Greatest poem of all time?

Question

For my english class, I need to select a poem to present to the class. It needs to have a plethora of various literary elements and preferably several meanings beyond the surface one.

I want to do Robert Frost- Fire and Ice

What other poems would you reccomend that are not as cliched, but nonetheless excellent literary feats

Thank

I say "greatest poem" as a figure of speech. I am a huge fan of peotry and know that no such poem exists

Answer 1

Theres too many kids in the tub
Theres too many elbows to scrub
I just washed a behind that im sure wasn't mine
Theres too many kids in the tub

HAHA just kidding. I read this in a book when I was little.

Answer 2

Since it's an English Class...and you've asked for the greatest poem of all time (which has yet to be written), perhaps you'd settle for the most widely read poem in the English language..."The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". The poem is quiet long (75 stanzas in the first edition), but there are sections you could select as examples...many of them quite famous, such as:

Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough
A flask of wine, a book of verse and thou
beside me singing in the wilderness
And wilderness is paradise enow

and

Come, fill the cup, and in the fire of Spring
The Winter garment of repentence fling
The bird of time has but a little way
To fly... and lo! the bird is on the wing

This poem "is" considered a literary feat, especially since it was more than just a translation of the original rubaiyas; he kept the same meter and rhyme scheme, "and" the same theme, but put it all together in English.

Answer 3

Hmm, do you want to do Robert Frost's Fire and Ice or not? I think it has to be a poem of your choice. The "greatest poem of all time" does not exist, I think, or I would simply stop reading. I can give you ideas, but they are my ideas and you might not like them. I like Yeats (The Wild Swans at Coole). What about Dylan Thomas? He wrote well when he was not drunk (or maybe he was). I love "Poem in October" ("It was my thirtieth year to heaven / Woke to my hearing from harbour and neighbour wood..."). It has a "plethora of various literary elements"!

Answer 4

A fun choice might be Jabberwocky by Lewis
Carroll and found as a part of his novel Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. "Jabberwocky" is a poem of nonsense verse. It is generally considered to be one of the greatest nonsense poems written in the English language. This poem is used in many schools to teach students about the use of portmanteaux. A portmanteau is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded meaning. Here is the poem; fun to read, recite, and hear.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

The inspiration for the Jabberwock allegedly came from a tree in the gardens of Christ Church, Oxford, where Carroll was a mathematician (under his real name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). The tree in question is large and ancient with many sprawling, twisted branches somewhat suggestive of tentacles, or the Hydra of Greek mythology.
Although the poem contains many nonsensical words, its structure is perfectly consistent with classic English poetry. The sentence structure is accurate, the poetic forms are observed (e.g. quatrain verse, rhymed, iambic meter), and a "story" is somewhat discernible in the flow of events. To quote Alice, in Through The Looking Glass, "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas – only I don't exactly know what they are!"

There are pronounciation guides at this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabberwocky

Answer 5

Go with a popular song that has multiple meanings. It will be current, up to date, and will surpprise the teacher if you can turn the song into a poetry reading.

All songs have multiple meanings depending on who is listening to that song and their life stories. And all songs are just poetry with music playing in the background. Just find a band like Incubus who are great lyricists and you can pull it off pretty well.

But if you want to go traditional then all the more power to you.

Answer 6

Have you looked at any John Milton? He is very underappreciated and did way more than Paradise Lost. Some of his sonnets were excellent if you take the time to understand them.
Check out "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint." (Sonnet XXIII). It was written after Milton went blind and it's a sweet poem about a dream he had about his late wife. Since he was blind, the only time he could see was in his dreams, hence the last line of the poem "I wak'd; she fled; and day brought back my night." Very touching.

Answer 7

If ---Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Answer 8

Howl. Allen Ginsburg.

Answer 9

Fire and Ice one of my favorites. just go through all of mr. frost's works and you'll find one that fits what you want to do.

http://www.everypoet.com/Archive/poetry/Robert_Frost/robert_frost_contents.htm

Answer 10

all I know is that it begins

with the immortal words

the boy stood on the burning deck.......