I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud: ...And Other Poems You Half-Remember from School

by Ana Sampson (Editor)

All of poetry's greatest hits—from the classics of Wordsworth and Pope to modern-day poets W. H. Auden and Ted Hughes. Complete with an index of famous lines. Do you remember the famous opening lines, "Tyger tyger, burning bright"? Or, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" But would you be able to name the poems or the poets? The English language is jam-packed with wonderful verses that we've all heard at some point, but probably forgotten. I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud will remind you of all those long-forgotten poems that you were taught at school, together with mini-biographies and introductions. This title "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge; "If" by Rudyard Kipling; "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen; "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman; "Digging" by Seamus Heaney; and "Not Waving But Drowning" by Stevie Smith. Complete with an index of famous lines as well as authors, any poetry enthusiast will love the collection of best-loved poems alongside the lively commentary. I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud is a perfect addition to any poetry lover's collection.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Classics, Reference, History, Literature

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ana 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.

Reviews

[Sam]

This is a must-have book as it contains famous and familiar poems and not only are some phrases taken from the poems used in everyday talk but the poems as a whole are also amazing to read.
Plus, it stays true to its word as I have read most of the poems during my school years and it was a nice trip down memory lane.

But, the part I like most about this book is that each poem and each poet comes with a little backstory which helps clear any confusion and adds a whole new level of appreciation to the poem.

I also loved the division of the book, wherein it was chronologically divided into 5 parts with more poems being taken by recent poets so the reader doesn’t feel too overwhelmed or lost in old-timey English.

A lot of thought has gone into this anthology and it pays off. Highly recommend.

[Daniel Wright]

I love the concept of this book - an anthology of poems, selected, not for theme, or with any pretence to evaluating their quality, but because they contain phrases which people recognise without realizing where they come from. A pleasure, and an invaluable book to own.

[Beth]

I am not a natural poetry reader so I am taking baby steps into the territory. This book seemed a good starting place, which it is once you get past the convoluted tedium of The Romantics (though exceptions made for Blake and earlier Burns). I was about to write myself off as poetry’s lost cause until I discovered that W H Auden was ahead of me, referring to the group as ‘Kelly and Sheets’. This cheered me immensely.

Interestingly, perhaps significantly, the poems from 19th century women rise up above the daffodils like beautiful butterflies: Elizabeth Barratt Browning, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson. I understood their poetry; they mined a deeper seam than the men.

But everything got better when I hit the 20th century with Kipling and Frost and much, much better with Sassoon and Owen and then onto Betjeman, Auden and Larkin, so my earlier preferences are not a sexist thing at all. That said, the book concludes with the haunting work of Sylvia Plath and the sharp observations of Jenny Joseph (‘When I am an old woman I shall wear purple.’), Wendy Cope (‘Bloody men are like bloody buses’) and our current Poet Laureate, the wonderful Carol Ann Duffy.

Ana Sampson only offers one or two of the best-known examples from each poet following a short paragraph of introduction – perfect for a poetry novice like me. With apologies to fans of The Romantics, I nonetheless recommend this toe-dipping book to those in a similar position.

[Roger Pettit]

I enjoy reading poetry. And I like the idea of poetry anthologies. They are ideal for dipping into from time to time, perhaps when you are between novels, when you are on a short bus or train journey and don't have the time or inclination to begin a more substantial book or when you simply need a few minutes of inspiration, reflection, laughter or quiet enjoyment. "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud", compiled and edited by Ana Sampson, is a particularly good example of the form. Taking as its premise Ms Sampson's recollections of the many poems and famous lines that she believes some of us are likely to remember (or half remember) from our schooldays, the anthology is an enjoyable and wide-ranging collection of some of the most famous poems in the English language.

Arranged chronologically, the book features poems from the time of Chaucer (an extract from The General Prologue to "The Canterbury Tales" is featured) up to today (the last poem in the anthology is Carol Ann Duffy's "Valentine"). Many are very well known (Shakespeare's Sonnet 18; Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"; Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written In a Country Church Yard", Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier", etc.). But there are a few that are perhaps not as familiar (Emma Lazarus's "The New Colossus"; Robert Louis Stevenson's "Bed in Summer" and John Pudney's "For Johnny"). Ms Sampson provides informative commentary on some of the poems and I particularly liked her very brief essays on such issues as Verse Drama, The Sonnet, The Metaphysical Poets and The Romantic Movement.

"I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud" is an enjoyable, thought-provoking and entertaining anthology that will appeal to anyone who enjoys reading poetry or who perhaps wishes to rekindle a long-neglected love of this wonderful art form. 8/10.

[Marcus]

Does exactly what it says on the tin. A breakdown of the different eras of poetry, their stars and the key works. I enjoyed the pithy little biographies given to each poet and will check out other poetry anthologies by Sampson.

[Jacob P]

2.5/5

I picked this up as part of The Education You Wish You Had, a book set I’ve been meaning to work my way through for ages. It’s split across five different topics, and I grabbed this one on a bit of a whim. Poetry isn’t really my thing, so I went into it knowing I probably wasn’t going to sit down and carefully dissect every poem.

