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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?
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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.
posted
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.
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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?
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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)
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Any specific suggestions?
