Most loved 100 English poems in the UK in 1995

 In 1995, the BBC's television programme 'Bookworm' conducted a poll to find out the most loved poems in the UK. The results were as follows.

1 If -, Rudyard Kipling; 1865-1936

2 The Lady of Shalott, Alfred, Lord Tennyson; 1809-92

3 The Listeners, Walter de la Mare; 1873-1956

4 Not Waving but Drowning, Stevie Smith; 1903-1971

5 I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, William Wordsworth; 1770-1850

6 To Autumn, John Keats; 1795-1821

7 The Lake Isle of Innisfree, W.B. Yeats; 1865-1939

8 Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen; 1893-1918

9 Ode to a Nightingale, John Keats; 1795-1821

10 Aedh: He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, W.B. Yeats; 1865-1939

11 Remember, Christina Rossetti; 1830-94

12 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray; 1716-71

13 Fern Hill, Dylan Thomas; 1914-53

14 Leisure, William Henry Davies; 1871-1940

15 The Highwayman, Alfred Noyes; 1880-1959

16 To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell; 1621-78

17 Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold; 1822-88

18 The Tyger, William Blake; 1757-1827

19 Twelve Songs: IX ('Stop all the clocks'), W.H. Auden; 1907-73

20 Adlestrop (the place), Edward Thomas; 1878-1917

21 The Soldier, Rupert Brooke; 1887-1915

22 Warning, Jenny Joseph; 1932-

23 Sea-Fever, John Masefield; 1878-1967

24 Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, William Wordsworth; 1770-1850

25 Sonnets from the Portuguese XLIII, Elizabeth Barrett Browning; 1806-61

26 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot; 1885-1965

27 Cargoes, John Masefield; 1878-1967

28 Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll; 1832-98

29 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge; 1772-1834

30 Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley; 1792-1822

31 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost; 1874-1963

32 Abou Ben Adhem, Leigh Hunt; 1784-1859

33 Everyone Sang, Siegfried Sassoon; 1886-1967

34 The Windhover, Gerard Manley Hopkins; 1844-89

35 Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night, Dylan Thomas; 1914-53

36 Sonnet 18, 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?', William Shakespeare; 1564-1616

37 When You Are Old, W.B. Yeats; 1865-1939

38 Naming of Parts, Henry Reed; 1914-86

39 The Darkling Thrush, Thomas Hardy; 1840-1928

40 Please Mrs Butler, Allan Ahlberg; 1938-

41 Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge; 1772-1834

42 Home-Thoughts, from Abroad, Robert Browning; 1812-89

43 High Flight (An Airman’s Ecstasy), John Gillespie Magee; 1922-41

44 Journey of the Magi, T.S. Eliot; 1885-1965

45 The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Edward Lear; 1812-88

46 The Glory of the Garden, Rudyard Kipling; 1865-1936

47 The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost; 1874-1963

48 The Way through the Woods, Rudyard Kipling; 1865-1936

49 Anthem for Doomed Youth, Wilfred Owen; 1893-1918

50 Bloody Men, Wendy Cope; 1945-

51 Emmonsail’s Heath in Winter, John Clare; 1793-1864

52 La Figlia Che Piange, T.S. Eliot; 1885-1965

53 The Whitsun Weddings, Philip Larkin; 1922-80

54 The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde; 1854-1900

55 I Remember, I Remember, Thomas Hood; 1799-1845

56 This Be the Verse, Philip Larkin; 1922-80

57 Snake, D.H. Lawrence; 1885-1930

58 The Great Lover, Rupert Brooke; 1887-1915

59 A Red, Red Rose, Robert Burns; 1759-1796

60 The Sunlight on the Garden, Louis MacNeice; 1907-63

61 The Old Vicarage, Grantchester, Rupert Brooke; 1887-1915

62 Diary of a Church Mouse, John Betjeman; 1906-84

63 Silver, Walter de la Mare; 1873-1956

64 Pied Beauty, Gerard Manley Hopkins; 1844-89

65 Prayer before Birth, Louis MacNeice; 1907-63

66 Macavity: The Mystery Cat, T.S. Eliot; 1885-1965

67 Afterwards, Thomas Hardy; 1840-1928

68 The Donkey, G.K. Chesterton; 1874-1936

69 My Last Duchess, Robert Browning; 1812-89

70 Christmas, John Betjeman; 1906-84

71 The Thought-Fox, Ted Hughes; 1930-98

72 Preludes, T.S. Eliot; 1885-1965

73 Love (III), George Herbert; 1593-1633

74 The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred, Lord Tennyson; 1809-92

75 I Am, John Clare; 1793-1864

76 The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson; 1859-1907

77 The Passionate Shepherd to his Love, Christopher Marlowe; 1564-93

78 The Song of Wandering Aengus, W.B. Yeats; 1865-1939

79 She Walks in Beauty, George Gordon, Lord Byron; 1788-1824

80 Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now, A.E. Housman; 1859-1936

