Come on, Liza. Don't you read any poetry not assigned to you by a professor? This is all the stuff shoved down your throat in college. You have some classics here, don't get me wrong (though I disagree with you about ee Cummings- Buffalo Bill is a jam) but you are completely missing all contemporary poetry. Like the last fifty years at least. Makes me think you like studying poetry more than you like reading it.
Kipling might be the English poet who appeals the most to us foreigners beyond the Anglosphere. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the very regular and rythmic meter that makes it clear that it follows some rule, even when the rule is not entirely evident. But I've seen it time and again - even in folks who otherwise don't care for poetry.
You're probably not old enough yet to appreciate "Fern Hill." I'm pushing 80 and when I was in college I thought Ginsberg and the Frisco poets and Cummings were all the rage. Fortunately, I've kept reading always, finding some (for me) undiscovered gems; we can't read everything after all. There are some short poems by the Henry VIII set that are stunning. It's difficult not to rally 'round your/mine favorites that smacked you upside the head at crucial moments in life's passage. I will always chuckle and appreciate "My Last Duchess." "Subject matter" can be a sticking point in evaluation. I believe many of the WW1 poets ("Flanders Fields" was a sobering place to visit on our trip to Belgium in 2016) standup well as singular poems. I have always loved William Blake (and the theft by Jim Morrison). Shelly's "Ozzy" poem alone validates his existence/inclusion. And, oh yes, the poem/song conundrum will always exist. Bobby D is a true poet as are many of the contemporary songsmiths. To rhyme or not is always a question. We all benefit as we wrestle with what others have left us to ponder. Thanks!
And one last thing, if you ever visit Scotland be well advised and keep your Robert Burns footnote to yourself. It'd not go down well in the Taverns of Festivity and Literature.
Ha ha. I was thinking the same thing. Casting shade at Burns or even just leaving so much of his work off the list might get you a punch in the mouth by any loyal Scotsman.
Eight poems by Keats!? Spot on. When all is said and done, for better or worse, Keats embodies the widest range of what is known and thought as poetry. That which we cannot live without.
Eh, e.e. cummings is no more to blame for his imitators than Lord Dunsany is for being the First Terrible Fate That Awaiteth Unwary Beginners in Fantasy.
I have some vehement disagreements however I respect your conviction. (Also might check out some authors I haven’t given a chance yet.) I consider myself too young to create my own “best of all time!” lists but I enjoy seeing other people’s picks :) Maybe I’ll take you up on creating a dueling list in twenty years time or so lol
Come on, Liza. Don't you read any poetry not assigned to you by a professor? This is all the stuff shoved down your throat in college. You have some classics here, don't get me wrong (though I disagree with you about ee Cummings- Buffalo Bill is a jam) but you are completely missing all contemporary poetry. Like the last fifty years at least. Makes me think you like studying poetry more than you like reading it.
Had a similar thought myself reading the list, all the big ones from the big guns.
Isn't that the point of a poetry primer, though? Getting all the famous influential ones?
A solid list. Tinturn Abbey and Grey’s Elegy would be good additions
Kipling might be the English poet who appeals the most to us foreigners beyond the Anglosphere. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe it's the very regular and rythmic meter that makes it clear that it follows some rule, even when the rule is not entirely evident. But I've seen it time and again - even in folks who otherwise don't care for poetry.
And there's world enough and time to include "To His Coy Mistress..." on my list, anyway.
Last lines of To His Coy Mistress give me a lump in my throat every time
You're probably not old enough yet to appreciate "Fern Hill." I'm pushing 80 and when I was in college I thought Ginsberg and the Frisco poets and Cummings were all the rage. Fortunately, I've kept reading always, finding some (for me) undiscovered gems; we can't read everything after all. There are some short poems by the Henry VIII set that are stunning. It's difficult not to rally 'round your/mine favorites that smacked you upside the head at crucial moments in life's passage. I will always chuckle and appreciate "My Last Duchess." "Subject matter" can be a sticking point in evaluation. I believe many of the WW1 poets ("Flanders Fields" was a sobering place to visit on our trip to Belgium in 2016) standup well as singular poems. I have always loved William Blake (and the theft by Jim Morrison). Shelly's "Ozzy" poem alone validates his existence/inclusion. And, oh yes, the poem/song conundrum will always exist. Bobby D is a true poet as are many of the contemporary songsmiths. To rhyme or not is always a question. We all benefit as we wrestle with what others have left us to ponder. Thanks!
Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas is exquisite, and would have my vote to join this list. Thanks for mentioning it, John.
And the sabbath rang slowly
In the pebbles of the holy streams.
Love Fern Hill.
Predictable, but sadly no Robert Browning, even simply Meeting At Night, a sort, precise, extraordinarily beautiful poem.
You might like the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova! (Though you might have already heard of her). Her most famous work is Requiem.
Also Mandelstam, for that matter. His description of Stalin, for which he was sent to the gulag …
I’ll have to read him! Thanks for the recommendation!
Disappointed by the lack of Cummings. Once I discovered his non-anthologized poems, the ones that aren't just clever and cutesy, I liked him a lot.
The complete absence of Robert Service makes me sad.
I don’t know if Service is widely known or taught outside Canada anymore, although he was famous in his own time.
“I have not included Rupi Kaur or Ocean Vuong on this list because they are not poets.”
Spot
on.
Your point
is sweet
like
(italicized) *honey*.
- I wish more would realize.
imitated her to the T 😭😭 im jealous of how well u did this
Expected to be enraged, but then loved it.
My biggest quibble is that ee cummings isn’t completely skippable. “somewhere i have never traveled gladly beyond” is a great poem.
Oh, and not enough Dickinson.
And one last thing, if you ever visit Scotland be well advised and keep your Robert Burns footnote to yourself. It'd not go down well in the Taverns of Festivity and Literature.
Ha ha. I was thinking the same thing. Casting shade at Burns or even just leaving so much of his work off the list might get you a punch in the mouth by any loyal Scotsman.
Eight poems by Keats!? Spot on. When all is said and done, for better or worse, Keats embodies the widest range of what is known and thought as poetry. That which we cannot live without.
Eh, e.e. cummings is no more to blame for his imitators than Lord Dunsany is for being the First Terrible Fate That Awaiteth Unwary Beginners in Fantasy.
Kudos - I would add two - however Poetry is also as Beauty in the eyes of the Beholder - On His Blindness by Milton and Finite Infinity by Dickinson
I have some vehement disagreements however I respect your conviction. (Also might check out some authors I haven’t given a chance yet.) I consider myself too young to create my own “best of all time!” lists but I enjoy seeing other people’s picks :) Maybe I’ll take you up on creating a dueling list in twenty years time or so lol