My school has something called "Coffee House", where students have to stand up in front of everyone on the stage and perform/read a piece of poetry for everyone.
The only main restriction there is, is that is has to be written by a reasonably well-known poet.
2006-09-28 11:56:30 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Performing Arts
What about "Eldorado" by Edgar Allan Poe. It's beautifull, moving, the message is fairly straight forward and it's not that long. Plus Edgar Allan Poe is amazing. =)
2006-09-28 12:00:12 · answer #1 · answered by UNknowN 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do you want to be cool with the students, or do you want to impress the teacher? Sometimes you can do both.
If you're a guy, look at "9th & Hennepin" by Tom Waits from the album Rain Dogs (this track is spoken word). Maybe some Bukowski. Teachers should be impressed at the novelty at a high school level. If you need to go more mainstream, Ginsberg and a slew of Beat Generation poets are out there for you. Tupac has also written some impressive verse. Rainer Maria Rilke's poem, "Orpheus, Eurydice, and Hermes" is beautiful even in English (he's Germany's most celebrated 20th Century poet). For a well-known (by poets) contemporary poet, which means your teachers probably have never heard of him, "The Rapist's Villanelle" by Tom Disch is great, and you'll get a raised eyebrow or two. If this is all too strange, try The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot ("The Waste Land" is sooooo difficult). Don't even think about reading Jim Morrison.
If you're a girl, just please please please don't read anything by Jewell. I think you'll be inundated by Plath and her troop of suicidals. Dickinson is amazing--just open to a random page, close your eyes, and point. Mary Oliver's "Poem for My Father's Ghost" reads very well, should be reasonably understandable to your audience, and it's different than the other stuff you're likely to hear. Moore and Bishop are solid stand-bys.
2006-10-01 09:30:03 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are many well-known poets, dead and alive.
If you like the macabre, you might want to choose an Edgar Allen Poe poem. If you are into the ridiculous; yet very catchy phrasing, think Lear. Ogden Nash and Dorothy Parker have some very pithy, yet thought-provoking poems. Edgar A. Guest is another possibility. He wrote a poem titled "Mama's Checkbook" that is as true today as it was the day he wrote it. Sylvia Plath may appeal to you.
Believe in the poem you choose. Give the reading your "heart and soul".
2006-09-28 12:35:16 · answer #3 · answered by Baby Poots 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What poets do you like? If you're not sure, go to your library or go online and spend some time reading a variety of poems by a variety of poets. Best to read something you understand emotionally as well as intellectually. It's also good if the poem is one that feels good to you as you perform/read it.
2006-09-28 12:16:09 · answer #4 · answered by Cherry B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Highwayman by Alfred Lloyd Noyes
2006-09-29 03:58:03 · answer #5 · answered by desert_kats 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jacqueline Kennedy wife of the late Pres.John F. Kennedy wrote some very nice poems
A lot of people don't know she wrote poems.
It should be at your local library.......another suggestion go to your local library go to the poetry section ans read through a few books (not read the whole book) see if you find something you like.
2006-09-28 12:33:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
"John Anderson, My Jo" by Robert Burns or "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes. Both are just perfect for performance, especially "Highwayman" when you get to the part about the lace bunched against his throat as he died like a dog...poetic gold!
2006-09-28 12:17:46 · answer #7 · answered by Vatican Lokey 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I suggest "maggie and millie and mollie and may" by e.e.cummings.
maggie and milly and molly and may
by E. E. Cummings
10
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea
2006-09-28 12:00:40 · answer #8 · answered by ladders_to_fire 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Annabelle Lee,.....Edgar Allen Poe
2006-09-28 16:29:58 · answer #9 · answered by e_guanajuato 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Wasteland by TS Elliott. It was written to be performed lived and you will enjoy performing it.
Not with a bang.... with a whimper
2006-09-28 12:31:07 · answer #10 · answered by Buffy Summers 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