1. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    Who are your go to poets?

    Discussion in 'The Craft of Writing Poetry' started by deadrats, Aug 8, 2022.

    There are certain poet's and poems that I always go back to read again and again. Some I know by heart and will recite. (but only if I'm alone). Elizabeth Bishop has always helped me out. I love that she is a true master of complex forma of poetry and how her words seem to bend and work those words she chooses flawlessly. I'm sure such work took many drafts and multiple revisions. The final products are perfect my mind. After reading her works I was inspired to try my hand at a few sestinas and other forms. I don't think I would have tried to really learn and understand the structure of such complex poetry if she hadn't made it look so easy and feel so important.

    Who are your favorite poets? And what about their poetry calls for you to come back and read it again? I think it would be cool to share are go-to poets and maybe introduced to some others we might be less familiar with if at all. Let's talk about the poetry we like to read and the ways it helps us and our writing?
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2022
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  2. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I don't know a lot about poetry or poets, but a few of the ones I like are Alfred Lord Tennyson, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Frost, and Walt Whitman.

    Tennysson—when I was learning about meter and foot in poetry I ran across a website that used lines from his Idyls of the King (about King Arthur) as examples and I really liked them. Mostly for those elements. The rhythms of it were just really satisfying.

    Shelley mostly for his Ode to the West Wind. Hard to explain why exactly, it just hit me inside in some way that I coudn't ignore. In fact I'm gonna let it go at that for the rest as well—trying to explain what you like about a poem is sort of like dancing about architecture.
     
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  3. Not the Territory

    Not the Territory Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    Roger Mcgough and Mark Van Doren usually have some fun stuff. I like simple structure/schemes, because I'm a simple person.

    Ella Wheeler Wilcox is nice too, actually.
     
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  4. OurJud

    OurJud Contributor Contributor

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    I’m not particularly well read, but William Carlos Williams has probably inspired me more than any other. Although to be fair that is very very few.
     
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  5. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    I don’t know a lot about poetry. There are poems I like by Tennyson, Dickinson, and (particularly) Cummings. Beowulf, if that counts :D
     
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  6. dbesim

    dbesim Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Rudyard Kipling.
     
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  7. evild4ve

    evild4ve Critique is stranger than fiction Supporter Contributor

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    Robert Browning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sidney Keyes, Robert Frost
    I suppose I just pinch scenery from them. They're well-known enough that some readers might notice, and they're the poetic fore-runners of 'new-weird': their scenery is tricky; it's up to stuff.
     
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  8. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    And another vote here for Roger! I'm also partial to Billy Collins for contemporary stuff. And I have a soft spot for this poem, which I recite from memory:

    https://allpoetry.com/poem/8530385-Love-Poem-by-John-Frederick-Nims

    Among the classics, Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. B. Yeats, and Sara Teasdale, and Rainer Maria Rilke are poets whose work I can also recite from memory.

    Among translations, I like John Ciardi's translation of the Divine Comedy and Seamus Heaney's Beowulf. They seem to invoke the spirit of the originals better than word-for-word translations.
     
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  9. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    @JLT I like Heaney's translation of Beowulf but try, also, the new translation by Maria Headley. The narration of the Audible version is particularly good.
     
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  10. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    I'll have to look that one up. Thanks for the tip!
     
  11. Le Panda Du Mal

    Le Panda Du Mal Contributor Contributor

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    The first poets I loved were probably the English romantics, particularly Shelley and Blake. I can recite some Blake poems by heart, and parts of Shelley's To A Skylark which is one of the most beautiful things in the language IMO. I can also recite bits of Paradise Lost by heart. Moving later, I like Yeats' early poems (Song of the Wandering Aengus is another one I memorized) and Wallace Stevens. I tend to prefer extravagant image-laden stuff, so in modern poetry most of my favorites are surrealists- Andre Breton, Joyce Mansour, Benjamin Peret, Lawrence Weisberg, Penelope Rosemont. Among the classical Chinese poets I am particularly fond of Li He, who is not without justification compared to the French symbolist and decadent poets.
     
