# favourite poet/poets



## turban1 (May 29, 2008)

have you a favourite poet or poets? by that i mean ones that you like to read again and again, rather than ones that the literati declare to be best.

mine?

maulana jalaludin rumi (balkhi) in translation, alas
wb yeats
ts eliot (incidentally, an anagram of 'toilets')
hafiz
frost
a marvell


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## theCardiffGiant (Sep 16, 2007)

Most of what I read is in Greek or Latin. I've always had a soft spot for Archilochus and Mimnermus. I could read Homer and Vergil all day. Lately Ovid's Ars Amatoria has caught my interest. In English I'm fond of Housman and have at various times been drawn to the poetry of Whitman, William Carlos Williams, & e.e. cummings.


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## Coleman (Mar 18, 2009)

Walt Whitman
Wallace Stevens
William Carlos Williams
(maybe Ws are the most poetical in my mind)


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## NZNorm (May 9, 2005)

Tristan Tzara 
José Emilio Pacheco


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

Robert Frost
ee cummings
T.S. Eliot


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## DukeGrad (Dec 28, 2003)

*Poet*

Gentlemen

All of them. One I enjoy a great deal is by a black poet. Corine Roosevelt Robinson.
Of course another meandering path that leads to nowhere.
This one on and off seems to inspire and comfort.
For some reason enjoy Donne on and off.
And enjoy some of Flavius Vegetius Renatus , some of this fro Epitoma Rei Militari.

" Let him who desires Peace, prepare for war!

God almighty, am inspired too early this morning

Jimmy


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## KennethB (Jul 29, 2009)

Richard Hugo
Pablo Neruda


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## ajo (Oct 22, 2007)

I had a big thing for e e cummings during a particular period of my life.

T S Eliott and I are very well acquainted I have a 1951 Penguin which is very thumbed, one night I actually got up at a dinner party and recited The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. Particular poems of Black I could recite.

Dylan Thomas, Dante, Edgar Alan Poe, Neruda sigh I could go on I do enjoy the Song of Songs author unknown, once a year just sit down with and find the time to ponder its meaning. 

I wish I had more time for such simple pleasures.


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## anglophile23 (Jan 25, 2007)

ajo said:


> I had a big thing for e e cummings during a particular period of my life.
> 
> T S Eliott and I are very well acquainted I have a 1951 Penguin which is very thumbed, one night I actually got up at a dinner party and recited The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. Particular poems of Black I could recite.
> 
> ...


If you don't have time for poetry try this


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## Good Old Sledge (Jun 13, 2006)

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Pable Neruda, Vergil, Dante (alas, I can read only in English) are great fireside friends, but somehow Kipling always winds up at the top of the stack for me.


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## turban1 (May 29, 2008)

*oops*



Good Old Sledge said:


> Percy Bysshe Shelley, Pable Neruda, Vergil, Dante (alas, I can read only in English) are great fireside friends, but somehow Kipling always winds up at the top of the stack for me.


sorry, move him to no.2 on my list.


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## Liberty Ship (Jan 26, 2006)

I always return to Keats.


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## ajo (Oct 22, 2007)

Liberty Ship said:


> I always return to Keats.


I know what you mean I have a copy of The Second Coming on my desktop, mind you there are others but there is something particular about that poem which draws me back.


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## DCLawyer68 (Jun 1, 2009)

turban1 said:


> have you a favourite poet or poets? by that i mean ones that you like to read again and again, rather than ones that the literati declare to be best.
> 
> mine?
> 
> ...


I would have thought you a Kipling man. I've never been great at verse, but recall liking Longfellow and Wordsworth when we studied English lit in school


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## Ekphrastic (Oct 4, 2009)

I tend toward the contemporary poets, myself (not to diminish those of yesteryear, of course): Kimberly Johnson, Jay Hopler, Frank Bidart. James Galvin is amazing. Louise Gluck has an elegance and effortlessness to her verse. Galway Kinnell is usually known for his earlier stuff, but his recent stuff isn't bad.

