Introduction To Poetry

[diebitter]

There's always....

Sex Haiku!

[Georgia Avenue]

How about a literal introduction to poetry?

Try Academy of American Poets

Or XJ Kennedy's Introduction to Poetry

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

[RunDownHouse]

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]

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]

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]

Good luck with The Wasteland...that's something you could spend you're whole life studying.

[RunDownHouse]

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]

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 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

[hobbsmann]

Pablo Neruda is amazing.

[John Cole]

First, do not attempt the Cantos without this companion , 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.