And, honestly, I didn’t. I skimmed through a lot of it, stopping to properly read the poems that caught my attention or that I recognised from high school, university, or just general cultural osmosis. There were definitely some good callbacks and moments of nostalgia in there, and I enjoyed recognising certain poems and writers I’d encountered years ago.

The part I actually found most interesting was the little bits of context around the poems. Learning about who the poet was, what was happening in their life, and what prompted them to write a particular poem gave me much more appreciation for the pieces themselves. Knowing that O Captain! My Captain! was written in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s death, or that Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night was written while Dylan Thomas’s father was dying, added a completely different layer to poems that otherwise might have just gone over my head.

And that's probably the biggest issue I had with the book: a lot of the actual poetry went over my head.

I don't think I'm particularly literate when it comes to analysing poetry, and I found myself reading a poem and thinking, "Okay... I have no idea what you're actually trying to say here." The analogies, symbolism and construction often felt like things I needed to unpack far more than I was willing or able to. I'm sure there's a lot more going on in many of these poems than I took away from them, but that also meant I didn't get a huge amount out of some of them.

There were definitely individual poems that resonated with me more than others, and I can appreciate what this collection is trying to do by bringing together a bunch of the well-known poems you're probably expected to know at some point in your education. But as a whole, this one just wasn't really for me.

It was quick enough to get through, and I'm glad I gave it a proper crack rather than completely writing it off because I'm not a poetry person. I don't think I'll ever pick it up and read it cover to cover again, but I am glad I've got it sitting on the shelf. If I ever feel like going down a poetic rabbit hole, there's a decent collection here to dip back into.

[Evie Dunbabin]

Brilliant concept - the most famous poems all in one place!

[Andi]

This book is essentially a greatest-hits collection for the very casual poetry fan - i.e. exactly the sort of poetry book for me. True to the title, it includes most of your favorites from ninth grade English, as well as several you probably don't remember, but from which you will certainly recognize lines simply because they have become part of the fabric of our language. The scope stretches all the way from Chaucer to Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's current Poet Laureate, though the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries seem to get the most attention (which is probably reflective of the generally accepted "classic" literary canon, at this point). Some American poets are included, but it is a British collection and skews unapologetically in that direction. Almost as entertaining as the poems themselves are the editor's blurbs about the poets; did you know, for example, that William Blake and his wife "were once seen naked reading Paradise Lost to each other in the summerhouse"?

My one complaint is the number of poems of which only "extracts" are included. I understand that this is supposed to be strictly a dabble into classic poetry, and most of the full versions are available for free with a quick Google search. I also completely get that including the full text of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and The Waste Land and Paradise freaking Lost would render the book prohibitively massive. But something like The Raven doesn't need to be excerpted; just give it its four pages. I'd gladly deal with a slightly longer book for the convenience of having more poems included in full in one handy source to reference.

[WYKW]

The organisation of this collection of chronological. This book introduces the Who's Who of the canonical poets in the Western World with a brief and very candidly written introduction to each poet. For example, of William Blake, it is noted that he married the illiterate Catherine Boucher and educated her. They were then seen reading Paradise Lost to each other, naked. After T.S Eliot separated from his wide Vivien Haigh-Wood, she would turn up at his lectures with a placard proclaiming, "I am the wife he abandoned."
Also, I learnt that the Byronic Hero is coined after Lord George Gordon Byron.

[Terem]

I really liked the way in which Ana Sampson guides you through the infinite universe of poetry. A very nice overview. However, the extracts of some poems were too short and superficial at times. I would have preferred it if the whole poem would have been featured. Otherwise a lovely excursion through the ages of poetry writing.

[Ratree Charoensamee Chucharoenwanitchakul]

I love this book so much and my siblings bought for me as a present! ❤️❤️

[Cidney]

This is a 2013 book by the correct author but doesn't have quite the same cover. Mine has rows at the top and bottom of the cover in rather fetching thin stripes of teal, yellow, light orange and possibly brown, not sure about the last colour! This little book is an absolute gem! I remembered so many of these from my school days. Each week as part of our homework we were tasked with learning a poem and on the following Friday we stood as a class before our English teacher and had to repeat it. It's amazing how many I still remember.

I could still quote you now "Miss J Hunter Dunn, Miss J hunter Dunn" and "Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough" by John Betjeman; John Masefield's beautiful quinquireme of nineveh's "Cargoes"; "this is the night mail crossing the border, bringing the cheques and postal orders" where you could hear the rattling of the rails as you say this, wonderfully written by W H Auden, but today I can only remember about a third of it, shame! John Bunyan's "Who would true valour see" but I know this as the hymn we sang at church (we had to go to church services at the big church up the road, all walking smartly in our uniforms in crocodile fashion). William Blake's "Tiger Tiger burning bright in the forests of the night.." and also his Jerusalem which we also sang as a hymn as do the WI; Wordsworth's "I wandered lonely as a cloud" although I can shamefully only remember the first two verses now! Clement C Moore's "Twas the night before Christmas..'' which I repeatedly said to my children all through every December and they could quote it too!