Stop me before I keep going...


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## Alligator (Sep 17, 2009)

William Earnest Henley

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with many poets.


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## Thom Browne's Schooldays (Jul 29, 2007)

Auden


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## AHS (Mar 18, 2006)

My favorites are Dylan Thomas and Frank O'Hara.

AHS


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## AscotWithShortSleeves (Apr 12, 2009)

ee cummings
Shel Silverstein
Wordsworth
Blake


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## Pr B (Jan 8, 2009)

*Poets*

Rene Maria Rilke
Mary Oliver
Billy Collins


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## Peak and Pine (Sep 12, 2007)

Am not familiar with most of those so far cited, but a real favorite of mine is *E. A. (Edwin Arlington) Robinson*, of Richard Corey and Miniver Cheevy fame, but he wrote much much more. I've a signed 1st ed. and twice a week my drive takees me by the farm house where he wrote much of his stuff (in Head Tide, Maine) and whenever someone's in the truck with me I point and say "That's E.A. Robinson's house" and they almost always say "Who?"​


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## AscotWithShortSleeves (Apr 12, 2009)

I took German for 3 years in high school. The teacher was an actual German immigrant. He made us all memorize Die Lorelei, by Heinrich Heine. I still have it memorized to this day, which, uh, will come in very handy if I ever end up on German Jeopardy.

It is a beautiful poem, however. It even rhymes; imagine that.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

John Betjeman
Seamus Heaney
Declan Collinge
Roger McGough
Oscar Wilde
W.B.Yeats
T.S.Eliot
William Blake
Rudyard Kipling
Thomas Gray
Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna (wrote in Irish)
Stephen Spender
Louis MacNeice
George Barker
Philip Larkin
Cecil Day Lewis
Tim Burton (yes...that Tim Burton)

And of course Sassoon, Graves, Owen, and Rosenberg. I've always loved the British First World War poets, ever since I studied them for O level English literature in the late 70s.


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## sjghr (Feb 13, 2010)

If I might put forward Shakespeare. Admittedly more renowned as a playwright (though many of his plays were wonderful poetry in their own right) he was, in my opinion, a good poet too. Shakespeare's Sonnets was the first book of poetry which I bought for myself. Well, I say I bought for myself, I got to choose which book (any book) I could have as a school prize, and I picked Shakespeare's Sonnets. Granted, there's a few that aren't quite up to scratch, but the good ones are bloody brilliant.

I also like Wordsworth - as a regular visitor to, and major fan of, the Lake District.

Once visited Dylan Thomas' boat house, though can't claim to be particularly familiar with his work.

One poet who I definitely don't like is Carol Ann Duffy... I had a teacher who made me love Shakespeare, she had not a hope with Duffy. Proof that your teachers can influence you, but they can't make up your mind for you.

Much like music though, I'll generally take each piece as it comes. Some of the best pieces of poetry are often real stand outs in a lifetime's work. These will, I suspect, often be the pieces with most poignancy to the reader and the writer; for example, Binyon's _For the Fallen_.


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## fat paul (Aug 26, 2008)

Poe, but I am a very dark person
cheers, fat paul


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## Peak and Pine (Sep 12, 2007)

sjghr said:


> If I might put forward Shakespeare. Admittedly more renowned as a playwright (though many of his plays were wonderful poetry in their own right) he was, in my opinion, a good poet too. Shakespeare's Sonnets was the first book of poetry which I bought for myself. Well, I say I bought for myself, I got to choose which book (any book) I could have as a school prize, and I picked Shakespeare's Sonnets. Granted, there's a few that aren't quite up to scratch, but the good ones are bloody brilliant.


I'm not sure the British members of the forum will appreciate what I'm about to say, nor will all the Americans, but there are enough that will that I'll go ahead and say it...

