WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE POEM?

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE POEM? Here are some answers at Asymmetrical Information. Mentions here of some of my favorite poets: Hopkins, Auden, Keats, Yeats, Stevens, Catullus. I have always found that the Anthony Hecht poem (at the end or almost) enhances the Matthew Arnold poem (The Dover Bitch and Dover Beach, respectively.) I would still say The Eve of Saint Agnes and Mary Jane would say “When you are old and gray and full of sleep…..” by Yeats. She just called out that she loves Ozymandias, which gets two votes on the link. My father recited Ozymandias a number of times at the dinner table.

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6 Responses to WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE POEM?

  1. Mary Jane says:

    How many favorite poems are we allowed to pick? Just one? I don’t understand how to rate them. I say “When You Are Old and Gray and Full of Sleep” because I’ve loved it ever since I read it. But how can I name as second best the other poems I adore?

  2. Lee says:

    I can’t begin to express how much I dislike that overhyped windbag Ginsberg. I’ve only been exposed to a smidgen of Auden, but I hope to change that sometime soon. Annalisa kindly got me a book of Emily Brontë’s poetry, so I’ll probably find my new favorite in there.

  3. Nick says:

    “Richard Cory” by Robinson is awfully good. I don’t know the name of it but there is one in particular in The Lord of the Rings which is one of my favorites.

    Do we count The Odyssey, the Illiad, and Digines Akritas as poems?

  4. Annalisa says:

    I’d really like to know which one of the Lord of the Rings poems you like best–can you summarize what it’s about or where it is in the book? A lot of the longer poems and songs are hard for me to truly appreciate, but I love the one Sam recites about Gil-Galad and also the song he sings in the Tower of Cirith Ungol. I’ve memorized the former but not the latter, sadly. I have illustrated it though.

    I’m woefully undereducated in the realm of poetry. In fact, I would say I’m most familiar with Tolkien’s poetry, and I read Tolkien for the prose!

    All the way from Virginia I can hear Mom sucking in her breath.

  5. Philip says:

    I had never heard of Digines Akritas. Google tells me it’s a Byzantine medieval poem. Should I read it?

  6. Lee says:

    There were some wickedly funny poems mocking Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads that my romanticism professor showed us the other day in class. “The Idiot Boy” and “Goody Blake and Harry Gill” seemed to bear the brunt of the scorn. I like snarky poems a lot.

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