What do you think about poetry? Do you read it regularly? If so, do you have a favorite poet or poem?
I read the poetry Pulitzer winner every year. It is hard reading for me but I am glad that I do that.
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I do read poetry from time to time. Among my favorite adult poets are Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickenson, and from my childhood Eugene Fields, Shel Silverstein, and Walter de la Mare.
Poetry allows the reader to decipher the meaning, but also attach personal meaning because of how the words touch the heart.
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Haha, looks like this is a popular topic! I truly expected more people to chime in here.
Personally, I don’t get poetry. Never have. I think my mind is too left-brain to appreciate it. I admire people who enjoy the genre, but I’m not one of 'em.
I do have a favorite poem, though, and it’s because it’s my mother’s: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. I memorized it in elementary school and still remember it. I also remember bits & pieces of Ogden Nash (“If called by a panther, don’t anther”) and Shel Silverstein from around that era as well.
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I think poetry is tricky - it’s one of those niches where the most accessible poetry to the mainstream isn’t always held in high regard by poets, while the most critically acclaimed poetry is typically less accessible to the average reader.
I don’t go out of my way to read poetry but I do enjoy a good collection every now and again.
One of my favorite poems is one that I had to memorize for school, also Robert Frost, Choose Something Like a Star.
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Hi,
I am a new bookbrowser from Paris. Yes i love poetry, mostly classical poetry, French and English. My favorite poets : Whitman, Dickinson, Wright and William Henry Davies with his famous “Leisure”, starting by " 'What is this life if, full of care,/We have no time to stand and stare". I let you discover the remaining part… Thanks for picking up this topics.
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I rarely read poetry too (also very left brain).
Favorite poem? Does “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (aka “Twas the Night Before Christmas”) count? My fifth grade, my English teacher challenged us to memorize and recite this poem in class. Decades later, I can recite the first half and a few random lines from the rest of the poem.
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Welcome Kasi, thanks for sharing!
When I was much younger, I read poetry almost as if I would die without it. Then little by little, I read poetry less and less, until my interest was reignited by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman! I believe my favorite poet will always be Mary Oliver.
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I’m not a poetry reader in the least, although there are a few of the classic poems that I enjoyed: Death Be Not Proud, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, In Flanders Field, etc. And I do love reading Shel Silverstein with my grandchildren. I should force myself to read more, but there is so much more prose that I want to read.
As a retired children’s librarian, I am absolutely delighted, Lana, that you read Shel Silverstein to your grandkids! I would hope you never feel forced to read anything other than what you deeply enjoy.
On the whole, even though I read very little poetry nowadays, the Classics appeal to me because I can actually relate to them on so many different levels. I find much of modern poetry to be somewhat obtuse and unattainable. I suppose in the end, I enjoy poems that initially bring more to me as the reader than I as the reader must bring to them. And it is at that juncture that my interest, enjoyment, and oftentimes even enlightenment occurs.
Hi,
I am impressed by the way how you described poetry and how the Classics contribute to the way you enjoy and appreciate life. I do share your views about Modern poetry, may be i don’t the channel to capture the beauty of modern poetry.
Hope that we can share through this forum poems that we loved and cherished in the days of our youth…