The quoted paragraph, what it says and, in particular, the way it says it, is why we love the British.
​


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## RedBluff (Dec 22, 2009)

Henry Rollins


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

RedBluff said:


> Henry Rollins


Indeed! Love his Liar song and his band, and as such read one of his books in 95.
However, I read it on the ferry across the North Sea from England to Sweden, summer 95, when I was feeling very dark & suicidal. And some of this writing is also very dark and suicidal and so rather than helping it exacerbated my feelings.

Anyway regardless of the book I almost felt like jumping overboard a few times. So strong was the feeling at times that I had to go in off the deck into my cabin.

So, he's not on my list - as brilliant as I think his wriitng is, it's just too "full-on" for me,even today.


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## Peak and Pine (Sep 12, 2007)

Earl of Ormonde said:


> ... summer 95, when I was feeling very dark & suicidal. And some of this writing is also very dark and suicidal and so rather than helping it exacerbated my feelings.


Hmmmmm, a side to The Earl heretofore unrevealed. Tell us more (but mention a poet or something to keep it thread legal).
​


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Peak and Pine said:


> Hmmmmm, a side to The Earl heretofore unrevealed. Tell us more (but mention a poet or something to keep it thread legal).
> ​


Me? PTSD, twice, following very serious traumatic fatal incidents; and manic-depressive for years...soldiering, guarding, protecting and policing leave their mark! The Black Dog still visits me more often than I would like...most recently over the last few weeks. I think Byron fits the bill here does he not?


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## ajo (Oct 22, 2007)

Earl of Ormonde said:


> Me? PTSD, twice, following very serious traumatic fatal incidents; and manic-depressive for years...soldiering, guarding, protecting and policing leave their mark! The Black Dog still visits me more often than I would like...most recently over the last few weeks. I think Byron fits the bill here does he not?


Owning a Black Dog my self I find that John Cooper Clarke Ten years in an open necked shirt is a good antidote.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

ajo said:


> Owning a Black Dog my self I find that John Cooper Clarke Ten years in an open necked shirt is a good antidote.


Thanks Ajo. Yes, Johnny did some good stuff. What was the one called that included the words "'cos the flowers are going to get you yea" ?


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## ajo (Oct 22, 2007)

Earl of Ormonde said:


> Thanks Ajo. Yes, Johnny did some good stuff. What was the one called that included the words "'cos the flowers are going to get you yea" ?


Cant help you with that one I'm afraid being over 50 the only poetry that really I can recall without resorting to the book is a couple by TS Eliot The Hollow Men and The Love Songs of J Alfred Prufrock.


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## RedBluff (Dec 22, 2009)

Earl of Ormonde said:


> Indeed! Love his Liar song and his band, and as such read one of his books in 95.
> However, I read it on the ferry across the North Sea from England to Sweden, summer 95, when I was feeling very dark & suicidal. And some of this writing is also very dark and suicidal and so rather than helping it exacerbated my feelings.
> 
> Anyway regardless of the book I almost felt like jumping overboard a few times. So strong was the feeling at times that I had to go in off the deck into my cabin.
> ...


Bet you put out alot of light......those of us that do always have major darkside. Henry helps me keep it all in perspective.


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## Persephone (Jul 17, 2008)

I love poetry, and have many favourite poems and poets. My top three poets are:

1. Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe 
2. Paul Verlaine/Rainer Maria Rilke (Verlaine's Chanson d'Automne is very similar to Rilke's Herbsttag in sentiment although not in style)
3. Robert Burns

Robert Frost would be a very close fourth. :icon_smile:


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## Persephone (Jul 17, 2008)

Good Old Sledge said:


> Percy Bysshe Shelley, Pable Neruda, Vergil, Dante (alas, I can read only in English) are great fireside friends, but somehow Kipling always winds up at the top of the stack for me.


