Poetry! We all want to have read it, but we don’t want to read it! Amiright? How about this:
The Rattle Bag edited by poets Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes
Here is a great anthology to leave lying around. It’s designed to surprise you. It isn’t organized chronologically or by theme — it’s in alphabetical order of the poets’ names, so you can open it up and find ANYTHING (and there is a glossary and index in the back, too). It isn’t horrifyingly thick, and the pages aren’t frustratingly thin.
Most of the poems are short, and most of them are great, but chosen to be a little more accessible to modern readers. This doesn’t mean it’s a watered-down, pandering collection; it’s just been put together by people who know how to suck unsuspecting readers into enjoying something they might never have chosen deliberately.
It’s the perfect anthology if you’re intimidated by poetry, and don’t know where to start — or if you used to like poetry, but can’t get into it anymore — or if you read poetry every day, but are in a rut with your same old familiar favorites.