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  12. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    A wonderful poem, and a wonderful song. I perform it once in a while, accompanying myself on an Irish harp. That's the only way to do it, IMO.
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2022
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  13. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    I have a few Robert Frost, Seamus Heaney, Dante, Catullus and Elizabeth Bishop are ones I always find myself going back to whenever I want something comforting and inspires me to write.

    My Italian just isn't good enough to read Dante in the original yet, I do have it, but my trusty bilingual edition of Catullus is filled with notes and edits after years of reading and rereading.
     
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  14. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    What is your favorite Bishop poem? Mine is probably One Art, though, I love Sestina and many others. But One Art, wow, just wow! And the way she works this complex form is quite amazing.
     
  15. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Questions of Travel, the collection and that poem is one I like the most. Don't know why but I've always been collections minded rather than thinking of individual poems.

    I just love her ability to describe things, and make you feel the warmth of the setting when she's writing about Brazil.
     
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  16. Catriona Grace

    Catriona Grace Mind the thorns Contributor Contest Winner 2022

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    Dorothy Parker, Siegfried Sassoon and Dr. Seuess.

    (Huh. Don't tell ME I'm not a real intellectual. :supercool:)
     
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  17. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Hey, he IS a doctor at least!
     
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  18. pyroglyphian

    pyroglyphian Word Painter

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    William Blake's anarchic and visionary content speaks to me. I'd upvote him purely on London but he has a strong body of work generally.

    I also love Leonard Cohen. Very reliable.
     
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  19. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    I dont have "go to" poets.... But i have memorized a few favorite poems. "I am nobody" by dickinson and "we wear the mask" by paul laurence dunbar for example (ive been know to quote a few sonnets from Shakespeare too)

    Yesterday, i was reading through some poems of Thomas Hardy and gravitated to "The Dead Man Walking". I cant get it out of my head. So ill probably obsessively read it again and again until its committed to memory.
    my favorite stanza is
    "I am but a shape that stands here,
    A pulseless mould,
    A pale past picture, screening
    Ashes gone cold."
     
  20. J.T. Woody

    J.T. Woody Book Witch Contributor

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    I havent heard anyone talk about Catullus since high school! Lol, i took Latin all four years. For my final, i translated one of his poems. I remember liking his poetry... But i cant remember poem names.
    I just know his obsession with Lesbia was humorous and sad
     
  21. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    His poems didn't have names, just numbers. He's very fun and pretty light, but he was also pretty skilled as a lyricist and could be pretty 'deep' when he waited to do that, and not complaining about Lesbia or calling people names, or something.

    And funny too. I like the one basically saying "Sure, we can have the party at my house. So long as you bring all the food, the wine, the music, and everything else", haha.
     
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  22. Aceldama

    Aceldama free servant Contributor

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    Currently Reading::
    The bible
    Edgar Allen Poe is my favorite poet. Dream within a dream and Annabelle Lee are my favorite poems, along with Rudyard Kiplings 'if'.

    Besides Poe, theres Kipling, Robert Frost. Lord Tennyson. I also recently got the complete works of Li Qingzhao. A chinese woman who was a poet during the Song dynasty. Some of her free verse is some of the best poetry I've ever read. And I'm much more inclined towards traditional verse.
     
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  23. GrahamLewis

    GrahamLewis Seeking the bigger self Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Contest Winner 2022

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    Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
    Stephen Spender, Gary Snyder, Ted Kooser, Poe, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth, myriad ancient Chinese poets.
     
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  24. dbesim

    dbesim Moderator Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Also I forgot to mention Simon Armitage because I’m going to see him perform in the 13 th of next month! Woo.
     
  25. Username Required

    Username Required Active Member

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    The ones I keep going to are the same ones who are my main influences.

    Poets of the past: William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, Georges Brassens
    Living poets: Susan Jarvis Bryant, Brian Yapko
     

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