The School Bag

Editors: Heaney, Seamus and Hughes, Ted

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 1997
(This is an anthology of poems for children/young adults)

This is the second anthology of poems for children (and adults) selected by Heaney and Hughes.

In contrast to the Rattle Bag, this comes as a kind of history of English language poetry and of poetry written in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

As with its companion volume, the choice of poems presented is a surprise and challenge, including poems from Old and Middle English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh.

The book has a foreword by Heaney and an afterword by Hughes about "Memorizing Poems".

See also the companion volume The Rattle Bag.

Contents:

 Foreword by Seamus Heaney

• Long-legged Fly − W. B. Yeats
• Adze-head − Anonymous (Irish)
• Dover Beach − Matthew Arnold
• At the Fishhouses − Elizabeth Bishop
• A Grave − Marianne Moore
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner − Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• from Clanranald's Galley − Alasdair Macmhaighstir Alasdair
• The Viking Terror − Anonymous (Irish)
• The Stone Cross − George Mackay Brown
• Sir Patrick Spens − Anonymous
• The Berg − Herman Melville
• Repose of Rivers − Hart Crane
• The Unspoken − Edwin Morgan
• The Shadow − Dafydd Ap Gwilym
• Resolution and Independence − William Wordsworth
• Strange Meeting − Wilfred Owen
• from King Lear (Act III) − William Shakespeare
• Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came − Robert Browning
• The Deer's Cry − Anonymous (Irish)
• 'Who would true valour see' − Johnbunyan
• Photos of a Salt Mine − P. K. Page
• Malcolm Mooney's Land − W. S. Graham
• The Listeners − Walter De La Mare
• Field and Forest − Randall Jarrell
• Field Day − W.R. Rodgers
• The Unknown Bird − Edward Thomas
• Of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni − Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• The Straying Student − Austin Clarke
• The Collar − George Herbert
• Route Six − Stanley Kunitz
• Parting − Kathleen Raine
• A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning − John Donne
• Lay Your Arms Aside − Pierce Ferriter
• 'Will ye no come back again?' − Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne
• The Owl and the Pussy-cat − Edward Lear
• Cargoes − John Masefield
• The Seafarer − Anonymous (Old English)
• from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam − Edward Fitzgerald
• The Lie − Sir Walter Ralegh
• The Garden − Andrew Marvell
• Evening − Charles Cotton
• Bushed − Earle Birney
• Ice − Anonymous (Old English)
• A Song of Winter − Anonymous (Irish)
• from Grongar Hill − John Dyer
• March − Anonymous
• Naming of Parts − Henry Reed
• 'Somer is i-comen in' − Anonymous
• Summer Farm − Norman Maccaig
• The Son of the King of Moy − Anonymous (Irish)
• La Belle Dame Sans Merci − John Keats
• Tom O'Bedlam's Song − Anonymous
• Tweed and Till − Anonymous
• Inversnaid − Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Prothalamion − Edmund Spenser
• The River God − Stevie Smith
• At the Bomb Testing Site − William Stafford
• The Porpoise − Tom Osprys
• A Musical Instrument − Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Bavarian Gentians − D.H. Lawrence
• from Hymn to Proserpine − A. C. Swinburne
• Eve − Christina Rossetti
• Fawn's Foster-mother − Robinson Jeffers
• Native Born − Eve Langley
• The Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie − Anonymous
• Cantol − Ezra Pound
• from Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book III) − Arthur Golding
• Thomas Rymer − Anonymous
• Carentan O Carentan − Louis Simpson
• Lord Randal − Anonymous
• The Pardoner's Tale − Geoffrey Chaucer
• Lucifer in Starlight − George Meredith
• Behold the Lilies of the Field − Anthony Hecht
• Captain Carpenter − John Crowe Ransom
• from The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (Act V) − Christopher Marlowe
• The Strange Visitor − Anonymous
• Eli, Eli − Judith Wright
• 'Adam lay ibounden' − Anonymous
• The Dream of the Rood − Anonymous (Old English)
• Here − R.S. Thomas
• The Burning Babe − Robert Southwell
• The Corpus Christi Carol − Anonymous
• The Maori Jesus − James K. Baxter
