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theBruiser500
11-17-2005, 05:39 PM
Saw In Her Shoes, surprisngly good movie. It had the poem "I carry your heart with me" in it by ee cummings, http://judithpordon.tripod.com/poetry/id304.html That's a really good poem. I just got The Wasteland by TS. Eliot which has to be very good. Where should I go from here for poetry?

CrazyEyez
11-17-2005, 05:47 PM
"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
Paul Dirac (1902 - 1984)

Los Feliz Slim
11-17-2005, 05:48 PM
Walt Whitman
TS Eliot
Robert Bly
Robert Frost

Just a few ideas.

Michael Davis
11-17-2005, 05:50 PM
Hi Bruiser,

If you enjoy The Wasteland, you should also check out Hart Crane's The Bridge. It's somewhat inferior, IMO, but you will like it.

Also, I think Pound's Cantos are right up your alley, because there is an insane amount of stuff there to figure out (or stuff that can't be figured out). Unfortunately, they are mindbogglingly cryptic and pretty much inaccesible. Some stuff is written in Chinese, Italian, French, Provencal, and probably ten other languages. So have fun.

Other poets I enjoy but who are not necessarily related to those I mentioned above are Paul Celan (German) and Vergil (Roman).

-Michael

theBruiser500
11-17-2005, 05:53 PM
feel free to post text or links to your favorite poems, or say what they are.

partygirluk
11-17-2005, 05:57 PM
First World War poem

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

IronDragon1
11-17-2005, 05:59 PM
Percy Shelley (http://www.bartleby.com/139/)

diebitter
11-17-2005, 05:59 PM
[ QUOTE ]
"In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
Paul Dirac (1902 - 1984)

[/ QUOTE ]

so you tell people something, but in a way no-one understands, about something everyone knows already?

Sounds like management consultancy to me.

Los Feliz Slim
11-17-2005, 06:04 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Percy Shelley (http://www.bartleby.com/139/)

[/ QUOTE ]

In high school a friend of mine and I made a comedy video for our English class. One segment was "Bass Fishing with Percy Bysshe Shelley". Not sure if any other Shelley fans will find that funny, but we sure did.

Georgia Avenue
11-17-2005, 06:05 PM
Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

william carlos williams

diebitter
11-17-2005, 06:09 PM
There's always....

Sex Haiku! (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=3508897&page=0&fpart=1&v c=1)

Georgia Avenue
11-17-2005, 06:09 PM
How about a literal introduction to poetry?

Try Academy of American Poets (http://www.poets.org/)

Or XJ Kennedy's Introduction to Poetry (http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Kennedy,%20X.%20J.)

Good stuff. Don't buy the Norton Anthology. It will only make you sad.

RunDownHouse
11-17-2005, 06:10 PM
Wow, props for starting with those two. I'd recommend you pick up one of the books that has Eliot's complete works. It'll only be a couple bucks more than any stand-alone Wasteland version, and you'll likely find something you like better - and consider more accessible - than just The Wasteland.

Like someone else said, some Ezra Pound is a nice transition from there. Pound and Eliot were very close contemporaries. I also like Whitman.

theBruiser500
11-17-2005, 06:28 PM
is american poetry better or is the old british poetry better? how about spanish? there are a lot of poetry books by some dude Neruda in the bookstore here.

tpir90036
11-17-2005, 06:29 PM
I think you should mix in some of Charles Bukowski's poetry as well for a good mix of dark and modern. I am sure this post will get flamed as he is not a classic poet but whatever... i like him.

Dominic
11-17-2005, 06:30 PM
Good luck with The Wasteland...that's something you could spend you're whole life studying.

RunDownHouse
11-17-2005, 06:37 PM
Its really a personal choice, and your question is akin to asking whether one genre of music is better than another. My favorite author is Eliot, and half the time nobody knows whether to consider him English or American.

One of my favorite "old English" poets is John Donne. Try to find a book that has collections of his poems as well as his essays. You can't go wrong with the guy that wrote the phrases, "for whom the bell tolls," and "no man is an island, entire of itself." In any case, Donne will have a completely different flavor from Eliot, who will have a completely different flavor from Whitman. Its hard to argue that one is objectively better than the others.

I haven't read much Spanish poetry.

Blarg
11-17-2005, 06:49 PM
The Wasteland is brilliant but unfriendly to almost all readers, assuming broad knowledge outside the poem, including several languages. Try some of Eliot's other poems, like The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock, The Hollow Men, etc.

You might also give some names like Wallace Stevens and Philip Larkin a try. Absolutely top quality stuff.

Check out www.plagiarist.com (http://www.plagiarist.com) for the submitted poems of many great poets. You'll find Wallace, Eliot, and Larkin there, among many others, some with multiple poems, some with just a few.

Here's a link to one we mentioned on the board just yesterday, a favorite of Philip Larkin's:

This Be the Verse (http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1053/)

hobbsmann
11-17-2005, 07:14 PM
Pablo Neruda is amazing.

John Cole
11-17-2005, 09:58 PM
First, do not attempt the Cantos without this companion (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520082877/104-3635270-4265535?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance) , and early Pound is a better place to start anyway. Personae features his earlier work--although even his early work can be daunting. Good thing with Pound is his work is published by New Directions (or as Pound called it, "nude erections") so it comes pretty cheaply. Also, read Hugh Kenner's The Pound Era for a great overview of Pound, his sources, and modernist poetry in general.

However, before getting into Pound, start with Frost (everybody does), move on to Wallace Stevens (difficult in many ways but he uses language beautifully), and throw in Elizabeth Bishop. From there, you can begin exploring.

I love the Romantics, Keats, Shelley, Byron, and Wordsworth, but they present more problems than the Americans.

mason55
11-18-2005, 01:34 AM
I would not recommend Eliot's poems without some sort of guide to go with them. Eliot wrote at a time when a classical education was assumed of anyone who would be reading his poems. There are lines in Greek and Latin and many references that no one today would get without having to look them up.

With a reference though, they are amazing. Many times I am just as amazed at the depth and aptness of his references as I am by the imagery and verse of the poetry. If you like The Wasteland, check out The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. It might actually be a better place to start as it is slightly more accessible than The Wasteland.

Depending on your tastes, there are thousands of different directions you can take. If you have access to a college bookstore, the best recommendation would be to go spend $50 on one of the giant anthologies of poems that they use for the poetry classes. I still have mine from when I did my creative writing minor/poetry concentration.

Poetry is like any other art though. Don't let anyone tell you what is good or bad, just read what you like. This is the reason that a huge anthology of classic poems will be good for you. You can find some good jumping off points based on what you want and then dive deeper into whatever period/style you enjoy.

Some standard suggestions though:

Modern period: William Carlos Williams, Charles Bukowski, Ezra Pound, Allen Ginsberg

Harlem Renaissance: Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Gwendolyn Brooks

Romantics: William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Keats, Percy Shelley

Alright, I don't feel like listing any more /images/graemlins/grin.gif

I highly, highly recommond picking up an anthology though if you have anything more than a passing interest in poetry.

Claunchy
11-18-2005, 01:35 AM
"The Panther" by Rilke (http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/4027/panther.html)