# Poetry fans: post (or link) to a favorite non-rhyming poem. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 17, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458 "2012-06-17T21:45:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/1 "2012-06-17T21:45:08Z")
This thread has four rules: 1. Whatever poem you post should not be a rhyming poem. Why? Because there’s no point in playing tennis without a net, that’s why B) The poem(s) you contribute should be a poem you yourself like. Why, you ask? Because, I answer. Ɣ) I’m including links both to the complete poem and to biographies of the poet. But that’s just me being me. So anybody who wants to can read more of it, that’s why. iv) Please respect copyright. It’s kinder to the mods. If I were y’all, I’d err on the side of assuming a given work is not in the public domain (though certain claims made by certain universities about certain dead white chicks named Emily Dickinson are bullshit). I thought about adding a stipulation that people who don’t like poetry shouldn’t post in the thread, but I decided I didn’t care enough. People who insist on thread-shitting will thread-shit no matter what I say anyway. Okay, housekeeping’s done. I’ll start with [“Traveling Through the Dark,”](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/traveling-through-the-dark/) by [William Stafford](http://www.ohs.org/the-oregon-history-project/biographies/William-Stafford.cfm). Here’s the first stanza:[INDENT]Traveling through the dark I found a deer dead on the edge of the Wilson River road. It is usually best to roll them into the canyon: that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead. [/INDENT]Anybody else? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/2 "2012-06-17T22:41:08Z")
I’ve always like **[Bagpipe Music](http://www.artofeurope.com/macneice/mac6.htm)** by Louis MacNiece. It doesn’t rhyme, but works very hard to come damn close without every rhyming. I submit that’s harder than either rhyming or free verse. For pure free verse, William Carlos Williams’s “[This is Just to Say](http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/wcw.plums.html)” is my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/3 "2012-06-17T22:49:26Z")
Well, I don’t really have a “favorite” poem, but since its Father’s Day, I think it’s appropriate to post [Robert Hayden’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hayden) poem, “[Those Winter Sundays](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175758).” The last lines haunt me: _What did I know, what did I know of love’s austere and lonely offices?_ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/4 "2012-06-17T22:51:24Z")
> [@Skara\_Brae](#): > > Well, I don’t really have a “favorite” poem, but since its Father’s Day, I think it’s appropriate to post [Robert Hayden’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hayden) poem, “[Those Winter Sundays](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175758).” > > The last lines haunt me: > _What did I know, what did I know > of love’s austere and lonely offices?_ I wrote “a favorite non-rhyming poem,” not “your favorite non-rhyming poem.” That means a poem you like a lot, not necessarily the one poem you love best. What DO they teach in these schools? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/5 "2012-06-17T22:51:53Z")
[Sitting in a Small Screenhouse on a Summer Morning](http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2001/03/29) by James Wright … Last night I paused at the edge of darkness, And slept with green dew, alone. I have come a long way, to surrender my shadow To the shadow of a horse. Instead of the first stanza, I posted part of the last. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/6 "2012-06-17T23:25:37Z")
_[Picnics](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=499869&postcount=20)_ by Roger McGough. (I googled for it and found my own quotation of it here on the SDMB from 12 years ago… I hope there’s a statute of limitations on quoting an entire single stanza poem). ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/7 "2012-06-18T00:17:46Z")
I’m a big fan of Mary Oliver. A lot of her poems talk about nature, and life, and death. I particularly like [White Owl Flies Into and Out of a Field.](http://www.panhala.net/Archive/White_Owl_Flies.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/8 "2012-06-18T01:30:45Z")
“Arithmetic,” by Carl Sandburg Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head… > **[Arithmetic by Carl Sandburg](https://allpoetry.com/poem/8479245-Arithmetic-by-Carl_Sandburg)** > > Comments & analysis: Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your / head. Also, “A Man Said to the Universe,” by Stephen Crane: “‘However,’ replied the universe…” > **[A Man Said to the Universe by Stephen Crane | Poetry Foundation](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44049/a-man-said-to-the-universe)** > > A man said to the universe: ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/9 "2012-06-18T01:51:13Z")
A co-worker turned me on to this one: [“The Bull Moose”](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-bull-moose/) Rather sad, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Parenchyma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Parenchyma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parenchyma)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/10 "2012-06-18T03:14:27Z")
