who is your favorite poet and why?

Answer 1

Like qldtravelguru said, Shakespeare, but mostly for his plays. He can eloquently capture the richness of the human soul and elevate it to detailed, powerful, and concise language. If we're talking straight poetry (not in a play) than go with T.S. Eliot. Some brilliant lines ("In a minute there is time / For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse") molded into poems dictated by the writer rather than form. Housman and Fitzgerald's translation of Khayyám are close seconds, both for having short, memorable rhymes of deep subjects.

But the list is really quite endless.

Answer 2

T.S Elliot without a doubt, the why part of the question is harder to answer I guess its the manner in which he uses his words to create the imagery more than the imagery itself. On the other end of the scale I'd have to say that Sylvia Plath is my least liked poet. I've dropped more than one literature course due to its Plath content.

Answer 3

Ranier Marier Rilke because his language, his imagery is so beautiful it makes me happy. This is his "The Panther"


From bars forever going past, his gaze
so jaded’s grown there’s no more it can hold.
To him a thousand bars are what there is,
bars only, and behind the bars no world.


The paws’ soft fall and heavy limbs’ loose swing
as in the tightest circles he turns round,
is like strength dancing round some central thing
inside of which a great will sits benumbed.


Except that now and then you see the curtain
of the pupils in dead silence rise—
an image enters, passes through the shoulders’ tight-drawn
stillness to the heart, and dies.

Answer 4

I don't have just one but the few that immediately come to mind are Edna St.Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth...Ashes of Life by Edna St.Vincent Millay is my favorite poem by her, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Frost, and Daffodils by Wordsworth

Answer 5

William Ernest Henley- I love Invictus

Answer 6

I have a few that I like for different reasons.

I really like Elizabeth Browning for her use of imagery. I also like Ralph Emerson.

Master of his craft, Edgar Alan Poe is probably my favourite. 'The Raven' is my favourite poem, but I like a lot of his other work as well - such an awesome blend of romance and the macabre. Kick *** short stories too.

I also like Pam Ayers - she is such a talent and very amusing if you ever get to see her live

Answer 7

2- pac shakur. Everyone thinks he is just a rapper but he actully wrote peotry also. People actully say he was one of the greatest peots. He talks about real life and his poems are really deep.

when your hero falls from grace
all fairy tales r uncovered
myths exposed and pain magnified
the greatest pain discovered
u taught me 2 be strong
but im confused 2 c u so weak
u said never 2 give up
and it hurts 2 c u welcome defeat
when ure hero falls so do the stars
and so does the perception of tomorrow
without my hero there is only
me alone 2 deal with my sorrow
your heart ceases 2 work
and your soul is not happy at all
what r u expected 2 do
when ure only hero falls

Tupac Shakur

Answer 8

Emily Dickinson because I think her to be the most creative and most emotive of all who wrote in English.

1129.
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind---

Answer 9

Kahlil Gibran - very elequent, had an incredible outlook on life and even now, 76 years after he died his poems are very meaningful. He was strangely prophetic as well, a lot of what he wrote about came true.

Answer 10

A A Milne Winnie the Pooh because it was understandable---not mushy---not sad---not stiff.Because it was enjoyable