Dancing by the Light of the Moon Read online

  Poetry enhances life. Sharing it with babies (even before they are born), with infants and with children helps to empower them with the gift of language. Reading poetry at any age can be a recreation, a consolation, a diversion, a delight. Sometimes it can be a challenge, too. As E. B. White, the author of the children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web, explained: ‘A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer … He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.’

  As anyone who has done it will tell you (as I hope you are telling yourself now), learning poetry by heart is profoundly satisfying. As I hope I have demonstrated, it is also good for you. It boosts your brainpower and, consequently, helps keep your mind alive – and ticking, thinking and feeling.

  Poetry makes me happy and helps me cope with sadness and adversity when they come my way. If you have got this far in the book, I hope you have enjoyed the journey. I trust you have re-encountered some old friends in the course of it and made some intriguing new acquaintances, too.

  To end with, here are some of my all-time favourites – poems that, in my book, exemplify the power of both poetry and positive thinking. I know the poems quite well, but not yet by heart. I thought I might try to learn one a month over the coming year.

  Care to join me?

  Happy the man

  by John Dryden

  (1631–1700)

  Happy the man, and happy he alone,

  He who can call today his own;

  He who, secure within, can say:

  ‘Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

  Be fair or foul or rain or shine,

  The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.

  Not heav’n itself upon the past has pow’r;

  But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.’

  Still-Life

  by Elizabeth Daryush

  (1887–1977)

  Through the open French window the warm sun

  lights up the polished breakfast-table, laid

  round a bowl of crimson roses, for one –

  a service of Worcester porcelain, arrayed

  near it a melon, peaches, figs, small hot

  rolls in a napkin, fairy rack of toast,

  butter in ice, high silver coffee pot,

  and, heaped on a salver, the morning’s post.

  She comes over the lawn, the young heiress,

  from her early walk in her garden-wood

  feeling that life’s a table set to bless

  her delicate desires with all that’s good,

  that even the unopened future lies

  like a love-letter, full of sweet surprise.

  i thank You God

  by E. E. Cummings

  (1894–1962)

  i thank You God for most this amazing

  day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

  and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

  which is natural which is infinite which is yes

  (i who have died am alive again today,

  and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth

  day of life and love and wings and of the gay

  great happening illimitably earth)

  how should tasting touching hearing seeing

  breathing any – lifted from the no

  of all nothing – human merely being

  doubt unimaginable You?

  (now the ears of my ears awake and

  now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

  Days

  by Philip Larkin

  (1922–85)

  What are days for?

  Days are where we live.

  They come, they wake us

  Time and time over.

  They are to be happy in:

  Where can we live but days?

  Ah, solving that question

  Brings the priest and the doctor

  In their long coats

  Running over the fields.

  The Good News

  by Thich Nhat Hanh

  (born 1926)

  They don’t publish

  the good news.

  The good news is published

  by us.

  We have a special edition every moment,

  and we need you to read it.

  The good news is that you are alive,

  and the linden tree is still there,

  standing firm in the harsh Winter.

  The good news is that you have wonderful eyes

  to touch the blue sky.

  The good news is that your child is there before you,

  and your arms are available:

  hugging is possible.

  They only print what is wrong.

  Look at each of our special editions.

  We always offer the things that are not wrong.

  We want you to benefit from them

  and help protect them.

  The dandelion is there by the sidewalk,

  smiling its wondrous smile,

  singing the song of eternity.

  Listen! You have ears that can hear it.

  Bow your head.

  Listen to it.

  Leave behind the world of sorrow

  and preoccupation

  and get free.

  The latest good news

  is that you can do it.

  Getting Older

  by Elaine Feinstein

  (born 1930)

  The first surprise: I like it.

  Whatever happens now, some things

  that used to terrify have not:

  I didn’t die young, for instance. Or lose

  my only love. My three children

  never had to run away from anyone.

