# Favorite Poems **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671 "2003-09-25T01:54:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DeepPurple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@DeepPurple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepPurple)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/41 "2003-09-27T02:23:50Z")
I love William Carlos Williams, Poe, Emily Dickinson, and these, [We Real Cool Gwendolen Brooks](http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1233) [The Cremation of Sam McGee Robert Service](http://www.potw.org/archive/potw22.html) There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for gold; The Arctic trails have their secret tales That would make your blood run cold; The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, But the queerest they ever did see Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge I cremated Sam McGee. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/42 "2003-09-27T02:56:21Z")
Another vote for A.E. Housman: Her strong enchantments failing, Her towers of fear in wreck, Her limbecks dried of poison And the hot knife at her neck, The Queen of air and darkness Began to shrill and cry, “Oh young man, oh my slayer, Tomorrow you shall die.” Oh Queen of air and darkness, I think 'tis truth you say, And I will die tomorrow, But you will die today. And Stevie Smith: Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning. A fun poetry site is The Poetry Project, found [here](http://www.favoritepoem.org/) ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/43 "2003-09-27T04:16:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Humble Servant \* > \*\*Ha–that’s gotta be the first time a poetry thread has copped two selections in Middle Englysh (as she is goodly spoke). \*\* I had considered posting from “The Faerie Queene” which isn’t Middle English but can still make reading fun. And then I realized that I love the whole damn poem, and quoting the whole damn thing would take a while! Julie ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/44 "2003-09-27T04:30:01Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=40377&highlight=bear+with+a+carrot](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=40377&highlight=bear+with+a+carrot) ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/45 "2003-09-27T05:41:16Z")
While I was walking up the stairs, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today, I wish, I wish, he’d would go away. – Idenity (Movie 5/29/03) ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/46 "2003-09-27T05:45:34Z")
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. [http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV2&byte=2193138](http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=DIV2&byte=2193138) ---
**Author:** ![Hot\_Buttered\_Toast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b38774/32.png) [@Hot\_Buttered\_Toast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hot_Buttered_Toast)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/47 "2003-09-27T06:08:43Z")
Anything from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot, especially Macavity the Mystery Cat. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/48 "2003-09-27T14:21:11Z")
I’m delighted to see that someone has already mentioned “The Garden of Proserpine” (although it is much easier to read with stanza breaks) and “On My First Son.” My nomination would be [Strange Meeting](http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/StrangeMeeting.html), by Wilfred Owen. ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/49 "2003-09-28T03:40:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Katisha \* > \*\*More Middle English for you: the anonymous poem [Against Blacksmiths](http://www.lone-star.net/literature/middle_english/original/thesmiths.htm). This one’s fun. 😃 > > (This site has a bunch of Middle English poems, with translations. Look at the Middle English first, because it’s highly cool. ;)) \*\*That is a nifty site. It includes the poem that is being parodied by the Pound poem **rjk** linked to. > [@](#): > > And how about some Old English while we’re at it? Here’s the wonderfully cryptic poem [Deor](http://www.heorot.dk/deor.html) I just read this somewhere because someone I was reading quoted it (in translation). Does it have anything to do with the Tale of Taliesin? > [@](#): > > I couldn’t find an e-text for John Skelton’s “Speak, Parrot,” which I’ve just encountered recently and am, perversely, beginning to like He did Philip Sparrow too, right? Bit of a bird issue with him, what? ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/50 "2003-09-28T03:54:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Katisha \* > \*\*More Middle English for you: the anonymous poem [Against Blacksmiths](http://www.lone-star.net/literature/middle_english/original/thesmiths.htm). This one’s fun. 😃 > > (This site has a bunch of Middle English poems, with translations. Look at the Middle English first, because it’s highly cool. ;)) \*\*That is a nifty site. It includes the poem that is being parodied by the Pound poem **rjk** linked to. > [@](#): > > And how about some Old English while we’re at it? Here’s the wonderfully cryptic poem [Deor](http://www.heorot.dk/deor.html) I just read this somewhere because someone I was reading quoted it (in translation). Does it have anything to do with the Tale of Taliesin? > [@](#): > > I couldn’t find an e-text for John Skelton’s “Speak, Parrot,” which I’ve just encountered recently and am, perversely, beginning to like He did Philip Sparrow too, right? Bit of a bird issue with him, what? ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/51 "2003-09-29T01:06:22Z")