I can completely understand that Kipling somehow winds up at the top of the stack. I also love many of his poems, including "A Tale of Two Cities." My favourites, however, are two dog poems "The Power of the Dog" and "His Apologies" (see excerpt below).

_Master, this is Thy Servant. He is rising eight weeks old.
He is mainly Head and Tummy. His legs are uncontrolled.
But Thou hast forgiven his ugliness, and settled him on Thy knee...
Art Thou content with Thy Servant? He is very comfy with Thee.

Master, behold a Sinner! He hath committed a wrong.
He hath defiled Thy Premises through being kept in too long.
Wherefore his nose has been rubbed in the dirt, and his self-respect has been bruised.
Master, pardon Thy Sinner, and see he is properly loosed.
_
Both have moved me to tears. Yes, I am a dog person and have a lovely four-legged friend.


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## lovemeparis (May 20, 2006)

*Poems, Poets, and Dreamers...*

Here are some poems written by ordinary people.. but I like it!!!:icon_smile_big:


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## Winhes2 (Jun 29, 2011)

Favorite poets?
Phenoms to enjoy: Seuss and
Peter Paul Van Camp.


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

Robinson Jeffers.


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## Fading Fast (Aug 22, 2012)

Dickinson

Edna St. Vincent Millay (not really, always just wanted an opportunity to type out that heck of a name)

Henry Scott-Holland


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## Cassadine (Aug 22, 2017)

To name a few:

John Donne, George Herbert, Chaucer, Milton
Coleridge, Byron
Auden, Yeats, Eliot, Pound
Milosz, Brodsky, Louise Gluck 
Anthony Hecht (he needs a Nobel asap)


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Robert Frost, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge for his The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner...also a favorite of mine!


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

Omar Khayyam.


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## Mr. B. Scott Robinson (Jan 16, 2017)

I’m a Kipling man. 

Young man to young woman: “Do you like Kipling?”

Young woman replies: “I don’t know. I have never kippled!”


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

Well, I'd say I like all the sort of classic poets mentioned here - I'm a particular fan of Tennyson. I was never much for writing poetry, but I enjoy consuming it; I prefer hearing it read to reading it - I really think of poetry as a thing to be performed, much like plays.

I used to keep a notebook handy (a so-called commonplace book), and when I read literature or poetry I would copy a particularly nice phrase into it, along with the citation. I never *used* the stuff, but it was a discipline. I seem to have stopped doing it at some point!

In the spirit of assisting discovery, I'll mention a few folks might not be so familiar with, current talents I like:

I'm a big fan of Billy Collins (the most famous on this list, being indeed very famous among modern poets); we have a number of friends in common, yet somehow I've never met the man. Stand-out collections include "Ballistics" and "The Rain in Portugal".

Natasha Tretheway: "Bellocq's Ophelia"

Kenneth Koch: "Collected Poems"

Ted Kooser: "Splitting an Order"

Robert Drake: "Beautiful Chaos"

Rupi Kaur: "Milk and Honey"

Virginia Adair: "Ants on the Melon"

Naomi Shihab Nye: "Fuel" (I also like Nye's "A Maze Me: Poems for Girls" for my daughter... when my daughter (7) and I are in different countries, we FaceTime every night and I read her a poem. Nye has some well-suited to that tradition.)

Getting back to the Very Famous, Wisława Szymborska's "View with a Grain of Sand" is always at hand.

DH


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

It must have been a message from gawd! On our recent monthly pilgimage to the Orlando Costco store, they had for sale "A Collection of Poems by Robert Frost." Not surprisingly a copy was found in our cart at the checkout counter! LOL.


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## Mr. B. Scott Robinson (Jan 16, 2017)

I keep Byron, Keats, and Burns in my library and close at hand. I don’t have a modern poet that rings my bell like the classics.

I studied Plath at university, but I found that often the personality and personal tragedies of the poet, much akin to Hemingway syndrome, eclipses the work and becomes almost a fetish for some readers.

Cheers,

BSR


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