• from The Great Hunger − Patrick Kavanagh
• The Hollow Men − T. S. Eliot
• Break of Day in the Trenches − Isaac Rosenberg
• The King's Horses − John Hewitt
• Pangur Ban − Anonymous (Irish)
• from Jubilate Deo − Christopher Smart
• A Dead Mole − Andrew Young
• A Sonnet on a Monkey − Marjory Fleming
• Epitaph on a Hare − William Cowper
• Cowper's Tame Hare − Norman Nicholson
• Upon a Spider Catching a Fly − Edward Taylor
• Roman Poem III: A Sparrow's Feather − George Barker
• from Philip Sparrow − John Skelton
• Cat Dying in Autumn − Irving Layton
• 'Call for the robin-redbreast and the wren' − John Webster
• A Lyke-Wake Dirge − Anonymous
• Siberia − James Clarence Mangan
• City of Dreadful Thirst − A. B. ('Banjo') Paterson
• The Tay Bridge Disaster − William Mcgonagall
• The Wind − Anonymous (Welsh)
• The Postilion Has Been Struck by Lightning − Patricia Beer
• 'Oh who is that young sinner' − A.E. Housman
• from The Ballad of Reading Gaol − Oscar Wilde
• Elegy for Himself − Chidiock Tichborne
• A Glass of Beer − David O'bruadair
• Thirty Bob a Week − John Davidson
• Tommy − Rudyard Kipling
• from Amours de Voyage − Arthur Hugh Clough
• The Castle − Edwin Muir
• from The Deserted Village − Oliver Goldsmith
• from The Odyssey of Homer (Book XVII) − George Chapman
• Song to the Foxes − Duncan Ban Macintyre
• Fern Hill − Dylan Thomas
• Hallaig − Sorley Maclean
• Tell Me a Story − Robert Penn Warren
• 'Methinks 'tis pretty sport to hear a Child' − Thomas Bastard
• After Blenheim − Robert Southey
• from Pictures from Breughel − William Carlos Williams
• The Swimmers − Allen Tate
• A Flask of Brandy − Padraic Fallon
• Eden Rock − Charles Causley
• In Reference to Her Children, 23 June, I656 − Anne Bradstreet
• On My First Son − Ben Jonson
• Those Winter Sundays − Robert Hayden
• 'O wen, wen, O little wennikins' − Anonymous (Old English)
• 'Thrice toss these oaken ashes in the air' − Thomas Campion
• Song of the Cauld Lad of Hylton − Anonymous
• 'There was a man of double deed' − Anonymous
• Auguries of Innocence − William Blake
• Law like Love − W. H. Auden
• Booker T. and W.E.B. − Dudley Randall
• 'I have a yong suster' − Anonymous
• The Cubical Domes − David Gascoyne
• Gnomic Stanzas − Anonymous (Welsh)
• Question in a Field − Louise Bogan
• 'anyone lived in a pretty how town' − E.E.Cummings
• The Umbrella − Weldon Kees
• Cuckoo − Anonymous (Old English)
• Blight − Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Continuum − Allen Curnow
• The Waking − Theodore Roethke
• Waking Early Sunday Morning − Robert Lowell
• Let lt Go − William Empson
• On His Heid-ake − William Dunbar
• 'In the desert' − Stephen Crane
• Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot − Alexander Pope
• from Dream Songs − John Berryman
• Miniver Cheevy − Edwin Arlington Robinson
• The Maim'd Debauchee − John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester
• Seven Sisters − J. T. 'Funny Paper' Smith
• The Yellow Bittern − Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna
• Tam o'Shanter −  Robert Burns
•  from The Midnight Court − Brian Merriman
• Behaviour of Money − Bernard Spencer
• Drinking − Abraham Cowley
• The Vision of Mac Conglinne − Anonymous (Irish)
• 'If there were, oh! an Hellespont of cream' − John Davies Of Hereford
• from Verses on the Death of Dr Swift − Jonathan Swift
• from The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare − Anonymous (Irish)
• 'I am Raftery the poet' − Anthony Raftery
• Fine Knacks for Ladies − Anonymous
• 'I am Taliesin. I sing perfect metre' − Anonymous (Welsh)
• from Song of Myself − Walt Whitman
• A Supermarket in California − Allen Ginsberg
• from Piers Plowman − William Langland
• A Step Away from Them − Frank O'hara
• Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard − Thomas Gray
• At Yorktown − Charles Olson
• The Life and Death of Habbie Simson, the Piper of Kilbarchan − Robert Sempill Of Beltrees
• An Epitaph upon the Celebrated Claudy Philips, Musician, Who Died Very Poor − Samuel Johnson
• Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye − Anonymous
• from The Testament of Cresseid − Robert Henryson
• Donal Og − Anonymous (Irish)
• The Daemon Lover − Anonymous
• The Fairies − William Allingham
