POETRY BY HEART : POEMS FOR LEARNING AND RECITING

Familiar poems and almost unknown poems. Love poems and war poems. Funny poems and heartbroken poems. Poems that re-create the world we know and poems written on the dark side of the moon.

Based on the hugely successful secondary-school recitation competition, now in its third year, Poetry by Heart is a collection of over 200 poems, from Chaucer to Emily Dickinson, from Emily Bronte to Benjamin Zephaniah, which have been specially chosen for their suitability for learning and reciting. Not 'booming' poems necessarily - though there are certainly a few of those - but poems that delight the ear as much as they do the eye.

Hear the poems.

In a ground-breaking feature, more than 100 poems in the book are accompanied by QR codes which allow the reader to access readings of the poems on their mobile phone - many of them specially recorded by the poets themselves.

Read about the poems.

Each poem has a full-page note on the work and on the poet, making Poetry by Heart an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of the work.

Enjoy the Poems.

Above all, this is an anthology to treasure. An anthology which celebrates the age-old pleasure of reciting poems and of hearing them spoken aloud.

Edited by Julie Blake, Mike Dixon, Andrew Motion and Jean Sprackland