The Rattle Bag

Considering that every year I tell myself that I’m going to make a dent in my TBR shelf of poetry collections, and every year I also fail this goal spectacularly, I’m a bit shocked that I managed to read this one cover to cover in just over three months. Rather than focusing on the work of a single poet, this collection is a haphazard assortment that does its titular moniker proud. Rounded up by poets Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes (two of my favourites), they confess that the collection has little rhyme or reason and is simply a book of poems that they liked and brought together with the idea of exploring and making the genre possibly more accessible. While they may have far more white male poets than I would prefer, I was pleasantly show more surprised at the oft-included poems in translation and a fair number of poems by women who deserve places alongside their male colleagues. Arranged simply by alphabetizing the titles (or first lines, for those poems lacking in formal designation), the collection juxtaposes poems that would never have appeared together in normal circumstance - creating what could easily have been a dissonant noise, but which instead I found to be a far more pleasant cacophony of words that must simply be let stand. The noise they create is indeed a rattle bag, but it is one that is full of pleasant surprises, wonderful language, and not a few moments of amusement. Maybe letting poetry simply be its chaotic self, rather than trying to form a driven narrative in a singular tone or set of motifs, is the key to its true enjoyment; it definitely seemed to work to keep me engaged with this collection, so here’s hoping we can replicate the experiment and get back into this fun genre. show less

A collection of poems curated by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes for kiddos. Some old favorites (and for them to be favorites for me, you *know* they're *old*), some new (to me) delights, and a fair few that didn't really resonate with me. A mixed rattle bag, as it were.

The Rattle Bag is a mixed bag. William Blake gets eighteen entries, Rudyard Kipling none; Ogden Nash gets more entries than Sylvia Plath. By far the biggest contributor is Anonymous with his or her penchant for doggerel. There are, of course, many old favourites and new delights, but there are better poetry anthologies out there: I recommend Poem for the Day Books 1 and 2.

We used 'The Rattle Bag' as the text for my upper-level poetry class in college and I absolutely loved pulling it open and discovering new poetry every time. Definitely not the "average" poetry book full of the stock-standard sonnets, e. e. Cummings and Dickinson (not that they're not great -- they're just everywhere). I enjoyed getting a fresher perspective and reading poets I probably would never have discovered on my own.

This is an unusual collection of international poems deliberately unsorted and randomly presented. Hugely enjoyable. I lost this book and recently found it and reread it in a B&B. I went close to stealing it.

My favourite book of poetry. However, may I correct the info for the book; it is edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. Yeah, pedantic, so what? It was mainly Heaney's effort, hence my correction ;) Anyway, wondrous poems from all around the world. A beautiful collection.

If you want a book you can dip into, that you can use to explore different poets from around the world. That can be a reference point to start your voyage into the alleys, paths & highways of poetry this is a good book to start with.The poets covered, some are known, some famous, but theres obscure poems, anonymous poems, poets whose lines you see within these pages will set you off on the road to other works/writers.This book book is a key, a door, a path its up to you what you do with it.