Reviews

The Nation's Favourite Poems: Book 1 by Griff Rhys Jones

poppyharveyxoxo's review against another edition

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reflective fast-paced

3.0

anna3101's review against another edition

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4.0

A lovely collection of poems - probably everyone will find at least several favourites here.

Something to come back to and enjoy like a glass of good wine.

greybeard49's review against another edition

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4.0

A real mixture of poems, most of which you will have heard somewhere, often at school. Contains many gems and is enhanced by the comments of GR Jones. Good to have in your collection.

bookswithboo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing

4.5

louise_maia's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.5

janedallaway's review against another edition

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4.0

I first read this years ago, in fact both Mum and I had a copy, but it was hers that I’ve read. This time around I enjoyed it’s strange mixture of poetry, but I guess that’s what you get when you ask the public to name their favourite.

The poems I enjoyed enough to put a mark against are:

- The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
- He wishes for the cloths of heaven by W. B. Yeats
- Leisure by William Henry Davies
- Twelve Songs by W. H. Auden
- Jaberwocky by Lewis Carroll
- The owl and the pussy-cat by Edward Lear
- The glory of the garden by Rudyard Kipling
- Bloody men by Wendy Cope
- Diary of a church mouse by John Betjeman
- Let me die a youngman’s death by Roger McCough
- Chocolate cake by Michael Rosen
- Warming her pearls by Carol Ann Duffy

Some of these are because I remember them from school, or when I first read them. Some are because it’s interesting to revist a poem I thought I knew.

late_stranger's review against another edition

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2.0

While it was fun to occasionally come across a famous line i didn't realise was from the poem it was, there were only two that really jumped out at me and made me tab the page - Siegfried Sassoon's Everone Sang and Thomas Harry's The Ruined Maid. Otherwise, it was a mix of things I'd read for uni and well done but monotonous rhymes verse. Alas, I don't see to share the nation's taste in poetry.

katiedreads's review against another edition

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4.0

I found this book during a declutter and realised I purchased it more than 15 years ago and never read past the first 10 pages. I have never been a huge poetry reader, but I gave this a chance. Once I started reading it, I realised I actually knew about 30 out of the 100 poems well. This book is a good mixture of familiar poems and poets but with some interesting additions as well. I found some new favourites in Jenny Joseph Warning and Thomas Hood I Remember, but it did remind me of my love of Wordsworth, Keats, Dylan Thomas and Edgar Allan Poe.

littlefish's review

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adventurous funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

septimasnape's review

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challenging reflective relaxing medium-paced

3.0

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