81 The Flea, John Donne; 1572-1631

82 Ducks, F.W. Harvey; 1888-1957

83 An Arundel Tomb, Philip Larkin; 1922-80

84 Sonnet 116, 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds', William Shakespeare; 1564-1616

85 Ulysses, Alfred, Lord Tennyson; 1809-92

86 Snow, Louis MacNeice; 1907-63

87 Let Me Die a Youngman’s Death, Roger McGough; 1937-

88 The Ruined Maid, Thomas Hardy; 1840-1928

89 Toilet, Hugo Williams; 1942-

90 Futility, Wilfred Owen; 1893-1918

91 The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe; 1809-49

92 Tam o’ Shanter, Robert Burns; 1759-1796

93 Love’s Philosophy, Percy Bysshe Shelley; 1792-1822

94 The Song of Hiawatha, H.W. Longfellow; 1807-82

95 God’s Grandeur, Gerard Manley Hopkins; 1844-89

96 Chocolate Cake, Michael Rosen; 1954-

97 Jenny Kissed Me, Leigh Hunt; 1784-1859

98 Blackberry-Picking, Seamus Heaney; 1939-2013

99 The Prelude, William Wordsworth; 1770-1850

100 Warming Her Pearls, Carol Ann Duffy; 1955-

Writers and self-promotion

 Daphne du Maurier supposedly said 'Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard'.

Tom Rachman, 'On the Pitfalls of Book Promotion in the Internet Age,' LitHub, 26 June 2023, https://lithub.com/on-the-pitfalls-of-book-promotion-in-the-internet-age/

My favourite Western Classical composers

• Bach
• Vivaldi
• Mozart
• Beethoven
• Chopin
• Tchaikovsky
• Yiruma

Comics strips I read regularly

In The Telegraph, Kolkata:

• Blondie (in the Dean Young era)

• Hagar the Horrible (in the Chris Browne era)

• Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

• Garfield by Jim Davis

• Dennis the Menace

• The Wizard of Id

• Ziggy (in the Tom Wilson II era)

• I read all Calvin and Hobbes (by Bill Watterson) chronologically through a set of illegally obtained digital images I acquired way back in 2005. The strip was published from 1985 to 1995, a much smaller run than the other ones, so one can actually read all of it over a small period of time. It is a pity that  I read Calvin and Hobbes through piracy given that Watterson went at great lengths to prevent greater commercialisation of his work. Sad and ironic. 

• Either The Statesman, Kolkata or The Telegraph used to publish Beetle Bailey at one point of time. I remember reading that regularly as well.

• I never read Henry in English as neither The Statesman  nor The Telegraph carried it when I read them but I read a Bengali translation of it called Gablu/ গাবলু which used to be published in Anandamela/ আনন্দমেলা. Wikipedia says that now it is no longer syndicated.

Political issues

 The issues which I believe are most important in India today (in decreasing order of priority) are:

1. Increasing communal harmony
2. Decreasing income inequality
3. Reducing unemployment
4. Improving access to health facilities
5. Improving quality of education
6. Reducing corruption in politics
7. Ecological sustainability
8. Improving caste, gender, sexual orientation equality

Fun with mathematics

a) Think of a whole number between 1 and 10.

b) Double it.

c) Add 4 to your result.

d) Divide the result by 2.

e) From this result, subtract the initial number you had thought of.

f) Your result is 2.

Another exercise

a) Think of a whole number between 1 and 10.

b) Multiply it by 3.

c) Add 30 to your result.

d) Multiply this result by 2.

e) Divide the entire result by 3.

f) Subtract 10 from your result.

g) Divide this result by 2.

h) From this result, subtract the initial number you had thought of.

i) Your result is 5.

Consecutive squaring

My computer can keep on squaring 2 only 6 times, at which point of time it gives the result 1,84,46,74,40,73,70,95,51,616. It cannot give an accurate result for the square of this number.