Poetry

[hyphenate]

I dislike a lot of poetry. I'm sure I'm in the majority, because a lot of people I know don't like most of it, either. I think that stems from our HS days when we were forced to "analyze" a poem as to its meaning, why it was written, yada, yada. Seriously--how in the name of the FSM does one "analyze" this:

Candy is dandy,
But liquor is quicker ?


I have some respect for a few poets, though, but only because they are largely "story" poems (aka "epic") like Longfellow's work, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Wolrdsworth, and a few others of that time. T.S. Eliot has won me over with some of his work, but not all, and Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and a few poems themselves are all right. If it helps, I have three favorite poems: How Do I Love Thee? (Elizabeth Barrett Browning), Ulysses (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) and She Walks in Beauty (William Blake).

I hate to say it, but neither Emily Dickinson nor e.e. cummings do anything for me, and too many current poets seem to be too oblique or too self-important in their writing.

I don't care one way or another if a poem "rhymes" or not, but if it seems like it's being done in blank verse just for the purpose of being in blank verse, it's not enjoyable.

Your thoughts?

[pokerfan]

1. Don't know much about it

but I have a small collection. Kipling, Frost, Tennyson, Dylan Thomas and a few others.

[Rhythm]

2. A quick correction... Lord Byron wrote "She Walks in Beauty"

It's one of my favorites, along with a handful of Percy Shelley's works, Shakespeare's sonnets, and the gristly WWI poetry of Wilfred Owen.

[Danger Mouse]

3. I just posted a Lord Byron poem...

:hi:

I love 'She Walks in Beauty'

[Rhythm]

4. He and Shelley are my favorite of the Romantic Era poets for sure...

Both died much too young...

[hyphenate]

7. Ah yes

I was thinking of The Tyger by Blake. I love "Beauty" more, but I'm often fascinated by Blake.

[Lyric]

5. Well since I'm a Creative Writing major and a published poet

then I'd have to say yes, I rather like it. :)

[Dr. Strange]

8. I think that I shall never see...

a poem as lovely as integration-by-parts.

[Lyric]

9. That's okay, Dr. Strange.

I finally understand. Math is your poetry. I can respect that.

Mock it too, of course, but still.

[Rhythm]

6. An actual comment this time...

I live with an amazingly talented poet... but i don't often 'get' poetry. I'm learning, though... or at least i'm trying. Certainly i'm reading more than just the classics we were stuffed with in high school, and i'm finding that i like much of what i read, and admire the grit and honesty that many modern poets bring to the genre... starkly contrasted with the flowery verse of old.