Do you have a favorite poet, or a favorite poem?

Question

Who is it, or what poem is it? Why do you like it?

I'm a poet myself and student of poetry and poetics, so I'm just curious who everyone likes and why. I'm currently reading Lorca. I'm also a big Whitman fan, and I love Frost's work. I love the Romantics as well, particularly Shelley, and far too many others to name!

You don't have to know much about poetry to answer this! Any answer is acceptable, and I'm just as curious to know what people who aren't educated in poetics like in addition to those who are more regular students of poetics. :)

Answer 1

My favorite poem is by John Tobias. It's called "Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity"

I'll paste it below. This poem is, in my opinion, an expression of youth and whimsy and reflects the innocence of childhood; of unlimited possibilities. When I read it, I can visualize the watermelon. I can smell it, taste it and feel it's stickiness on my hands. This poem captures you - like any great piece of literature - and lets you escape, for however temporary, into another time and place. It truly paints a picture with words.

During that summer
When unicorns were still possible;
When the purpose of knees
Was to be skinned;
When shiny horse chestnuts
(Hollowed out
Fitted with straws
Crammed with tobacco
Stolen from butts
In family ashtrays)
Were puffed in green lizard silence
While straddling thick branches
Far above and away
From the softening effects
Of civilization;

During that summer--
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was--
Watermelons ruled.

Thick pink imperial slices
Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues
Dribbling from chins;
Leaving the best part,
The black bullet seeds,
To be spit out in rapid fire
Against the wall
Against the wind
Against each other;

And when the ammunition was spent,
There was always another bite:
It was a summer of limitless bites,
Of hungers quickly felt
And quickly forgotten
With the next careless gorging.

The bites are fewer now.
Each one is savored lingeringly,
Swallowed reluctantly.

But in a jar put up by Felicity,
The summer which maybe never was
Has been captured and preserved.
And when we unscrew the lid
And slice off a piece
And let it linger on our tongue:
Unicorns become possible again.

Answer 2

I love Robert Service. The basic beat to his poetry is comforting to me, somehow, but I also enjoy his common-man way of presenting some of the more basic facts of life as he experienced it. He wasn't trying to be flowery, or hide his meaning in obscure verbage, he just told stories. There is something very down to earth about his work that pleases something deep inside of me. Despite all of this, he is able to pull from his readers all of the more base emotions. He was marvelous.

Answer 3

Read John Milton and Andrew Marvell. For Milton read the Allegro and Penseroso, and for Marvell "A Definition of Love".

Answer 4

Yes I like poetry and I write poetry my favorite is Langston Hugh

Answer 5

It's tough to pick just one....so I won't, haha. But I love e.e cumming ("i have found what you are like" is my favorite), also Bronte's "Stars" has always inspired me as I can just lose myself stargazing. And of course the old Browning fave, "How Do I Love Thee". Those three are a start.

Answer 6

you my favorite poet.