Who is your favorite poet(s) and why?

[Dioltach]

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

You're definitely thinking about "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", which is by Byron. "Childe Roland" is based on an old fairy tale, and is also the basis for Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

Another of my favourite poets is Rupert Brooke. Having spent most of my life abroad, I feel very much connected to his War Sonnet V: "If I should die, think only this of me: that there is some far corner of a foreign field that is forever England ..."

Call me jingoistic, but there's no place like home.

 

[barsoomcore]

He does almost all the work for you.

Agreed a hundred-fold, with the caveat that no other playwright demands as much PHYSICALLY from his actors. In order to successfully deliver those lines, you need vast reserves of energy and you need the training to direct and manage that energy correctly. He does all the intellectual/emotional work, but in order to live up to those lines, you need to do an immense amount of physical work.

 

[Mycanid]

No sir ... I completely agree.

I would even say more - that there are fewer and fewer people nowadays who really have a "home" in the sense of feeling as if they are really part of the land on which they live. It's rare, rare, rare to find someone who feels that way about where they live ... or at least I've met very few. This has nothing to do with "jingoism"!

 

[Huw]

Chaucer. You have to read it in middle English for it to flow properly, but it's worth the effort.

I also like Dr Seuss, but since I'm British some of the rimes simply don't work. I could read it in an American accent, but then my son would give me funny looks

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Chaucer. You have to read it in middle English for it to flow properly, but it's worth the effort.

I also like Dr Seuss, but since I'm British some of the rimes simply don't work. I could read it in an American accent, but then my son would give me funny looks

Ugh. Please bear in mind that I'm an English student working on an advanced degree, but I can't stand Chaucer. I did an individualized study on the Canterbury Tales my senior year as an undergrad, and while I was fine with the Middle English, the sheer tediousness of the arrangements made me want to cry. I understand that it's THE big deal, and I even get why, but I just hated it then. Now that I think of it, though, I said the same thing about Dickens when I was a senior in high school, and when I went back, I enjoyed it. I'll have to try it again.

As for mine (in no particular order)

1. T.S. Eliot. The man. His incoherent rambling can keep you wondering, thinking, laughing, and frustrating yourself for days after a reading.

2. William Carlos Williams. I don't care how much "Red Wheelbarrow" is parodied. His ability to pare a moment down to its essentials is uncanny.

3. Gerard Manly Hopkins. Powerful. His is a very encompassing vision. "God's Grandeur" kicks my head's ass.

4. I've recently been getting into Rilke; Eastern sensibility with a distinctly Western spin.

5. Blake is an insane freak. I love it. Poet or mythologist? Just awesome.

 

[Mycanid]

Spider! I can't tell you how long I laughed at myself as I read your post!

You - my good sir - love all the poets that drive me up the wall! Almost to a "T".

But ... on the other hand, that means we will likely get along famously. I have many friends who have similar tastes in poetry as you and are equally as educated!

Makes me feel stupid and boorish in my literary tastes, that's for sure.... Yet on the other hand I must freely confess that you could not have posted in any other way that would have consoled me more! I hope everything works out with the typing of the module. At least I know that you'll very likely do an EXcellent job of editing my English!

Btw - did you get the stuff I sent you in the mail????

 

[SpiderMonkey]

Spider! I can't tell you how long I laughed at myself as I read your post!

You - my good sir - love all the poets that drive me up the wall! Almost to a "T".

But ... on the other hand, that means we will likely get along famously. I have many friends who have similar tastes in poetry as you and are equally as educated!

Makes me feel stupid and boorish in my literary tastes, that's for sure.... Yet on the other hand I must freely confess that you could not have posted in any other way that would have consoled me more! I hope everything works out with the typing of the module. At least I know that you'll very likely do an EXcellent job of editing my English!

Btw - did you get the stuff I sent you in the mail????

Got it today while I was at work. I got a call from my wife who was confused; I never get mail, let alone 50 pages worth of something.

 

[Mycanid]

Whew! THAT'S a consolation to know.

Sounds like a good idea you said only 50 pages at a time! Imagine what your other half mighta thought if I'd sent all 280-300?!

Sigh ... okay, I'm steeling myself for months long worth of criticisms.

 

[barsoomcore]

Chaucer.

Ooh, yes. And the writer of Gawain and the Green Knight. I guess it's not entirely fair to choose a poet on the basis of ONE poem, but GatGK is very nearly THAT good.

I also like Dr Seuss

We're going to get along just fine, Huw. I can tell.

And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say,
If you look deep enough, you can still see today
Where the Lorax once stood,
Just as long as it could,
Before somebody Lifted the Lorax away.

 

[Huw]

Ugh. Please bear in mind that I'm an English student working on an advanced degree, but I can't stand Chaucer. I did an individualized study on the Canterbury Tales my senior year as an undergrad, and while I was fine with the Middle English, the sheer tediousness of the arrangements made me want to cry.

Understandable. I hated everything I had to read for English literature (except I managed to get the teacher to pick "Weirdstone of Brisingamen" from the popular fiction selection, which I'd already read and enjoyed).

We're going to get along just fine, Huw. I can tell.

Thanks. I've had a rotten day (having to set up both a 390 and a 400 mainframe in the same day is just evil) and you've cheered me up.