When we had the “Why don’t you like poetry?” thread not too long ago, I was one of the people who was kind of meh about the whole thing. But I do find I like a kind of poetry. Here are two examples:
Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
The first and last stanza:
And the other one is the poem in the Robert Graves book I, Claudius. Again, first and last stanzas:
They both get points for being clear, concise, non-angsty. They obey rules of symmetry and don’t necessarily have to rhyme but when they do it they do it well. They don’t seem pretentious to me and they both tell a story of sorts.
The second one gets even more points for being a riddle of sorts, with lots of double-meaning, and plays on words.
My question is, what (if anything) is this type of poetry called? Where can I find more like it? I am going to try some of Graves’ works, as someone recommended it in my I, Claudius thread, but I would like to try other stuff as well.
I’ve tried, tried, and tried again to appreciate poetry. It just don’t happen. I know I’m missing a lot, but poetry just seems to me as if someone’s trying to get a point across in some kind of code. Why don’t they just come out and say it?
I’m not academic, so I don’t know the genre, but I personally would call it “didactic”. There are layers of meaning behind the words if you’re looking for it, but the general intent of the poem is never hidden. It’s my favourite style of poetry too.
If you’ve never read any, check out the poems of Seamus Heaney - Follower is a simply written image, that doesn’t seek to obscure its meaning, but is astonishingly powerful.
Another of my favourites is Philip Larkin, who couldn’t be more blunt (“They fuck you up, your mum and dad”), but a little while after you’ve read his stuff, you start going “wha?”
If you like narrative poetry (which seems to be one aspect of the Graves poem you’ve quoted) I’d suggest Robert W. Service. Of course part of the appeal to me is the decidedly warped sense of humor that Service brings to a lot of his poems. Service isn’t really considered a great, literary poet, but an enjoyable poet.
Here’s a few links to some of his poems, mostly my particular favorites. (No coded nonsense, at least.) I should warn you, though, that I tend to enjoy the morbid in poetry. A.E. Houseman is another favorite of mine.
If you like Robert W. Service, and have a filthy mind, there’s always “The Ballad of Eskimo Nell.” I won’t link to it, since not a single stanza is safe for impressionable minds, but it’s wonderful.
The things we do to avoid breaking copyright laws on the Dope. It would have been quicker for me to simply type in the complete poem, than to try to find a web example with just that poem on the page. Egads.
In my mind, a good “didactic” poem has the same effect. I’m not big on abstract art, and that includes poems - but if someone can take a scenario, and while still expressing what that scenario is, inject layers of personal meaning and interpretation into it, I will get so much more out of it than simple prose.
(By the way, I have tried this analogy with my parents, but they still love Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer.)
You might like Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues, as they fit most of your criteria – clear, (relatively) concise, unpretentious, with meter and rhyme, and they tell a story.
Unfortunately, most of the serious poetry I really like is in German. I’ll root around for some recommendations in English and come back later in the week.
I’m going to plug my favorite poet, former poet-laureate Billy Collins. He’s very modern, but aside from that, I find him clear, concise, non-angsty and generally just a rock star of a poet.
Go to your library/local bookstore and take a look at Sailing Alone Around the Room. Fantastic collection. He’s got a new one out called The Trouble with Poetry, but I haven’t read it yet (so no recommendation from me).
Wow, thank you, all kinds of great stuff. I did know about the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and had forgotten about it. Another one I like. I will have to check out all these names. How convenient that I’m going to the library today!
I don’t mind code. I love riddles and puzzles. What I mind, is the sort of self-absorbed angsty crap so much modern poetry seems to be. And you know, let me lump e.e. cummings in there and a bunch of other inchomprehensible poets.
Just for kicks, and having nothing to do with anything else, I’ll share with you a poem that a friend of a friend wrote: The world doesn’t revolve around my clitoris.
but it should.
Any wonder I like Graves’ stuff more?
I seem to recall Bette Midler doing a little poem on a similar vein:
The Mermaid
The question before us,
Is where’s her clitoris?
Another fantastic poem that I’ve recommended often on the SDMB is not quite as didactic as the others, but with a simple “code” to break, powerful imagery, and a witty punchline that you have to think about. It’s by contemporary Scottish poet Don Paterson:
Imperial
Is it normal to get this wet? Baby, I’m frightened —
I cover her mouth with my own;
she lay in my arms till the storm-window brightened
and stood at our heads like a stone.
After months of jaw jaw, determined that neither
win ground, or be handed the edge,
we gave ourselves up, one to the other
like prisoners over a bridge
and no trade was ever so fair or tender;
so where was the flaw in the plan,
the night we lay down on the flag of surrender
and woke on the flag of Japan.
How is that in any way distinguishable from prose? This business of poetry without rules bugs me no end, since it’s the rules that make something poetry in the first place. Now, I’m not saying you specifically need rhyme, or meter, or any other particular rule, but you need some sort of constraint on your writing, or it’s prose. Good prose, maybe, but prose.
