Poetry

Ahem, probably one of the least popular branches of Literature. We don't have a thread on it, so I thought I would make one, just in case anyone else wanted to talk about it.

I've just finished reading some Selected Poems by Simon Armitage, and I have to say I was astonished to find that he was not (in my opinion) over-rated. <3.

And, like any vaguely anti-social individual worth their salt, my favourite poet is Bukowski. Although as I read more widely, I'm starting to go off his work in some of its more misogynist or self-indulgent moments.

So who are your favourite poets? Who are you reading at the moment? Which poets or types of poetry annoy you?

Or: Do you even like/buy poetry, do you consider it pretentious or over-valued by society?

Uh, hi. While I don't have any poetry books open at the moment I so sometimes buy. I'm basically okay with all kinds especially formal poems with story lines (do they still call them ballads?/ I'm a sucker for story lines). My experiences with most poems stems from school so I get to say I heard at least of most German writers in the fields. This means, of course, I don't know more than ten English poems writers. So, there you go.

Cool, by contrast I've never heard of any German poets - I'd love to hear any names that you think are good.

I used to find poetry rather boring, especially in school, but nowadays I enjoy reading some every once in a while. Maybe it's my ever-growing interest in Shakespeare and contemporary dramatists that sensibilized me, since those 16th-century folks were rather poetical in pretty much everything they wrote.

However, I do not actually own much poetry. I have a selection of Robert Burns poems which is pretty rad. There is also quite a lot of poetry in my Complete Works of Schiller, I think. Although that's just sitting on the shelf for show, really, since I'm not a big fan of him.

In general, though German myself, I'm actually more drawn to English poetry, if at all. As I said, probably Shakespeares fault.

Our old poetry thread got eaten by the archive monster. I love poetry, and my favourite poets are Edgar Allan Poe, T. S. Eliot and Algernon Charles Swinburne. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to buy good poetry books where I live, so I don't own many volumes.

Edgar Allan Poe. That is all.

& I need to read more Poe. I've read a few poems, but I'm more familiar with his short stories. And I only read Annabel Lee because I was reading Lolita, which draws heavily from that source.

So yeah. Any good collections?

EDIT: Welp, in the absence of recommendations ima recommend a couple of poetry collections that I like and am reading at the mo;

Mick Imlah - Lost Leader

John Ash - Disbelief

edited 11th Mar '11 1:17:20 PM by mmysqueeant

Two German poets which I'm sure are a bit more known in the English sphere are Rainer Maria Rilke and Heinrich Heine (you know, Loreley?). Then, there's of course Goethe and Schiller. Other poets are for example: Eichendorff, Novalis, Brentano, Anette Droste-Hülshoff, Mörike, Storm, Theodor Fontane, Klopstock, Walter von der Vogelweide(middleages)...
More modern classics which breack the formsome times are Johannes Magnus Enzensberger, Georg Heym, Georg Trakl, Gottfried Benn, Christian Morgenstern (I love him...), Bertold Brecht, Ernst Jandl or (although he isn't technically German but used the language) Paul Celan.
...I just noticed that I can still identify almost all names and sort them into the periods and read at least one poem from each of them on my own or in school. I'm disturbed.

Wikisource has many of his poems, and The Wondering Minstrels is always a good place to see a selection of a poet's work.

Cool, thank you.

That's pretty awesome. Should keep me occupied for a few years...

I concur with the Eliot praise, although I didn't like any of his plays that much. Andrew Marvell is cool, and so is Frost, as is Nabokov when he gets into it. I enjoyed a class I took on Russian literature where the students who spoke Russian were ranting over the translation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin we were using, which was the one Nabokov didn't do. "That evil evil translator!"

I'm not a major poetry reader (and come to think of it, I don't actually know where poems are categorized in the library), but I do like a lot of Robert Frost's stuff. I also really, really wish Wilfred Owen hadn't died in WWI—we mostly just remember him for "Dulce et Decorum Est," but other poems like "S.I.W." hint at an even greater potential had he lasted long enough to refine his art.

Poetry is usually in the same place as 'literature' so in the Library of Congress system it is in the P's (there are further subdivisions of P by country or language) and in Dewey Decimal it's in the 800s (also subdivided by country or language)

I don't know Nabokov's poetry.

Pale Fire. He also did a lot of translating (as I mentioned above) so there is some good stuff in there that I am chalking up to him and the real authors because I don't speak Russian.

Actually, to be honest, Nabokov is THE MAN and I mainly mentioned him here because I could.

(Also Nabokov has Poems and Problems which I had forgotten because I had originally looked into it for the chess stuff.)

Chess stuff eh? Sounds interesting.

Which reminds me, there's an English (I think) poet who's written/is in the process of writing a series about the Roman board-game ''latrones'' meaning various things from robbers to mercenaries.

It might be of interest to you given the chess link, let me go on a google hunt for him...

nope nothing...checking thru my notes now...

Ahh here he is, I think the collection is The Glass Soldier and his name is Michael Mott. I hope that is relevant to your interests.

I don't think the collection is out yet, but I'll post in this thread as and when it becomes available.

The wiki article on latrones is fascinating regardless of whether you're interested in poetry about it, anyway.

edited 16th Mar '11 8:28:49 AM by mmysqueeant

That looks neat, I'll definitely look around for it when it's published.

Edna St. Vincent Millay for female poets and a toss up between Algernon Charles Swinburne (already mentioned, I see, which makes me happy) and William Blake.

I also enjoy Frost, Poe, Neruda, Lorca, Shelley and both Elizabeth and Robert Browning.

I like Blake. But ever since I read Long John Brown and Little Mary Bell (one of the dirtiest poems from that period I've ever read - oh the innuendo), I can't help but see him as a stereotypical passive-aggressive douchebag. Not that it impacts on his poetry, which I think averages out at "pretty damn good".

Huh, did anyone mention Dylan Thomas yet?

-checks-

EDIT: Nope?

Well then.

This is amazing.

EDIT 2: Just finished reading Robin Robertson's The Wrecking Light - amazing collection, I'd recommend it to almost anyone.

edited 18th Mar '11 9:48:10 AM by mmysqueeant

I'm a sizable fan of Beat Generation poets, specifically Lawrence Ferlinghetti (A Coney Island of the Mind and Starting from San Francisco are a pair of classics), the quasi-Beat writer Richard Brautigan and of course, Charles Bukowski. The latter two are perhaps better known for their novels, but their poetry is just as good.

Yes. Bukowski is awesome.

I do quite like Ferlinghetti as well. And of course Ginsberg.

That's about as far as my knowledge of Beat and its offshoots goes, but I do really like Bukowski.

There is not a single bad poem in Ginsberg's book Howl and Other Poems. (Though it helps that over half of the book is devoted to the Crowning Moment Of Awesome title poem...)

My two favorite Bukowski poems are "Dinosauria, We" and "Nirvana," the latter of which was covered by Tom Waits on his latest album Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards.

Ah, I tend to go on massive Bukowski binges, so I couldn't really name any individual poems.

EDIT: Nice to hear Tom Waits and Bukowski coming together for great justice, too.

edited 19th Mar '11 3:39:55 PM by mmysqueeant

Many of Tom Waits' spoken word pieces, such as "Frank's Wild Years" (the track on Swordfishtrombones, not the album) and "9th & Hennepin" are very'' Bukowski.