  Don’t tell me this gratitude is complacent.

  We all approach the edge of the same blackness

  which for me is silent.

  Knowing as much sharpens

  my delight in January freesia,

  hot coffee, winter sunlight. So we say

  as we lie close on some gentle occasion:

  every day won from such

  darkness is a celebration.

  Everything is Going to be All Right

  by Derek Mahon

  (born 1941)

  How should I not be glad to contemplate

  the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window

  and a high tide reflected on the ceiling?

  There will be dying, there will be dying,

  but there is no need to go into that.

  The poems flow from the hand unbidden

  and the hidden source is the watchful heart.

  The sun rises in spite of everything

  and the far cities are beautiful and bright.

  I lie here in a riot of sunlight

  watching the day break and the clouds flying.

  Everything is going to be all right.

  Epic!

  Some longer poems to look out for now that you’ve mastered the craft and art of learning poetry by heart:

  ‘Diary of a Church Mouse’ by John Betjeman (1906–84)

  ‘The Old Vicarage, Granchester’ by Rupert Brooke (1887–1915)

  ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ by Robert Browning (1812–89)

  ‘The Secret People’ by G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936)

  ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

  ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ by Roald Dahl (1916–90)

  ‘Lasca’ by Frank Desprez (1853–1916)

  ‘The Christmas Truce’ by Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955)

  ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ by T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)

  ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ by Thomas Gray (1716–71)

  ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ by John Keats (1795–1821)

  ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ by Philip Larkin (1922–85)

  ‘Hiawatha’s Wooing’ from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82)

&nbs
p; ‘Right Royal’ by John Masefield (1878–1967)

  ‘The Tay Bridge Disaster’ by William McGonagall (1825–1902)

  ‘The Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes (1880–1958)

  ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49)

  ‘The Song of Lunch’ by Christopher Reid (born 1949)

  ‘Chocolate Cake’ by Michael Rosen (born 1946)

  ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ by Dr Seuss (1904–91)

  ‘In the Workhouse, Christmas Day’ by George R. Sims (1847–1922)

  ‘Ballad of a Hero’ by Kate Tempest (born 1985)

  ‘The Lady of Shalott’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92)

  ‘Fern Hill’ by Dylan Thomas (1914–53)

  ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ by Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

  Acknowledgements

  ‘A poet can survive everything but a misprint,’ said Oscar Wilde. I am very grateful to my publisher, Dan Bunyard, and the team at Michael Joseph Penguin, including Beatrix McIntyre, Alice Mottram, Kit Shepherd, Jill Cole, Beth Cockeram and Olivia Thomas, for ensuring that everything in the book is as misprint-free as I hope it is and that the publishing process has been a happy one. I am particularly grateful to Agatha Russell and Ruth Learner for securing all the permissions necessary to reproduce the poems that are in copyright. While every effort has been made to contact copyright holders, the publishers will be happy to correct any error of omission or commission at the earliest opportunity.

  I am personally grateful, as ever, to my literary agent, Jonathan Lloyd of Curtis Brown, and to the many people who have helped with this project – not least my parents, Charles and Alice Brandreth, who introduced me to so many of the poems featured, and to two of my teachers, Rachel Field and Harold Gardiner, who, without knowing it, more than half a century ago set me on the path that has led to this book.

  People who have kindly suggested poems for the book include Tom Alban, Sheri Bankes, Stefan Bednarczyk, Susan Bowles, Ruth Boyer, Michèle Brown, Leslie and Evie Bricusse, Dan Bunyard, Miranda Corben, Rebecca Croft, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, Dame Judi Dench, the late Barbara Dorf, Sir Bob Geldof, Moya Gosiewski, Maxine Higgs, Anthony Holden, Roger McGough, Michael Rosen, Brian Sibley and Dorothy Wilbraham. I am very grateful to Sir Simon Russell Beale, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Tim Rice, Sir Tom Stoppard and Simon Williams for permission to reproduce their contributions, and to the families of Ronnie Barker, Cyril Fletcher, Paul Jennings, Celia Johnson and Mary Wilson for permission to reproduce theirs.

