If you had to pick just one of your favourite poems....?

Question

Who would it be by and why?
Please be specific as to why you have chosen the one that you have.
What feelings did it envoke in you? Did it help you get through a diificult time in your life, etc..

Answer 1

It's hard for me to pick a specific favorite because different poems have had personal meaning to me over the years. But if I have to choose one now that reflects my life at this time it would have to be Dylan Thomas' 'Do Not Go Gentle ...' because I have no intention of ever giving up the ghost until I've done the things I still intend to do!

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Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is night,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and not stray,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Answer 2

Your question took me a while to work through. While there are many poems that could make the cut for me, and while this one is not the best per se. It was one of the first poems I read in a difficult time in my life that not only moved me, but showed me what was possible in poetry. It is called dreamlessly and it is by Charles Bukowski.

dreamlessly

old grey-haired waitresses
in cafes at night
have given it up,
and as I walk down sidewalks of
light and look into windows
of nursing homes
I can see that it is no longer
with them.
I see people sitting on park benches
and I can see by the way they
sit and look
that it is gone.

I see people driving cars
and I see by the way
they drive their cars
that they neither love nor are
loved-
nor do they consider
sex. it is all forgotten
like an old movie.

I see people in department stores and
supermarkets
walking down aisles
buying things
and I can see by the way their clothing
fits them and by the way they walk
and by their faces and their eyes
that they care for nothing
and that nothing cares
for them.

I can see a hundred people a day
who have given up
entirely.

if I go to a racetrack
or a sporting event
I can see thousands
that feel for nothing or
no one
and get no feeling
back.

everywhere I see those who
crave nothing but
food,shelter, and
clothing; they concentraate
on that
dreamlessly.

I do not understand why these people do not
vanish
I do not understand why these people do not
expire
why the clouds
do not murder them
or why the dogs
do not murder them
or why the flowers and the children
do not murder them,
I do not understand

I suppose they are murdered
yet I can't adjust to the
fact of them
because they are so
many.

each day
each night,
there are more of them
in the subways and
in the buildings and
in the parks

they feel no terror
at not loving
or at not
being loved

so many many many
of my fellow
creatures.

--Charles Bukowski

Answer 3

Emily Dickinson's Because I could not stop for death.
I have commited this excelent poem to memory but will not write it out on the premsice that if you desire to read it, it is readily available with a simple yahoo search. I do not see the function of cluttering up this discussion with entire poems when they can be found with minimal effort. Back to your question...I chose this poem because it is thought provoking and that is very important to me, as for what it means to me... this would take far more lines and for that matter time than I am willing to devote here. I apologize for not going into detail but I assure you it is for your own good, because as you can see from this answer I am quite wordy and would be unable to simplify my answer while preserving its integrity.

Answer 4

I have learned some poems which I repeat to myself when things are rough. Here's a beauty from Shakespeare.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date
Some time too hot the eye of heaven shines
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd
And every fair from fair some time declined
By chance or nature's changing face undimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou growest.
As long as men can breathe, or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(repeated from memory - a couple of words may be wrong)

Answer 5

Tennyson's - The Lady Of Shalott.

I like it alot because it's a great story about the heartbreak of a doomed romance.
It's dark but beautiful and I learnt it at school in English class, though I already knew the poem before we were taught it.

Answer 6

If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

The poem has touched me like no other because it was a very simple but profound poem about the act of kindness to others. Just a simple act of kindness will make you understand your purpose in life and that is to love and serve others.

Answer 7

Solitary Reaper by william words worlth i like this poem cauz it has depth n life in it.

Answer 8

'Suppose' - by ee cummings