Holy hamster hairballs. Doubleposted and it still didn’t bump the flippin’ thread. We toil under cruel difficulties. ---
**Author:** ![vengence\_will\_be\_mine.maybe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/58956e/32.png) [@vengence\_will\_be\_mine.maybe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vengence_will_be_mine.maybe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/52 "2003-09-29T03:10:38Z")
ElDorado. And The Road not Taken ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/53 "2003-09-29T03:22:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Humble Servant \* > \*\*He did Philip Sparrow too, right? Bit of a bird issue with him, what? \*\* He certainly did! It’s his best-known poem, probably followed by “Colin Cloute.” Actually, “Colin Cloute” and “Speak, Parrot” are both satirical attacks on Cardinal Wolsey, which sorta continues the bird theme… 😉 Not sure on _Deor_ and the Tale of Taliesin. I’ve done some background reading on the poem, but it was a couple of years ago and I’ve forgotten most of it. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/54 "2003-09-29T06:13:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jsgoddess \* > **And I can’t find a copy of Richard Wilbur’s “A Barred Owl” online, but it is marvelous.** I found it, annotated with a [bit of commentary](http://www.harmonline.net/jerry/archives/000110.html). My first two choices, _The Second Coming_ and _My Last Duchess_, have already been nominated. Here are a few not quite up to that level, but memorable nevertheless: [Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago”](http://www.bartleby.com/165/1.html) [John Updike’s “Ex-Basketball Player”](http://www.nbu.bg/amb/american/6/updike/player.htm) [Langston Hughes’s “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”](http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~keith/poems/rivers.html) [Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”](http://www.ketzle.com/frost/mending.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/55 "2003-09-29T15:33:08Z")
Every time I see lobsters in a supermarket I think of this dreamy poem 🙂 I’ll post the first few lines here. The link to the poem is located at the bottom and is in the middle of that page. **"Lobsters," by Howard Nemerov** Here at the Super Duper, in a glass tank Supplied by a rill of cold fresh water Running down a glass washboard at one end And siphoned off at the other, and so Perpetually renewed, a herd of lobster Is made available to the customer Who may choose whichever one he wants to carry home and drop into boiling water And serve with a sauce of melted butter. Meanwhile, the beauty of strangeness marks These creatures, who move (when they do) With a slow, vague wavering of claws, The somnambulist’s effortless clambering As he crawls over the shell of a dream Resembling himself. Their velvet colors, Mud red, bruise purple, cadaver green Speckled with black, their camouflage at home, Make them conspicuous here in the strong Day-imitating light, the incommensurable Philosophers and at the same time victims … [http://www.writersalmanac.org/docs/01\_04\_02.htm](http://www.writersalmanac.org/docs/01_04_02.htm) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/56 "2003-09-29T18:28:34Z")
My favorites: [The Emperor of Ice Cream](http://users.crocker.com/~lwm/emperor.html) by Wallace Stevens. I just love the phrase “concupiscent curds.” [The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock](http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html) Eliot really was in a class by himself. ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/57 "2003-10-05T15:38:20Z")
And where would a favourite poem thread be without mention of Federico García Lorca’s [Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias](http://boppin.com/lorca/lament.html)? ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2003, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/58 "2003-10-06T04:40:20Z")
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot I sing of Olaf by e.e. cummings The City in the Sea by E.A. Poe I Am Not Yours by Sarah Teasdale The Truth the Dead Know, Snow White, Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound by Ann Sexton Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plaith Macbeth by Willie the Shake Chicago, Four Preludes On Playthings of the Wind by Carl Sandburg Too many, I’ll be here all night. ---
**Author:** ![Dhuwhap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Dhuwhap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dhuwhap)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/59 "2003-10-09T05:39:25Z")
“Somewhere I have never travelled…” by ee cummings. Was cut to the quick when Michael Caine used it as part of an oily seduction in “Hannah and her Sisters”…or was it the shock of recognition? ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671/60 "2003-10-09T13:22:48Z")
I memorised _somewhere i have never traveled_ for my best friend’s wedding this summer. Welcom to the SDMB, **Dhuwhap**. _You took away the oceans and all the room, You gave me my shoe size in earth with bars around it. Where did it get you? Nowhere. You left me my lips, And they shape words, even in silence._ Don’t remember the poet, sorry. Wait! Osip Mandlestrom, I think! I love _The Pulley_ and practically anything Eliot. I think I heard _anyone lived in a pretty how town_ recited about fifty times this summer. It’s good, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-poems/203671.md?page=4)