  I am particularly grateful to Professor Usha Goswami of the University of Cambridge Department of Psychology for her guidance, and to Aatif Hassan and Olivia Haywood and the team at Dukes Education involved in the ‘Poetry Together’ project, as well as to Professor Brendan O’Sullivan and Caroline Ford from the University of Chester, where they are helping set up the University of Chester poetry portal on YouTube.

  If anyone feels their contribution has not been properly acknowledged, or if you find any inadvertent errors or misattributions, please get in touch.

  When in trouble, when in doubt,

  Run in circles, scream and shout!

  Anon.

  Permissions

  John Agard

  ‘Toussaint L’Ouverture acknowledges Wordsworth’s sonnet “To Toussaint L’Ouverture” by John Agard from Alternative Anthem: Selected Poems (2009), reprinted by permission Bloodaxe Books.

  ‘What the teacher said when asked: What er we avin for geography, Miss?’ By John Agard, from A Caribbean Dozen: Poems from Caribbean Poets (ed. John Agard and Grace Nichols, 1994), reprinted by permission Bloodaxe Books.

  Allan Ahlberg

  ‘Please Mrs Butler’ by Allan Ahlberg from Please Mrs Butler (1983), reprinted by permission Puffin Books, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Simon Armitage

  ‘The Catch’ by Simon Armitage reproduced from ‘Kid’ copyright ©1992 by Simon Armitage. Reprinted by permission from Faber and Faber Limited.

  Maya Angelou

  ‘Phenomenal Woman’ by Maya Angelou from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems, copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved, and Little, Brown and Company, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

  W. H. Auden

  ‘Funeral Blues’ by W. H. Auden from The Year’s Poetry (John Lane, Bodley Head, 1938), by permission Curtis Brown Limited, NY.

  Clerihews by W. H. Auden from Academic Graffiti (1952, 1970), by permission Curtis Brown Limited, NY.

  Night Mail by W. H. Auden (‘verse commentary’ for film, 1936), by permission Curtis Brown Limited, NY.

  Ronnie Barker

  ‘Christmas Day in the Workhouse’ from The Two Ronnies copyright © 2005 BBC by Bill Cotton, performed by Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbet, reprinted by permissions of Ronnie Barker’s family and estate as agreed by Gyles Brandreth.

  Hilaire Belloc

  ‘Lord Lundy’ by Hilaire Belloc, first published in Cautionary Tales For Children, Eveleigh Nash, 1907, reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of Hilaire Belloc.

  ‘Matilda’ by Hilaire Belloc, first published in Cautionary Tales For Children, Eveleigh Nash, 1907, reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of Hilaire Belloc.

  ‘Tarantella’ by Hilaire Belloc, 1929, reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of Hilaire Belloc.

  ‘Dedicatory Ode’ by Hilaire Belloc, 1910 reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of Hilaire Belloc.

  Connie Bensley

  ‘In the Palm of His Hand’ by Connie Bensley, from Finding a Leg to Stand On: New & Selected Poems (2012), reprinted by permission Bloodaxe Books.

  Edmund Clerihew Bentley

  ‘Sir Humphrey Davy’ by Edmund Clerihew Bentley, published in 1902, reprinted with permission Curtis Brown Limited, UK.

  John Betjeman

  ‘The Arrest of Oscar Wilde in the Cadogan Hotel’ by John Betjeman, reprinted by permission The Estate of John Betjeman and Hodder and Stoughton.

  ‘A Subaltern’s Love Song’ by John Betjeman, reprinted by permission The Estate of John Betjeman and Hodder and Stoughton.

  ‘How to Get On in Polite Society’ by John Betjeman, reprinted by permission The Estate of John Betjeman and Hodder and Stoughton

  ‘The Last Laugh’ by John Betjeman, reprinted by permission The Estate of John Betjeman and Hodder and Stoughton.

