The Rattle Bag

📅 1982 ✏️ Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes 📖 Faber and Faber 📚 Followed by The School Bag (1997)

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The Rattle Bag (1982), co-edited by poets Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, is an anthology of over 400 poems arranged alphabetically by title rather than chronologically or by author. Conceived as a collection of the editors' own favorite poems, it deliberately abandoned academic organization to let each poem be encountered on its own terms, and became a classroom staple in the UK and Ireland.

Overview

Published by Faber and Faber in 1982, The Rattle Bag was co-edited by two of the most significant English-language poets of the 20th century: Seamus Heaney, the Irish Nobel laureate, and Ted Hughes, the English Poet Laureate. The two poets set out simply to gather poems they personally loved, spanning centuries and continents, with no obligation to represent any particular period, movement, or canon comprehensively.

Contents and Structure

The anthology's defining editorial choice is its alphabetical arrangement — by title, or by first line when a poem has no title — rather than the chronological or thematic groupings used by nearly every other major anthology. This placed Shakespeare next to Sylvia Plath next to an anonymous folk verse, deliberately disrupting historical narrative in favor of chance encounter and surprise. The collection includes over 400 poems, ranging from major canonical figures (Blake, Whitman, Dickinson, Eliot, Bishop) to translated works and oral/traditional poems from non-English cultures.

Editorial Philosophy

Heaney described the anthology's purpose as treating poetry as "an enrichment available to all," not a specialized academic subject. Rather than functioning as a textbook with historical apparatus, The Rattle Bag was designed as an intervention — a way of putting poetry directly into the hands of young and general readers without the mediating structure of literary history.

Historical Significance

The Rattle Bag became a fixture of British and Irish secondary education, introducing generations of students to poetry through browsing and discovery rather than syllabus-driven study. Its success demonstrated that two major living poets, acting as curators rather than scholars, could produce an anthology with lasting classroom and cultural influence comparable to academic collections.

Legacy

Heaney and Hughes followed The Rattle Bag with The School Bag (1997), a companion volume with a more historically-minded selection. Together the two volumes represent a poet-curated alternative to the academic anthology tradition — proof that idiosyncratic, personal taste can produce an anthology of lasting institutional significance.

Related Anthologies

The New American Poetry

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Rattle Bag?

The Rattle Bag (1982) is a poetry anthology co-edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, containing over 400 poems arranged alphabetically by title rather than chronologically. It was compiled from the editors' personal favorites rather than to represent any specific period or movement.

Why is The Rattle Bag arranged alphabetically?

Heaney and Hughes deliberately rejected chronological or thematic organization so that readers would encounter each poem on its own terms, without the expectations set up by literary-historical order — emphasizing surprise and discovery over academic structure.

Is there a sequel to The Rattle Bag?

Yes. Heaney and Hughes followed it with The School Bag (1997), a companion anthology with a more historically structured selection of poems.

Last updated: 2026-07-01