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Favourite Poetry

direstraits

direstraits

Well-Known Member
I was wondering if you guys have a favourite poem. I don't normally read poetry because most of what I read passes right over my head, and I can't really appreciate them. It always seems to me that poetry that people normally say is 'brilliant' or 'outstanding' are terribly unpenetrable unless you've got a degree in literature. That said, if there are any tips on appreciating poetry, feel free to share them!

Anyway, I like a few, notably:
The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe
Tyger, William Blake
Daddy, Slyvia Plath
The Road Less Travelled, Robert Frost
Ozymandius, Percy Bysshe Shelley

And this piece that's probably my favourite but I can't remember by who:
My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night
But oh my foes and ah my friends
It gives a lovely light

ds
 
I feel poetry-challenged myself sometimes. I had very little coverage of poetry in school-none in high school and college. My mom loved poetry though, and she bought a few of those Ideals magazines and a copy of The Best Loved Poems of the American People. What I like tends to be things like:
The Marshes of Glynn-Sidney Lanier
Ballad of Trees and the Master-Sydney Lanier(thanks to my mom for introducing me to this Georgia poet)
Psalm of Life-Longfellow
Parody on the Psalm of Life-?
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening-Frost
Little Boy Blue-Eugene Field(memorized in third grade)
House By the Side of the Road-?
Concord Hymn-Emerson
Eldorado-Poe
It Couldn't Be Done-Edgar Guest


Hey, I feel like dragging out my poetry books again.. Thanks!
 
I grew up loving poetry, my Grandmother loved reading it to me and she often gave me books of it. She always told me it was not supposed to always make sense just make you feel a certain way. I took many poetry and lit classes in high school and college, none were as good as Granny was for making you appreciate a poem. I still call her and read new ones I come across. A few I always think of are-

I like Edgar Allan Poe and Edna St. Vincent Millay, my favorite by her is "I, being born a woman and distressed"

William Wordsworth, She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

John Donne, The Flea

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

George Macdonald, Where Did You Come From, Baby Dear?

Margaret Atwood, Siren Song

Marge Piercy, To Have Without Holding

Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Goodnight
 
I like lots of poetry, everything from Shakespeare's sonnets to translations from the Japanese or Neruda to silly Ogden Nash poems. Some of my favorites recently are

Howard Nemerov, who has great insight into the emotional landscape of war
Anne Sexton, who wrote well about madness and has a certain toughness
Louis Simpson, who takes pedestrian suburban life somewhere interesting
Maxine Kumin and Adrienne Rich, who write about some things I can relate to. Rich has great metaphorical language.
Carolyn Forche, who has a very musical voice
W.H. Auden, especially about love
Hart Crane, about living in our times

I obviously like poems that are seated in the human soul, for lack of a better term, and that have something philosophical emerging from the keenly observed life.
 
I like e e cummings and Walt Whitman.... well that's who I liked when I read poetry.

Yes, Trent Reznor writes poems! If that's true, then he's my favourite poet!
 
I would not consider myself a big appreciator of poetry. But I do have two favorite poets who I studied in high school and still really like: Robert Frost and Pablo Neruda. I studied Frost almost to death and never tired of him. I have to say my very favorite of the poems that he has written is 'Mending Wall'.
 
I'm one of those Literature degree types who study difficult poetry for fun.

Two books that can help get you into poetry are:

Good Poems, edited by Garrison Keillor. A popular and easy introduction.

Staying Alive, edited by Neil Astley. This is my favorite collection. The poems take more risks.

Here is one of my current favorites:

A Story
by Li-Young Lee

Sad is the man who is asked for a story
and can't come up with one.

His five-year-old son waits in his lap.
Not the same story, Baba. A new one.
The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear.

In a room full of books in a world
of stories, he can recall
not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy
will give up on his father.

Already the man lives far ahead, he sees
the day this boy will go. Don't go!
Hear the alligator story! The angel story once more!
You love the spider story. You laugh at the spider.
Let me tell it!

But the boy is packing his shirts,
he is looking for his keys. Are you a god,
the man screams, that I sit mute before you?
Am I a god that I should never disappoint?

But the boy is here. Please, Baba, a story?
It is an emotional rather than logical equation,
an earthly rather than heavenly one,
which posits that a boy's supplications
and a father's love add up to silence.
 
I always hated poetry until I was required to take a poetry class my junior year. I learned how to read it and what I was looking for, and I began to love it. Donne is one of my favorites. They way his mind works amazes me. There is also a really great poem that talks about a young child standing in a grove of trees and weeping because the leaves are falling. I can't remember it now, but it was beautiful.
 
Mari said:
I'm one of those Literature degree types who study difficult poetry for fun.

Two books that can help get you into poetry are:

Good Poems, edited by Garrison Keillor. A popular and easy introduction.

Staying Alive, edited by Neil Astley. This is my favorite collection. The poems take more risks.

Here is one of my current favorites:

A Story
by Li-Young Lee

Sad is the man who is asked for a story
and can't come up with one.

His five-year-old son waits in his lap.
Not the same story, Baba. A new one.
The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear.

