England\'s best loved poems

INTRODUCTION X 1: FELLOWSHIP Adlestrop — EDWARD THOMAS Heart of Oak—DAVID GARRICK I Vow to Thee, My Country — SIR CECIL SPRING-RICE Song of the Western Men—R. S. HAWKER Everyone Sang — SIEGFRIED SASSOON Land of Hope and Glory —A. C. BENSON Psalm 100—(Scottish METRICAL VERSION) Rule, Britannia —JAMES THOMSON The Charge of the Light Brigade — ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON 2: REGRET Elegy — CHIDIOCKTICHBORNE Going, Going — PHILIP LARKIN He Never Expected Much — THOMAS HARDY I look into my glass — THOMAS HARDY I wake and feel the fell of dark… — GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS Remembrance — SIR THOMAS WYATT In Time of War (Sonnet viii) — W. H. AUDEN On His Blindness (Sonnet xvi) — JOHN MILTON Breadfruit — PHILIP LARKIN From The Garden of Proserpine — ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE 3: LOVE To Mistress Margaret Hussey — JOHN SKELTON Love song — TED HUGHES Sonnet XLIII (\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'How do l love thee?\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\') from Sonnets from the Portuguese — ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING She walks in beauty\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' — GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON The Visionary — EMILY BRONTË A Subaltern’s Love-song — SIR JOHN BETJEMAN Meeting at Night — ROBERT BROWNING Sonnet xviii (‘shall I compare thee to a summer\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s day?\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\') — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE S o The Sun Rising — JOHN DONNE 4: WONDER High Flight (An Airman\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Ecstasy) — JOHN GILLESPIE MAGEE Composed upon Westminster Bridge: September 3, 1802— WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The Tiger — WILLIAM BLAKE To autumn — JOHN KEATS The Windhover: To Christ Our Lord — GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS God\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Grandeur — GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS From Hassan — JAMES ELROY FLECKER The Sea and the Hills — RUDYARD KIPLING Christmas — SIR JOHN BETJEMAN 5: THE UNDERDOG Lines to a Don — HILAIRE BELLOC Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries — A. E. HOUSMAN From The Ballad of Reading Gaol — OSCAR WILDE The Mower — PHILIP LARKIN Sonnet xxix (When in disgrace with fortune . . .\\\\\\\') — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The Donkey — G. K. CHESTERTON Poor Puggy-Wug — WINSTON CHURCHILL Church Going — PHILIP LARKIN 6: PRAYER From Jubilate Agno — CHRISTOPHER SMART Pied Beauty — GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS Love (iii) — GEORGE HERBERT Prayer — JOHN DONNE A Hymn to God the Father — JOHN DONNE Psalm 23 — SCOTTISH METRICAL VERSION The Collar — GEORGE HERBERT Recessional (A Victorian Ode) — RUDYARD KIPLING \\\\\\\'Give me my scallop-shell of quiet\\\\\\\' from The Passionate Mans Pilgrimage — SIRWALTER RALEIGH 7: MAGIC The Old Ships — JAMES ELROY FLECKER Kubla Khan — SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Ozymandias — PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY The Listeners — WALTER DE LA MARE All That\\\\\\\'s Past — WALTER DE LA MARE Jabberwocky — LEWIS CARROLL From The Hound of Heaven — FRANCIS THOMPSON The Thought-Fox – Ted Hughes 8: Defiance Invinctus – W.E. Henley \\\\\\\'Who would true valour see\\\\\\\' from The Pilgrim\\\\\\\'s Progress — JOHN BUNYAN ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ — DYLAN THOMAS Jerusalem — WILLIAM BLAKE The English War — DOROTHY L. SAYERS Ulysses —ALFRED, LORDTENNYSON \\\\\\\'This day is call\\\\\\\'d the feast of Crispian\\\\\\\' from Henry V, Act IV, Scène III — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE \\\\\\\'As I lay asleep in Italy\\\\\\\' from The Mask of Anarchy — PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Into Battle — JULIAN GRENFELL \\\\\\\'What though the field be lost?\\\\\\\' from Paradise Lost — JOHN MILTON J \\\\\\\'Say not the struggle nought availeth\\\\\\\' — ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH 9: KINGSHIP Preparations — ANONYMOUS Twas God the word that spake it\\\\\\\' — QUEEN ELIZABETH l Thé Old Squire — WILFRED SCAWEN BLUNT God Save the King — HENRY CAREY (ATTRIBUTED) From An Horatian Ode upon Cromwells Retum from Ireland — ANDREW MARVELL The Vicar of Bray — ANONYMOUS A Charm — RUDYARD KIPLING \\\\\\\'In times when nothing stood — PHILIP LARKIN This royal throne of Kings, this sceptr\\\\\\\'d isle\\\\\\\' from Richard II, Act II, Scène 1 — WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The King\\\\\\\'s Breakfast—A A Milne 10: LOSS The Dead (Sonnet iv) —RUPERT BROOKE Requiem — ROBERT Louis STEVENSON \\\\\\\'Nothing is here for tears * from Samson Agonistes— John Milton Epitaph — SIRWALTER RALEIGH Song — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI Remember — CHRISTINA ROSSETTI Crossing the Bar—ALFRED, LORDTENNYSON Funeral Blues — W. H. AUDEN The Trees — PHILIP LARKIN Holy Sonnet (iii) - JOHN DONNE II: HOME If— RUDYARD KIPLING My Boy Jack — RUDYARD KIPLING \\\\\\\'Loveliest of trees, the cherry now\\\\\\\' frorn A Shropshire Lad — A. E. HOUSMAN Fern Hill — DYLAN THOMAS Home Thoughts from Abroad — ROBERT BROWNING The Old Vicarage, Grantchester — RUPERT BROOKE The Soldier — RUPERT BROOKE From Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard — THOMAS GRAY Recently Become Cool — GEORGE COURTAULD Acknowledgements Index of First Lines