  Jenny Boult

  ‘Shopping Trolleys’ by Jenny Boult (aka Magenta Bliss) from Flight 39, Abalone Press, 1986, reprinted with permission Fiona McHugh and the estate of Jenny Boult.

  Charles Bukowski

  Poetry Readings by Charles Bukowski from Poetry Readings, Black Sparrow Press, reprinted by permission HarperCollins Publishers.

  Basil Bunting

  ‘What the Chairman Told Tom’ by Basil Bunting, from Complete Poems by Basil Bunting, published by Bloodaxe Books (2000), reprinted by permission Bloodaxe Books.

  Tim Burton

  ‘Vincent Malloy’ by Tim Burton from Vincent (film, 1982), reprinted by permission William Morris Agency, and Tim Burton.

  May Wedderburn Cannan

  ‘Rouen April 26-May 25, 1915’ by May Wedderburn Cannan from In War Time by May Wedderburn Cannan in 1917, reprinted by permission Clara May Abrahams and the estate of May Wedderburn Cannan.

  James Carter

  ‘Take a Poem’ by James Carter first published in Zim Zam Zoom! by Otter-Barry Books in 2016, reprinted by permission the author and Otter-Barry Books.

  Charles Causley

  ‘Timothy Winters’ by Charles Causley from Collected Poems 1951-2000, reprinted by permission Macmillan Publishers Limited, and David Higham and the estate of Charles Causley.

  John Cooper Clarke

  ‘TO-CON-VEY ONE’S MOOD’ by John Cooper Cl
arke from The Luckiest Guy Alive (2018), reprinted by permission Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan.

  ‘I mustn’t go down to the sea again’ by John Cooper Clarke from Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt (2012), reprinted by permission Vintage, an imprint of Random House UK.

  Wendy Cope

  ‘Another Christmas Poem’ by Wendy Cope from Christmas Poems (2017), reprinted by permission Faber & Faber Limited, and United Agents LLP.

  ‘Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis’ by Wendy Cope from Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis (1986), reprinted by permission Faber & Faber Limited.

  ‘Shakespeare at School’ by Wendy Cope (uncollected), reprinted with permission United Agents LLP.

  Noël Coward

  ‘When I have fears’ by Noël Coward, AND ‘Any Part of Piggy’ by Noël Coward, reprinted by permission from Alan Brodie Representation and the Noël Coward Trust.

  Countee Cullen

  ‘Yet Do I Marvel’ by Countee Cullen from ‘Color’ (1925) reprinted by permission Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, LA.

  E.E. Cummings

  ‘i thank You God’ by e.e. Cummings from Xaipe: Seventy-One Poems (Oxford University Press, 1950), reprinted by permission W.W. Norton & Company Limited and the estate of e.e. Cummings.

  Roald Dahl

  ‘Television’ by Roald Dahl, from CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY © The Roald Dahl Story Company Limited, 1964, reprinted by permission The Roald Dahl Story Company Limited and Penguin Books Limited and Used by permission of Viking Children’s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

  ‘A HAND IN THE BIRD’ by Roald Dahl from RHYME STEW by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake, copyright © 1989 by Roald Dahl (Jonathan Cape Limited & Penguin Books Limited, 1989), reprinted by permission Jonathan Cape Limited & Penguin Books Limited and © Roald Dahl and The Roald Dahl Story Company Limited and Used by permission of Viking Children’s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

  ‘Hot and Cold’ by Roald Dahl from RHYME STEW by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake, copyright © 1989 by Roald Dahl (Jonathan Cape Limited & Penguin Books Limited, 1989), reprinted by permission Jonathan Cape Limited & Penguin Books Limited and © Roald Dahl and The Roald Dahl Story Company Limited and Used by permission of Viking Children’s Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.