In a room full of books in a world
of stories, he can recall
not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy
will give up on his father.

Already the man lives far ahead, he sees
the day this boy will go. Don't go!
Hear the alligator story! The angel story once more!
You love the spider story. You laugh at the spider.
Let me tell it!

But the boy is packing his shirts,
he is looking for his keys. Are you a god,
the man screams, that I sit mute before you?
Am I a god that I should never disappoint?

But the boy is here. Please, Baba, a story?
It is an emotional rather than logical equation,
an earthly rather than heavenly one,
which posits that a boy's supplications
and a father's love add up to silence.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Mari. This bears both time and reading. And every girl is left behind in the reading.
 
Thanks Mari, for identifying Edna, and your book recommendations and the poem, which is really lovely.

abecedarian - I did not have any coverage of poems in school at all. We read them, but I could not remember any teacher actually explained how to appreciate a poem, what to look out for, how to evaluate if a poem is better than the next, the structure, anything. I believe a person who has been taught on the intricacies of poetry, and knows of the work that goes into producing one will appreciate poetry much more than the layman. Like ronny says, now I just enjoy the poem at face value, as I mostly cannot see past the allegories that poems normally allude to. If I like the sound of it, or it makes sense, great!

But sometimes I can't help but feel that there are plenty of poems out there that I'd have enjoyed even more had there been someone to explain them to me.

Ah, well...



ds
 
I remember one teacher, when asked if we would be doing a poetry unit.. she said,"I'd love to cover poetry,but there'd be so many gripes and grumbles, I just won't do it." Excuse me? I never had a math teacher refuse to cover an algebraic topic just because some students would groan!
 
novella said:
And every girl is left behind in the reading.
Click to expand...

I may be misunderstanding this comment, but here is another poem I like that in some ways is a mother/daughter sentiment along the same lines as Lee's father/son poem above:

To A Daughter Leaving Home
by Linda Pastan

When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
 
The poem above this post is both sad and beautiful. One to remember.

Here's a poem/song by Trent Reznor. If he threatens to sue I'll just erase this post. Hey, I bought the CD (With Teeth)... This one really makes you ponder about existance and fits well with the themes in my book, Palindrome Hannah, which is probably why I like it so much. Let me know what you think.


[ RIGHT WHERE IT BELONGS ]

See the animal in his cage that you built
Are you sure what side you're on?
Better not look him too closely in the eye
Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?
See the safety of the life you have built
Everything where it belongs
Feel the hollowness inside of your heart
And it's all... right where it belongs
What if everything around you isn't quite as it seems
What if all the world you think you know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is that all you want it to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks
Would you find yourself - find yourself afraid to see?
What if all the world's inside your head
Just creations of your own?
Your devils and your gods
All the living and the dead
And you're really all alone?
You can live in this illusion
You can choose to believe
You keep looking but you can't find the woods
While you're hiding in the trees
What if all the world you used to know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is that all you want it to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks
Would you find yourself - find yourself afraid to see?
 
direstraits said:
I was wondering if you guys have a favourite poem. I don't normally read poetry because most of what I read passes right over my head, and I can't really appreciate them. It always seems to me that poetry that people normally say is 'brilliant' or 'outstanding' are terribly unpenetrable unless you've got a degree in literature. That said, if there are any tips on appreciating poetry, feel free to share them!

Anyway, I like a few, notably:
The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe
Tyger, William Blake
Daddy, Slyvia Plath
The Road Less Travelled, Robert Frost
Ozymandius, Percy Bysshe Shelley

And this piece that's probably my favourite but I can't remember by who:
My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night
But oh my foes and ah my friends
It gives a lovely light

ds
Click to expand...
I don't really read much poetry, but I do write my own poetry. I can't really chose a one poem I like since I don't read much poetry but at school when I studied poetry I particually liked a shakespere poem. I can't remember what it was called, but he was basically saying a girl looks like a witch, ugly, smells, etc, but beauty is on the inside and he loves her for her, not her looks, smell, etc.
 
direstraits said:
And this piece that's probably my favourite but I can't remember by who:

My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night
But oh my foes and ah my friends
It gives a lovely light

ds
Click to expand...

I really like this poem a lot too. There was a time when various poems would be displayed on public transport here in the UK. They would put poems on the busses and the tubes ( metro ). The above poem was one of them and I always liked it a lot. I guess I like it so much as I can really relate to it a lot :D

If anybody can tell me it's name and poet then will be very grateful!
 
One of my favorite little ditties is my Arnold Loebel:

Books to the ceiling
Books to the wall
I'll have a long beard
By the time I read them all.

It's from Whiskers and Rhymes, and had the funniest picture of a guy
sitting in a cottage made of books..
 
As a rule I do not like Poetry, however saying that I am taken with Christina Rosetti's poems.
 
Ice said:
As a rule I do not like Poetry, however saying that I am taken with Christina Rosetti's poems.
Click to expand...

Is there a particular reason you're aware of that keeps you from liking most poetry? I have a hard time with certain types of poems and poets. I don't like the kind that makes me feel dense and stupid..I get that enough from everyday living, I don't want it in my reading material.
 
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