder - The Natural History Museum Poetry Book
Author: Ana Sampson
Publication Year: 2021
Page Count: 238
-
I am going to start this off by saying that I have never read poetry before, unless it was when at school or when I'm preparing lessons in school now. So, for me to read a poetry book, is something quite new, so please excuse my ignorance.
-
Wonder, like the museum itself, is split into many sections. Featuring poems based on dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, space, plants and so much more!
-
I have to say, I loved this book! I loved, not only the poems, but the amount that I have managed to learn. The pages are just bulging with facts from history and about the Natural History Museum itself. There are so many moments where I stopped reading and had to jump onto Google to do some more research!
-
Featuring poems from the likes of; William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Carol Ann Duffy, Robert Frost, Neil Gaiman, Thomas Hardy, John Keats, Rudyard Kipling, Dylan Thomas, Walt Whitman and William Wordsworth!
-
My favourite section had to be the dinosaurs. My tabbing of poems certainly increased in here. My favouirte probably being a poem called Dinosaurs Walked here by Elli Woollard.
-
I cant wait to use this in my classroom and I just k ow the children will live hearing some of these delightful poems. So thanks again to @ana for allowing me to have this beautiful collection.
-
bookstagram #review #bookstagram #thenaturalhistorymuseum #Wonder #anasampson #review #poetry
September 10, 2022
I usually find poetry hard to understand and inaccessible, but that wasn't the case with this anthology. The beginning half of the book was definitely better, but there were poems that I liked throughout. I have never really read poetry before because I am too intimidated by it, so I wasn't 100% sure what I was expecting but I was so pleasantly surprised. There is something for everyone.
My absolute favourites were:
Behind the scenes at the museum, by Michaela Morgan
Invisible magicians, by Paul Cookson
Finding magic, by Eric Finney
Solar system candy, by Grita Ralleigh
Moons, by Dom Conlon
Comet, by Kate Wakeling
An emerald as green as grass, by Christina Rosetti
Fern, by Robert Macfarlane
She finds fossils, by Michaela Morgan
Dinosaurs walked here, by Elli Woollard
Apatosaurus rap, by Laura Mucha
Dear stegosaurus, by Rebecca Perry
The king of all the dinosaurs, by Paul Cookson
Sea shell, by Amy Lowell
Apart from the amazing poems, the book also contains facts about the museum which really made me curious to learn more. Having read this, I now want to go and hunt down other works by the poets I liked. I know this is aimed at kids but I think people of any age could enjoy this. There were still some poems that went a little over my head but overall a fantastic collection of poems that gives me hope that there is more poetry out there that I'd love.
Also a special shout out to The loch Ness Monster's song by Edwin Morgan for so being so ridiculous that it had me and my sister crying with laughter from trying to read it aloud.
My absolute favourites were:
Behind the scenes at the museum, by Michaela Morgan
Invisible magicians, by Paul Cookson
Finding magic, by Eric Finney
Solar system candy, by Grita Ralleigh
Moons, by Dom Conlon
Comet, by Kate Wakeling
An emerald as green as grass, by Christina Rosetti
Fern, by Robert Macfarlane
She finds fossils, by Michaela Morgan
Dinosaurs walked here, by Elli Woollard
Apatosaurus rap, by Laura Mucha
Dear stegosaurus, by Rebecca Perry
The king of all the dinosaurs, by Paul Cookson
Sea shell, by Amy Lowell
Apart from the amazing poems, the book also contains facts about the museum which really made me curious to learn more. Having read this, I now want to go and hunt down other works by the poets I liked. I know this is aimed at kids but I think people of any age could enjoy this. There were still some poems that went a little over my head but overall a fantastic collection of poems that gives me hope that there is more poetry out there that I'd love.
Also a special shout out to The loch Ness Monster's song by Edwin Morgan for so being so ridiculous that it had me and my sister crying with laughter from trying to read it aloud.
July 21, 2023
Despite my low rating I actually really enjoyed this book. I found it inspiring, educational, and it contains a wonderful collection of poems. The reason for my low rating is this: a lot of the poems in this book didn’t engage me or interest me that much. And that’s honestly just personal preference, not to do with anything wrong about the book. I think anyone interested in natural history and poetry would love this book, and I would definitely recommend to people. I now feel the need to spend the day in the natural history museum!
January 8, 2023
The strongest collection I've ever seen. Not a single poem here i disliked
March 8, 2025
A lovely collection, a love letter to nature. Split into sections in the same categories as the museum, dinosaurs, mammals, geology etc. and interspersed with facts about the exhibits.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews