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Favorite poem or poet

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Smiles111
...

Member since 12/06

1905 total posts

Name:

Favorite poem or poet

Hey, wanting to get back into poetry. Please post who your favorite poet is or fave poem, especially lesser-known works!

Posted 8/25/11 1:34 PM
 
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nel
LIF Adult

Member since 5/06

1173 total posts

Name:

Re: Favorite poem or poet

DEFINITELY adore Billy Collins and Sharon Olds... they're very different, but I think they're both amazing. Chat Icon

ETA: Oh, and Alan Semerdjian. He's actually a LI poet. Chat Icon (He's awesome.)

Message edited 8/25/2011 1:37:52 PM.

Posted 8/25/11 1:37 PM
 

Smiles111
...

Member since 12/06

1905 total posts

Name:

Re: Favorite poem or poet

Cool! Looking forward to checking them out!!

Posted 8/25/11 1:41 PM
 

PrettyPeonies
GAW my baby boy <3

Member since 8/10

3874 total posts

Name:
Pino

Re: Favorite poem or poet

Javan Chat Icon

Posted 8/25/11 3:32 PM
 

faerychel
LIF Infant

Member since 7/11

182 total posts

Name:
Chelly

Re: Favorite poem or poet

Oldy but Goody, William Blake is the Man!

A Poison Tree:

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Posted 8/25/11 4:17 PM
 

evrythng4areason
And then there were 4

Member since 1/10

5224 total posts

Name:
Kayla

Re: Favorite poem or poet

sylvia plath Chat Icon

Posted 8/25/11 7:25 PM
 

OffWithHerHead23
Keep passing the open windows

Member since 10/06

3627 total posts

Name:
Meaghan

Re: Favorite poem or poet

Lucille Clifton
e.e. cummings
Sylvia Plath

And my all time favorite, my girl forever, Edna St. Vincent Millay. Love her.

Posted 8/25/11 9:58 PM
 

DirtyBlonde
*****

Member since 11/07

7344 total posts

Name:

Re: Favorite poem or poet

William Blake
Sylvia Plath
Langston Hughes

My favorite poem of all time is T.S. Eliot's Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Posted 8/27/11 1:27 PM
 

mathteach
Roll Tide!

Member since 8/08

3169 total posts

Name:
Christine

Re: Favorite poem or poet

W.B. Yeats

Dylan Thomas

Posted 8/28/11 12:15 AM
 

Ophelia
she's baaccckkkk ;)

Member since 5/06

23378 total posts

Name:
remember, when Gulliver traveled....

Re: Favorite poem or poet

I have a ton. I love poetry to read. it's so hard to write.

Lord Byron
e.e.cummings
Pablo Neruda
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Emily Dickenson (some of her work anyway)
Carl Sandberg
Keats
Shakespeare
Dante
Maya Angelou
Robert Frost
William Butler Yeats
Edgar Allen Poe
Anne Bradstreet
Countee Cullen
Dylan Thomas

I am one of those weirdos that loved her high school and college lit anthologies for all the poems. Chat Icon

ETA: the thread is going to kill me

I forgot

Tennyson Chat Icon Chat Icon

The Oak
Live thy Life,
Young and old,
Like yon oak,
Bright in spring,
Living gold;


Summer-rich
Then; and then
Autumn-changed
Soberer-hued
Gold again.


All his leaves
Fall'n at length,
Look, he stands,
Trunk and bough
Naked strength.

Seven Ages of Man, Shakespeare
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part.


Acquainted With The Night, Robert Frost
have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night

I Love You First, but Afterwards your Love, Christina Rossetti

Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda. – Dante
Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore,
E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore. – Petrarca


I loved you first: but afterwards your love
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love was long,
And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;
I loved and guessed at you, you construed me
And loved me for what might or might not be –
Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine;’
With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love:
Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’
Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love which makes us one.

I Wish I Could Recall that First Day, Christina Rossetti
Era gia l’ora che volge il desio. – Dante
Ricorro al tempo ch’io vi vidi prima. – Petrarca


I wish I could remember that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or Winter for aught I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could recollect it, such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow;
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much;
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand – Did one but know!

She Walks in Beauty, Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.


One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.


And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

Poema 20, Pablo Neruda (in spanish b/c it captures the nuance, but I also included english translation)
POEMA 20

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.

Escribir, por ejemplo: «La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos».

El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.

En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.

Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.

Oír la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.

Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo.

Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.

La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.

De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Aunque éste sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.


Pablo Neruda, 1924


Poem 20

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example: "The night is shattered,
and the blue stars shiver in the distance."

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
That I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

On nights like this one, I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, and sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not not have loved her great, still eyes?

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered, and she is not with me.

This is all.
In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same the same trees.
We, we who were, are the no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that is certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her ear.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that is certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms,
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer,
and these the last verses that I write for her

Message edited 8/30/2011 5:17:51 PM.

Posted 8/30/11 4:51 PM
 

nrthshgrl
It goes fast. Pay attention.

Member since 7/05

57538 total posts

Name:

Message edited 9/1/2011 3:07:40 PM.

Posted 8/31/11 2:29 PM
 

Eireann
Two ladies and a gentleman!

Member since 5/05

12165 total posts

Name:

Re: Favorite poem or poet

Ahhh...great post, thanks!

A couple of my favorites are
WB Yeats
~Wild Swans at Coole

Margaret Atwood
~Variation on the Word Sleep
~A Sad Child

Robert Frost
~Birches

John Keats
~Ode on a Grecian Urn

Wilfred Owen
~Dulce et Decorum Est

Matthew Arnold
~Dover Beach

I have many, many more but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind. I may come back. Chat Icon

Message edited 8/31/2011 3:28:54 PM.

Posted 8/31/11 3:27 PM
 

MrsFrizzle
<3

Member since 9/09

4628 total posts

Name:
Kristin

Re: Favorite poem or poet

This one has always stuck out to me and has been my favorite since high school...

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of the easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Posted 9/14/11 9:58 AM
 

smdl
I love Gary too..on a plate!

Member since 5/06

32461 total posts

Name:
me

Re: Favorite poem or poet

One of my co-worker is about to be published. She is very talented.

Posted 9/14/11 10:08 AM
 

TheDivineMrsM
2 girls 4 me!

Member since 8/08

7878 total posts

Name:
Mama mama mama....

Re: Favorite poem or poet

I read this one to my daughter all the time. =)

Maya Angelou - Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Christina Rossetti - Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Posted 9/14/11 9:12 PM
 

Eireann
Two ladies and a gentleman!

Member since 5/05

12165 total posts

Name:

Re: Favorite poem or poet

OK, a month later I'm coming back to this post! Just today I was thinking of this poem and I'd like to add it to my list...

Those Winter Sundays
~Robert Hayden

Posted 9/30/11 8:59 PM
 
 

Potentially Related Topics:

Topic Posted By Started Replies Forum
What's your favorite poem? CallaLily 5/4/09 12 Teachers
 
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