• The Fause Knicht upon the Road − Anonymous
• The Badger − John Clare
• The Fox − Huw Llwyd
• from Briggflatts − Basil Bunting
• Switch − Sean O Riordain
• The Seagull − Sion Phylip
• 'Ship-broken men whom stormy seas sore toss' − William Fowler
• The Harlem Dancer − Claude Mckay
• from The Song of Solomon − --
• Delight in Disorder − Robert Herrick
• Piazza di Spagna, Early Morning − Richard Wilbur
• She Moved through the Fair − Padraic Colum
• I Only am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee − Howard Nemerov
• from Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum − Aemelia Lanyer
• On His Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia − Sir Henry Wotton
• The Princess Recalls Her One Adventure − Edna St Vincent Millay
• Kiss'd Yestreen − Anonymous
• 'Maiden in the mor lay' − Anonymous
• A Nocturnal Reverie − Anne Finch, Countess Of Winchilsea
• 'Silent is the house' − Emily Bronte
• Wedding-Wind − Philip Larkin
• 'Westron winde, when will thou blow' − Anonymous
• Wulf and Eadwacer − Anonymous (Old English)
• The Walking Woman  − Sidney Keyes
• The Reverie − Egan O'rahilly
• 'Icham of lrlaunde' − Anonymous
• 'Dear Harp of my Country!' − Thomas Moore
• Ireland's Own or, The Burial of Thomas Moore − Sir John Betjeman
• 'General wonder in our land' − Anonymous
• Croppy Boy − Anonymous
• from Virgil's The Aeneid (Book I) − Gavin Douglas
• from The Gododdin − Aneirin
• Battle-Hymn of the Republic − Julia Ward Howe
• from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage − George Gordon, Lord Byron
• The Silent One − Ivor Gurney
• from In Parenthesis (Part 7) − David Jones
• Beach Burial − Kenneth Slessor
• The Twa Corbies − Anonymous
• from The Lament for Arthur O'Leary − Eibhlín Dhubh Ní Chonaill
• Simplify Me When I'm Dead − Keith Douglas
• Faithless Nelly Gray − Thomas Hood
• from Beowulf − Anonymous (Old English)
• Jabberwocky − Lewis Carroll
• from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight − Anonymous (The 'Pearl Poet')
• 'Pan's Syrinx was a girl indeed' − John Lyly
• 'My hand is weary with writing' − Saint Columcille
• What is the Word  − Samuel Beckett
• Bookworm − Anonymous (Old English)
• from Lament for Fergal Rua − Tadhgog O'huiginn
• from In Memoriam − Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Lament for Thomas MacDonagh − Francis Ledwidge
• Lycidas − John Milton
• Last Look − A. D. Hope
• Shadows in the Water − Thomas Traherne
• One Tuesday in Summer − James Mcauley
• 'They are all gone into the world of light' − Henry Vaughan
• Deor − Anonymous (Old English)
• 'They flee from me, that sometime did me seek' − Sir Thomas Wyatt
• To Earthward − Robert Frost
• On Monsieur's Departure − Queen Elizabeth I
• 'Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part' − Michael Drayton
• 'With how sad steps, 0 Moon, thou climb'st the skies' − Sir Philip Sidney
• 'O rosary that recalled my tear' − Aithbhreac Inghean Corcadail
• The Exequy − Henry King
• The Unquiet Grave − Anonymous
• The Wind Suffers − Laura Riding
• Meeting Point − Louis Macneice
• Lost Love − Robert Graves
• 'Foweles in the frith' − Anonymous
• 'Thule, the period of cosmography' − Anonymous
• 'When all this All doth pass from age to age' − Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke
• Ode to the West Wind − Percy Bysshe Shelley
• 'This Life, which seems so fair' − William Drummond Of Hawthornden
• The Rites for Cousin Vit − Gwendolyn Brooks
• Folding the Sheets − Rosemary Dobson
• The Bonnie Broukit Bairn − Hugh Macdiarmid
• The Tap-room − Robert Tannahill
• from The Revenger's Tragedy − Cyril Tourneur
• The Skull − Llywelyn Goch Ap Meurig Hen
• from Hateful Old Age − Anonymous (Welsh)
• 'Adieu! farewell earth's bliss!' − Thomas Nashe
• 'The rath in front of the oak wood' − Anonymous (Irish)
• The Flowers of the Forest − Jean Elliot
• Widsith − Anonymous (Old English)
• The Negro Speaks of Rivers − Langston Hughes
• The Bonnie Earl of Moray − Anonymous
• The World as Meditation − Wallace Stevens
• The Truly Great − Stephen Spender
• To Everlasting Oblivion − John Marston
• Afterwards − Thomas Hardy
• 'Because I could not stop for Death' − Emily Dickinson
• from The Secular Masque − John Dryden

Afterword: Memorising Poems, by Ted Hughes