What is your favorite poem?

Question

I just want to know why you like this poem and what you think of when you read it.

Answer 1

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

-- Robert Frost


To me, this poem always made me thankful for the beauty in life itself.

Answer 2

I carry your heart with me(I carry it in
my heart) I am never without it(anywhere
I go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
I fear
not fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) I want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart(I carry it in my heart)

-- E.E. Cummings

My favorite would definitely have to be "I Carry Your Heart" by E.E Cummings. The poem makes me think of a love so deep nothing can break it. It's such a touching poem...

Answer 3

Mine is a poem called 'Death is nothing at all' by Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918). The reason that i like this poem is because it was writen on a sympathy card that was given to my family when my father passed away. Every time i read it, it brings me comfort and peace!
this is the poem:

'Death is Nothing At All'

Death is nothing at all .I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and You are You. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way that you always used to. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always Laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, Smile, Think of me, Pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity. why should i be out of mind because i am out of sght? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somwhere very near, just around the corner.
All is Well.

Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)

Answer 4

Waste Land....... by TS Eliot. It is so complete, so perfect.... sweeping the philosphies of ancient greeks, to Indian scriptures to modern civilisation..... and the range of metrical styles.... the startling imageries and a host of other poetic devices.... Superb !!! (That is my ideal)

As regrads smaller poems, Kubla Khan by Coleridge is magnificent

But my personal favourite is Rina Singh's Poetiques of Desire (the poet is not very well known, but the poem won second prize in all-India poetry competition some time back.... While reading this poem, I could actually experience the sensuous passion in my mind and body. It was so inviting !!

Robert Frost's Stopping by the Woods..... is another favourite.

You can read some of my poems at this site : http://www.geocities.com/tk_pradhan
to know about my individual preferences, style & idiosyncs...

Answer 5

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN
AWARD-WINNING POET


I wanted a medal and so I went
To the awarding committee vice president
And showed him all my poems and asked
"Would you consider me for the award ?"

'Your poems are all so simple and straight
with no show of style or high intellect'
even a schoolboy can sure understand them
so how can we award you for your poem ?'

So I returned next day with a bunch of new
Poems steeped with philosophy of high brow.
'Ah! the poems now look better,' he said,
'But which party you follow - Right or Left ?'

I frankly said I belong to neither
Whereupon he said, 'Your poems, my sir
Should follow some firebrand doctrine, or else
How can they the jury's mind impress ?'

'Casteism and secularism are leading issues
but you can write on Feminism if you choose !'
So the next day I wrote some new poems based
On sheer madness : "I'm an Anarchist!" I said.

'The poems are terrific, Oh! Now you get
a foreword written by an eminent poet
and launch your book at a public gathering
by a celebrity of some social standing.'

'If my poems are good, then why this pain ?'
I asked him and he answered with disdain :
'Without propaganda, sir, your poetry's as good
As a chair with three legs that ever stood !'

So I went to a dying old poet of repute
And made him sign below a foreword I wrote;
And having had my book launched by a rising
Young politician I wondered : 'Now when the award's coming ?'

'You will get the award,' the vice president said,
'But you've still to do one thing I'm afraid,
'To ensure your book is well received by public
Please get it reviewed by a well-known critic.'

"What's an award to do with a darned critic ?'
I asked in anger, but his answer was chic :
'Your poems are sophisticated - not easy to chew
Only a critic can make clear your point of view!'

I did as directed and at the end
Of a year in autumn a letter was sent
To me declaring they were only too glad
To confer on me their top poetry award.

At a glittering function I received my medal
But I swear, dear reader, before one and all :
As long as I remain in this world
No more poetry, Thanks ! No more award !

****

Dr Tapan Kumar Pradhan

Answer 6

This is my favorite poem. It reminds me that just because everyone else thinks you're a little crazy, doesn't mean you should change.

Emily Dickinson

MUCH madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
’T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails. 5
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur,—you ’re straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

Answer 7

I love this poem. It's my favorite. I have it hanging on the wall in a beautiful oval, shinny brass frame. It hangs next to our marriage license and a picture of my husband and me. We have been married for 49 wonderful years. This poem is a description of our life together.

Take my hand and walk with me,
across the sands of time;
Hand in hand and heart to heart.
Husband . . . friend of mine.

We will share the solitude.
And walk in quiet peace.
My heart hears what your heart says,
it listens when yours speaks.

We’ve shared hearts and souls as one,
in perfect harmony;
The laughter and the tears we’ve known,
Are the sweetest melody.

For years have brought us to this place.
Across the sands of time;
We’ll walk together, till the end.
Husband . . . friend of mine.

There are times when I read it, it brings a tear or two to my eyes. They are tears of joy.

I have watched others read it and cry real tears.

Some have said the poem made them look at their marriage a little different after reading.

Thanks for the question. It brings sweet memories to me.

Answer 8

This is like a totally Australian poem but I just love My Country by Dorothy Mackellar.

The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

It just has so much imagery and reminds me about the ups and downs of life. It has juxtaposition and everything.

Answer 9

it's e. a poe's EL DORADO..
i like it as i'm THE KNIGHT IN THIS POEM
AND EL DORADO..is MY OWN SELF AND MY AIM IN MA LIFE...
PLZ, READ THIS....
Edgar Allan Poe: El Dorado


Gaily bedight,
A gallant night
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of El Dorado.


But he grew old --
This knight so bold --
And -- o'er his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like El Dorado.


And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow --
"Shadow," said he,
"Where can it be --
This land of El Dorado?"


"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied --
"If you seek for El Dorado."

Answer 10

I like the one about the spray can that refused to put out cause it wuzza tease.