Where I work, a university research lab for structural engineering, I’ve started up a little poetry corner. Just putting a little cultural exposure out there, but I want some help picking poems. So far I’ve done:
A Refusal to Mourn the Death A Supermarket in California Annabelle Lee The Four Quartets: Little Gidding The Hand that Signed the Paper The Palace The Second Coming When We Two Parted
I’m trying to fulfill a rather tough to meet set of requirements: short enough to fit on one page (essential), enjoyable for those not familiar with poetry as there’s no point exposing people to poetry in a way that entrenches their mindset of poetry=dull, and variety between poems. I switch poems about once a week and with that time coming up again I’m not sure what poem to pick. I figured Hatrack would be both helpful, and would enjoy the chance to discuss some poetry so … suggestions?
Hobbes Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Kipling.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
I like Kipling too, in fact I've already had one Kipling (The Palace), not that this means there can't be another. Any specific suggestions?
How about Thomas Hardy; "The Man He Killed" has a wide appeal.
I also love "Morning Song from Senlin" by Conrad Aiken.
Almost anything from "A Shropshire Lad" by A.E. Housman. I suggest "When I was One and Twenty" or "With Rue My Heart is Laden". They're short, sweet, and perfect. Another one I love by Housman is "Along the Field As We Came By". I'm quoting first lines because he typically didn't give his poems titles.
Another great one from Housman, "White in the Moon the Long Road Lies". That one is great fun to say while walking. "My feet upon the moonlit dust pursue the ceaseless way." I can hear feet squeaking in the dust on that line, my favorite.
[ November 05, 2009, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: Tatiana ]
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice" is another good one.
Definitely do some Ogden Nash. I'm fond of "Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man" but there are dozens of delightful ones quite aside from his animal poems that get such wide exposure.
Wilfred Owen if you don't mind using poems that are heartbreakingly sad sometimes. A lot of poems are that. "Dulce et Decorem Est" is probably his most famous.
If we're talking about war poets, don't forget Keith Douglas who was killed in the invasion of Normandy. I love "John Anderson" by him. Again pretty sad stuff, though. Maybe you want to keep it more upbeat and jolly, I don't know.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Given that you chose Annabelle Lee, I'm guessing upbeat and jolly isn't a necessity.
The "song" in one of Shakespeare's comedies (is it "Much Ado.."?) that starts:
Fear no more the heat of the sun Nor the furious Winter's rages
Also several of the sonnets are absolutely wonderful. I'll quote first lines of some of my faves.
My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
That time of year thou mayest in me behold
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
When my love swears that she is made of truth (which is awesome for all the double entendres)
Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there (is another funny one)(truth = fidelity in addition to its more common meaning)
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
No more be grieved at that which thou hast done
[ November 05, 2009, 08:36 AM: Message edited by: Tatiana ]
Posted by Hedwig (Member # 2315) on :
quote:Originally posted by Hobbes: I like Kipling too. Hobbes
I've never Kippled. What's it like?
Posted by Hedwig (Member # 2315) on :
Also my favorite poem is "If".
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Kipling's "Two Sides of My Head" is one of my favorite poems.
Along with W.H. Auden's "Stop All the Clocks", which is one of the greatest mourning poems I've ever read.
Both are short enough to easily include in any anthology.
Posted by Dante (Member # 1106) on :
"Morning Song," Bei Dao
"The Infinite," Giacomo Leopardi
"La aurora," Federico Garcia Lorca
"The Historical Judas," Howard Nemerov
"Downfall," Georg Trakl
"Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, IV-V," Ezra Pound
"Account," Czeslaw Milosz
"i sing of Olaf glad and big," e e cummings
"Samurai Song," Robert Pinsky
"Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening," Robert Frost
"When I Have Fears," John Keats
"1129," Emily Dickinson
"When You Are Old," W.B. Yeats
"Dark Harbor (XVI)," Mark Strand
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Matthew Arnold To Marguerite - Continued Dover Beach
Gerard Manly Hopkins God's Grandeur Spring Kingfisher
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
I don't get Tenuous and Precarious, and I thought I was good at reading poems. Is there a deeper meaning beyond the surface wordplay?
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
It's a play on the Latin assignments that were common in her youth, rather as if someone 40 years ago used the "See Jane run" format in a poem.
Other than that, it's just a fun poke at authority figures.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
Last week: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" This week: "The Infinite" and "Tell all the Truth, but tell it slant"
Hobbes Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
Hereareindices of the three volumes of the Havard Classics compilation of essential English poetry (circa 1910, so no Eliot, cummings, Pound, Williams, etc. unfortunately).
Many of the short poems that others have mentioned are in the compilations. Some of my favorites that I don't think anyone's brought up are: Elegy (Gray)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Any specific suggestions?