Since telemarketing has been the theme of many a passionate thread here, I submit [“What I Wouldn’t Do”](http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=110') by Dorianne Laux. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/11 "2012-06-18T09:42:25Z")
James Dickey of _Deliverance_ fame wrote a lot of great poetry. One of my favorite pieces is [Cherry Log Road](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171426). How about the last line but it’s full of great imagery. \*And I to my motorcycle Parked like the soul of the junkyard Restored, a bicycle fleshed With power, and tore off Up Highway 106, continually Drunk on the wind in my mouth, Wringing the handlebar for speed, Wild to be wreckage forever. - ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/12 "2012-06-18T10:14:30Z")
Here’s two for cat lovers: [Landlocked in Fur, 4th one down](http://www.onegodsite.net/Mystics/tukaram.htm) by Tukaram (1608-1649), very modern translation by Daniel Ladinsky. and the more familiar [“For I will consider my cat Jeoffry”](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-i-will-consider-my-cat-jeoffry-excerpt-jubil/) by Christopher Smart (1722-1771) ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/13 "2012-06-18T12:03:10Z")
Out, Out by Robert Frost. It’s not often you find poetry about power tool accidents. > **["Out, Out - " - Robert Frost](https://www.internal.org/Robert_Frost/Out_Out_-_)** > > "Out, Out - " by Robert Frost ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/14 "2012-06-18T13:49:47Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > 1. Whatever poem you post should not be a rhyming poem. Why? Because there’s no point in playing tennis without a net Just to explain, Robert Frost compared writing free verse poetry to playing tennis without a net. He had no problem with non-rhyming poetry, as is demonstrated in his famous (and one of my favorite) poems: [The Mending Wall](http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/15 "2012-06-18T14:15:40Z")
[Hurt Hawks](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182234), by Robinson Jeffers. Excerpt: > [@](#): > > The broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder, > The wing trails like a banner in defeat, > No more to use the sky forever but live with famine > And pain a few days: cat nor coyote > Will shorten the week of waiting for death, there is game without talons. > He stands under the oak-bush and waits > The lame feet of salvation; at night he remembers freedom > And flies in a dream, the dawns ruin it. The poem has a very strong finish, but I didn’t want to spoil it by taking it out of context. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/16 "2012-06-18T14:22:06Z")
Also, because someone else beat me to “Those Winter Sundays,” I’ll double up and throw in Kenneth Fearing’s [Love, 20¢ the First Quarter Mile](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/love-20-the-first-quarter-mile/): Excerpt: > [@](#): > > All right. I may have lied to you and about you, and made a few > pronouncements a bit too sweeping, perhaps, and possibly forgotten > to tag the bases here or there, > And damned your extravagance, and maligned your tastes, and libeled > your relatives, and slandered a few of your friends, > O.K., > Nevertheless, come back. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/17 "2012-06-18T16:44:47Z")
One of my all-time favorites: [The Ode](Arthur William Edgar O’Shaughnessy) by Arthur O’Shaughnessy. Ah crap, I just realized it rhymes. Ah well. I stand by it. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/18 "2012-06-18T16:53:27Z")
Poetry that isn’t tennis without a net, you say, but doesn’t rhyme? How about a sestina? This one is sheer genius! [The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina](http://poetryresponses.pbworks.com/w/page/46118858/%22The%20Shrinking%20Lonesome%20Sestina%22%20%28Miller%20Williams%29) by Miller Williams (that’s Lucinda’s dad, by the way) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/19 "2012-06-18T17:57:20Z")
Another one – I first encountered this one from a link here in the SDMB: [First Writing Since](http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/ac/shammad.html), by Suheir Hammad. [Note: this is a woman of Palestinian extraction writing about 9/11.] Excerpt (fourth stanza): > [@](#): > > first, please god, let it be a mistake, the pilot’s heart failed, the > plane’s engine died. > then please god, let it be a nightmare, wake me now. > please god, after the second plane, please, don’t let it be anyone > who looks like my brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458/20 "2012-06-18T18:07:18Z")
Eating Poetry [http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/99/jrieffel/poetry/strand/eating.html](http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/99/jrieffel/poetry/strand/eating.html) by Mark Strand To the Whore who Took my Poems [http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/charles\_bukowski/poems/12976](http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/charles_bukowski/poems/12976) by Charles Bukowski I like both surrealism and the poetry of stark reality. Sorry for showing the links, but I don’t link very often and am not quite sure how to do it like the rest of you were. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-fans-post-or-link-to-a-favorite-non-rhyming-poem/625458.md?page=2)