Which is your favorite poet/poem?

Question

What makes it your favorite? I'm interested in reading some good poetry, so if you have several poets/poems that you think are worth checking out, include them too. Also, please include a website linking to the poet/poem, if you can.

Answer 1

my favorite poem has to be the night mail by w.h.auden

Answer 2

I think "If" by Rudyard Kipling is the best poem ever written, it rhymns and scans perfectly without resorting to hideously twisting the text. The language is a little old fashioned now but still feels fairly natural. It also sums up how I personally feel life should be lived.

If you are not familiar with it, your probably at least know the first line, "If you can keep you head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you"

I also have to confess a bit of affection for John Betchmins, "Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough."
I lived in Slough for many years and it's actually a great town to live and work in, I loved it there. Betchamin was just a pompous snob who didn't like the idea of common people owning property. However it is a very well contructed poem.

Answer 3

I like Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He's a beat poet. His poetry flows and moves and I like his use of mixed up imagery - traditional and starkly modern. His poems also start in one place, but can end somewhere completely different - unexpected but thoughtful.

Christ Climbed Down is one of my favorites. I'll just post the first stanza, but you can check out the whole poem here:
http://www.vex.net/~paulmac/paul/ccd.html

"Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars..."

Answer 4

This is, and always will be, my favorite; I think it is mind-provoking and definitely contains words to live by:

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.


Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.


Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.


You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.


With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.


Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Answer 5

Oh, dear? We only get to pick one poem? I'd have to say "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot. So many great lines "Do I dare to eat a peach?" and "In the room, the women come and go, talking of Michelangelo." Really a wonderful poem, full of pathos and moody scenes. I would also recommend "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell and "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman. Read all of these poets. You won't be disappointed!

Answer 6

My favorite poet has always been Dorothy Parker. Very witty and straight forward. I also love Rumi and Emily Dickinson.

Favorite quote by Dorothy Parker
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

Favorite poem (today) -

Little Words

When you are gone, there is nor bloom nor leaf,
Nor singing sea at night, nor silver birds;
And I can only stare, and shape my grief
In little words.

I cannot conjure loveliness, to drown
The bitter woe that racks my cords apart.
The weary pen that sets my sorrow down
Feeds at my heart.

There is no mercy in the shifting year,
No beauty wraps me tenderly about.
I turn to little words- so you, my dear,
Can spell them out.

Dorothy Parker
http://www.poemhunter.com/dorothy-parker/poems/

Emily Dickinson
http://www.bartleby.com/113/

Rumi
http://www.khamush.com/

Answer 7

"The Mending Wall" by Robert Frost. Think of an ice cube sitting on a stove top. Mr. Frost's poems run on their own melting.


When my children were little --- 2 to 8 years old I read both Dr. Seuss and Shakespeare's Sonnets to them - They took great joy in the cadence of both authors.

Just an idea , for fun!!!

Answer 8

I like the poem "Shades of the Butterfly" by J.L.Ault. I think you can find it at the book website, www.geocities.com/jlault/A_Thorned_Rose.html
along with some other poetry, including her newest one which is really good too, "Finding peace".

Answer 9

Check out poetry by Theodore Roethke. It's modern and beautiful at the same time.

Answer 10

I love humerous poetry. I especially love Robert Service and his poem, "The Creation of Sam McGee."

Answer 11

I like sanskrit poetry and sanskrit poets as they are ancient and are quite natural. They also deal with nature. Among all I like Kalidasa's poetry. You can get their translations in English and German (few).