I think everyone can remember Lear's "the owl and the pussycat" which is used as a nursery rhyme; Julia Ward Howe's "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" which is the battle hymn of the American republic; Rudyard Kipling's "if" but can only remember the first verse however his "five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark" smuggling poem I can quote all the way through; also John McCrae's "in flanders fields the poppies blow" which we said at each remembrance day; Edward Thomas's "Adlestrop" which was the only poem my grandad taught me, he being a railwayman would remember a railway poem from his youth! And the night mail poem which he loved. Oh Mr Rupert Makin you've a lot to answer for!!

[Stevedutch]

Arguably the richest language in the World, English is replete with well-known and half-forgotten lines and phrases from barely remembered sources. This modest book, in both price and size, is, nevertheless, a rich resource of poetry from whence those phrases originate. The poets are chronologically ordered from Chaucer to Carol Ann Duffy and there is a list of all of those taken for granted lines for reference enabling the reader to place them within their historical and literary contexts.

Along the way the author interposes priceless little nuggets of information about the poems and their authors and brilliantly showcases the always evolving and magical power of the World’s language. I picked it up to idly thumb through: before I knew it, an hour had flown past!

[Prince]

I received this book on my birthday last year by a dear friend, and finally got around to diving into it.

It's a brilliant collection of poems, with a brief introduction to each author. There are even little descriptions before some poems to give us context for the mood of the author when writing that particular piece.

The point of this book is to introduce/reintroduce us to classic poems that have melted into our modern culture that we might not be aware of and it does a great job of that.

[LY Ng]

Poems aren't my liking. They are difficult for me to understand but I have gradually realized reading poems is a good training for being attentive to details and imaginative. I quite enjoy this collection of poems - it's not a very comprehensive anthology given its volume but it contains a concise biography of each poet along with some notes. I also like how poems composed near recent times occupy a greater proportion of this book. I'm still learning to appreciate poems but now I know the difference between a poem and fragments of sentences...

[JJ]

An enjoyable book and I did recognise quite a few, poems I had to learn, like Macavity’s a Mystery Cat, and some I knew an odd line from and wondered where it came from. There were lots I was completely unaware of but that’s by the way.
We start at Geoffrey Chaucer and work our way through time to Carol Ann Duffy.
The authors short biographies for each poet were very interesting, a neat accomplishment seeing they barely and rarely took up less than half a page.
I don’t own very many poetry books but I do like reading poetry.

[Dani Ringrose]

Yep, poetry's greatest hits, does what it says on the tin.

Caveats for "poetry's greatest [Western, British/US-filtered] hits". The book implies it will provide some insight into those poems you half-forgot studying in school, but only provides insight into the authors themselves. Considering the wonderfully conversational tone poets were introduced by the anthologist, I really wish she'd also taken the time to explain a little more about all of the poems - their inspiration, explanation of a key line - just something more than what was provided.

[Ms Eclectic]

4.5 stars marked down for abridging some of the poems.

Frank Skinner’s poetry podcast is what inspired me to pick the book up in the first place, and I’m glad I did. First book of poetry I’ve read in years and I’m keen to enjoy more, although I’m not sure where to start.

It’s nice to pick up, read a bit and then put down for a while.

[Scott Slocombe]

Bought this years ago and it’s just been sitting on my shelf until I was told I had to learn a poem for a class I’m taking. So glad I picked it up - fantastic anthology of much-loved poems and has inspired me to dig deeper.

[Marlene]

Delightfully done. A brief essay about each poet and where the poem came from. I was pleasantly surprised to find one of my favorite poems was written by a woman. Highly recommended to anyone semi-familiar but not really into poetry.

[George Dean]

This was exactly what it sounded like, to be honest. A nice quick read that includes most of the quintessential poems and English writers from the 17th century onwards

[The Endless Unread]

An absolutely beautiful collection of poems.

[Winifred]

really enjoyed this book tried to read a few poems every day quite relaxing. also enjoyed the information about the poets.

[Amy Williams]

A lovely collection of famous poems I remember learning at school. I really enjoyed the snippets of bibliography written about each poet.

[John Geddie]

Very strong collection, it has a bunch of half-remembered poems and more than a few new favorites. The small biographical data the editor includes was really fun.

[Quailin Swanson-Terepo]

It has a beautiful range of poetry throughout the book. Some parts take time to read. There is a lot of references and information on Poets that I thought was very clever and helpful.

[Nancy]

Good selection and interesting commentary on the poets. Definitely worth it to read.

[Helbob]

I’ve really enjoyed working my way through this book of half remembered verses. And an added bonus has been the short but informative ‘biography’ of each poet. It spans a lot of years!

[William Garrett-Jones]

An okay collection but nothing exceptional and not matching my personal school days

[Kelly]

A wander through the history of poetry (of the mostly English persuasion) with amusing and interesting introductions to each represented poet. This was a decent overview.