Who is your favorite poet(s) and why?

[Eridanis]

Shakespeare: more for the plays than the sonnets, but the plays are music, magic and poerty themselves, made all the more powerful for being crafted to be spoken aloud in front of others.

Yeats: Sailing to Byzantium is one of my favorite poems of all time. His verse plays are so formal and lyrical, they are nearly unique.

Emerson: The voice of the learned common man, the distinct voice of America at the moment of its emergence. (Cf. Hawthorne on the prose side.)

Homer: The master. Author of what is still some of the best fantasy fiction ever!

I'm sure there are others. Milton, to me, is like a gigantic feast placed before me when I'm only in the mood for a light snack; I've tried Paradise Lost several times, and while I'm amazed, I guess it's a failing on my part that I can't process sentences that take up twelve or fourteen lines of text. I'm sure I'll grok it eventually. (It took me ten years to "get" Tolkein, so I have faith I'll get it eventually.)

 

[tonym]

Bukowski. Because I enjoy words that peel the meat off your skull.

Tony M

 

[Mycanid]

Great stuff all!

Dioltach ... for some reason I thought Byron wrote about Childe Roland ... but maybe I'm thinking about Childe Harold????

Eridanis ... amazing how different people are! I was able to "grok" Tolkien when I first read him. With Milton though, I actually find that he, like Shakespeare, is much easier to understand if I hear him read aloud, either by myself or others. Books on tape/cd/mp3 are precious helps for this.

Wombat - isn't it wonderful when we can meet a mentor who is able to convey his "taste" and love for the art! I had an English teacher who did the same thing for me in my first senior year in high school (ok, ok ... I failed my senior year b/c of lack of attendance). Her name was Ms. Casberger. She was absolutely crazy - one of those wild, energetic ladies that would have worn those hats with the cherries hanging off them in the early 1900's and recited poetry with dramatic gestures at soirees - and I'll forever be grateful to her for introducing me to Shakespeare in a way that "caught".

 

[barsoomcore]

Whitman's Leaves of Grass has similar fond memories; "I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." Please forgive me if I'm misremembering the source.

You are in fact remembering Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken, not Whitman.

The greatest poet in English is Shakespeare. No question. Hands down. He is smarter, more compassionate, more angry and funnier than anyone else. He frightens me at times, his intellect so overpowering. We're in the middle of our annual "Bard On The Beach" Shakespeare festival here in Vancouver; we've seen Troilus and Cressida and Measure For Measure so far, and tonight is The Winter's Tale and tomorrow is A Midsummer Night's Dream. Fantastic. A great line from Troilus:

'Tis mad idolatry to make the service greater than the god.

Lovely.

My favourite poets include A. A. Milne ("James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree took great care of his mother, though he was only three.") and Lord Byron. This is from Canto Two of Don Juan, and well expresses Byron's particular genius:

5
I said that Juan had been sent to Cadiz
A pretty town, I recollect it well.
'T is there the mart of the colonial trade is
(Or was, before Peru learn'd to rebel),
And such sweet girls -- I mean, such graceful ladies,
Their very walk would make your bosom swell;
I can't describe it, though so much it strike,
Nor liken it -- I never saw the like:

6
An Arab horse, a stately stag, a barb
New broke, a cameleopard, a gazelle,
No -- none of these will do; -- and then their garb!
Their veil and petticoat -- Alas! to dwell
Upon such things would very near absorb
A canto -- then their feet and ankles, -- well,
Thank Heaven I've got no metaphor quite ready
(And so, my sober Muse -- come, let's be steady

7
Chaste Muse! -- well, if you must, you must) -- the veil
Thrown back a moment with the glancing hand,
While the o'erpowering eye, that turns you pale,
Flashes into the heart: -- All sunny land
Of love! when I forget you, may I fail
To -- say my prayers -- but never was there plann'd
A dress through which the eyes give such a volley,
Excepting the Venetian Fazzioli.

I love the way he interrupts himself constantly, undercutting every point his narrator is trying to make. The wonderful thing about Byron's poetry is the extent to which Byron's personality constantly explodes through the writing, demolishing plot and suspense and character in its irrepressible spirit. You get such a sense of energy and playfulness from it. And he's always talking about girls, which makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Mycanid]

You know Barsoom, I know what you mean about Shakespeare being a "frightening intellect" at times.

There is of course, another side to him (as you also mentioned). Back when I was in my first senior year and I was introduced to him in the "right way" by a wonderful english teacher (via the movie of Hamlet with Laurence Olivier acting) for the first time in my life I heard someone articulating things in words I had always felt deeply but did not have the skill to say. It was a revelation to me, and for the first time I really felt: "I'm not alone in the world ... there are others who have felt and thought the same thing's as I have ... and over 400 years ago! I'm not crazy."

So I personally have a lot of gratitude to Shakespeare, and have continued to study, read, enjoy, and attend stage productions of his works until the present day. There is always more to learn from the master bard. And his use of the Elglish language is masterful. The only one who even comes close (about, of a football field away) in my opinion is Charles Dickens ... but that is another subject, eh?

 

[warlord]

Poe and the Beatnick Poets. First Poe is the original emo-poet. All his poems are abouit suffering and pain. The beatniks are just cool. I mean just read Howl and tell me you don't have an urge to become a beatnik yourself.

 

[Seonaid]

My favorite poets are the (English) Romantics. Some I like less than others, but I'm fond of all of them. It has to do with nature, language, lyricism . . .

Shakespeare I never liked until I took an in-depth course senior year of college. Now I'll sing his praises because he definitely is brilliant and beautiful and everything you've ever heard.

"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell because it's shockingly simplistic. It also, for some reason, really resonates with me.

James Wright for the same reason as Jarrell.

 

[James Heard]

Bukowski, Elliot, Thomas, Hughes, Shakespeare, Cummings...It's hard to really nail any one poet down. I certainly don't disapprove of other poets, but those are the ones I tend to return to over and over again. I suppose modern poetry just speaks to me because it walks in the same disjointed, dark halls as my own mind - while Shakespeare pretty much just has a glorious command of language and storytelling while retaining a dark sense of humor.

 

[caudor]

My favorite: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Why?

"Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread.
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread."

 

[Eridanis]

The greatest poet in English is Shakespeare. No question. Hands down. He is smarter, more compassionate, more angry and funnier than anyone else. He frightens me at times, his intellect so overpowering.

Agreed. Part of the genius of Shakespeare is that he does not write down thoughts - his words are written in the language of thought, IYKWIM. As an actor, I prefer performing Shakepeare's plays over any other playwright's; while any other writer will write words to be spoken in service to plot and characterization, S somehow had the ability to put down not only the words the character would say for those reasons, but write them in such a way as the actor is fully living/thinking them, not reciting them. He does almost all the work for you.

(This is one reason I do not hold with those that say S did not write the plays attributed to him; they were obviously written by an actor, for actors, and it shows the first time you commit one to memory. By Occam's Razor, I'll say that the guy whose name is on the title page is indeed the writer. )

Like music, his plays stay in my mind; give me a few moments, and I'll likely be able to recollect a monologue of his that I did fifteen years ago. The words are hard-wired into my brain like they were written to live there.

Byron's particular genius:<snip>

That's a great selection; I felt like I was standing next to him, seeing her. I'll have to explore more from him. Too much to read, too little time...

Edit: BTW, I'm taking your last lines for my new sig, if you don't mind...