# Suggest some good poetry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867 "2010-07-07T15:16:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Neofio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@Neofio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neofio)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/1 "2010-07-07T15:16:05Z")
Hello all, As an initial qualifier, I’m no expert at the subject at all. I won’t pretend I know good poetry from bad, or what separates high art from what high school students make. What I do know is, I know what I like when I read it. It goes without saying I have no idea where to start on other poets aside from ones I’ve read. Specifically, I’ve liked: T.S. Elliot John Milton I especially enjoy reading them then pausing to look up annotations and critical analysis (basically researching as I read). I like learning about all the hidden meanings and metaphors that basically make up every line (even if I don’t uncover them myself). Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/2 "2010-07-07T15:21:08Z")
If you liked Eliot (one _l_), you should at least try Ezra Pound. But beware: Pound is to Eliot as Picasso is to van Gogh. Similar in a way, but way moreso. Also, if you don’t mind a heapin’ helpin’ of century-old Irish politics with your poetry, you should try W. B. Yeats’ later works. P.S.: What separates good poetry from bad is that good poetry makes the world around you new again. Bad poetry, by and large, merely rehashes tired images you’ve heard used sixteen times before. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/3 "2010-07-07T15:25:03Z")
Charles Bukowski. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/4 "2010-07-07T15:29:50Z")
_Kubla Khan,_ read aloud ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/5 "2010-07-07T15:36:07Z")
Get yourself a fat anthology, and feast from it randomly. I particularly treasure my copy of The Viking Book of Poetry of the English Speaking World. It goes from the earliest known english poetry to the mid 20th-century. You can decide later what poets you want to pay particular attention to. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/6 "2010-07-07T15:47:26Z")
Kipling. Everyone should read Kipling. Not just because he was good - and he was often very good indeed - but because he’s basically 19th-century jingoism in a bottle. He’s an excellent reflection of the values of his times, and probably did more than a little to shape them. Read Kipling! Plus, the stuff still does resonate today. “The Young British Soldier”, for example. [Rudyard Kipling: The Young British Soldier](http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1799.html) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/7 "2010-07-07T15:53:36Z")
I have always loved Poe’s poem [“The Bells”](http://www.online-literature.com/poe/575/) For some reason it’s much less famous than “The Raven”, but its use of the sound of words is even more amazing, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/8 "2010-07-07T15:57:31Z")
I like Billy Collins’ work. He offers some [free downloads here.](http://www.bestcigarette.us/2004/09/downloading_the.html) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/9 "2010-07-07T16:15:34Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Also, if you don’t mind a heapin’ helpin’ of century-old Irish politics with your poetry, you should try W. B. Yeats’ later works. One of my favourites of Yeats’s is [The Stolen Child](http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/816/) - dripping with evocative, bucolic imagery mixed with faery imagery of the sidhe. And [here’s an evocative interpretation of it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg-oJKYIinQ) by the Waterboys, with the poem read by Tomás Mac Eoin. Suggest you listen to the Waterboys’ version before reading it. Sends shivers up my spine. And much less romantic, but no less challenging, is my favourite poem ever, [Imperial](http://www.donpaterson.com/poem_gods_gift_to_women.htm) by Don Paterson (it’s at the bottom of that page). Sort of experimental, yet challenging, and very atmospheric of a certain time in people’s lives. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/10 "2010-07-07T16:28:40Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > I have always loved Poe’s poem [“The Bells”](http://www.online-literature.com/poe/575/) > > For some reason it’s much less famous than “The Raven”, but its use of the sound of words is even more amazing, IMO. Well, just as a warning for anyone who hasn’t encountered the piece before, it is famous among poets as an example of what not to do. It’s brilliantly executed, and therefore illustrates marvelously the cost of over-doing a technique even at the hands of a master. My own take is that the reader’s growing frustration with the perversely indulgent onomatopoeia parallels the slow revelation of the narrator’s madness. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/11 "2010-07-07T16:36:29Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > One of my favourites of Yeats’s is [The Stolen Child](http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/816/) - dripping with evocative, bucolic imagery mixed with faery imagery of the sidhe. And [here’s an evocative interpretation of it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg-oJKYIinQ) by the Waterboys, with the poem read by Tomás Mac Eoin. Suggest you listen to the Waterboys’ version before reading it. Sends shivers up my spine. I would alternatively suggest not ever listening to the Waterboys version. It makes me angry. They broke the poem’s spine to fit it into a mishapen box. But of course tastes vary. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/12 "2010-07-07T16:43:06Z")
The SDMB’s own [Zanthor](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=559317) seems to be channeling Jack Kerouac. Sort of. But seriously…Some of my favorite poets include Charles Olson and e. e. cummings. And I love the aforementioned Billy Collins’ poem “Aristotle”. But if you get the CD/book [Poetry Speaks](http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Speaks-Great-Poets-Tennyson/dp/1570717206), you can hear many poets read their own work, and decide for yourself which you like. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/13 "2010-07-07T16:58:51Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > I have always loved Poe’s poem [“The Bells”](http://www.online-literature.com/poe/575/) Nothing against you personally, but I can’t read Poe. I can’t read any poet who is responsible for single-handedly ruining [an entire meter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochaic_octameter). I feel the same way about [Tennyson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott). FWIW, I’m about halfway 😉 on this. But only about halfway. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/14 "2010-07-07T17:21:32Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Nothing against you personally, but I can’t read Poe. I can’t read any poet who is responsible for single-handedly ruining [an entire meter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trochaic_octameter). > > I feel the same way about [Tennyson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Shalott). Well, having been so negative just lately, I feel odd suddenly defending someone. But first of all, do you mean to say that they both single-handedly ruined trochaic octameter? Second, what are the good examples of trochaic octameter you’re holding them up against? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/15 "2010-07-07T18:26:20Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Well, having been so negative just lately, I feel odd suddenly defending someone. But first of all, do you mean to say that they both single-handedly ruined trochaic octameter? Oh no, of course not. “The Lady of Shalott” is in a different meter. And to be fair, the problem I have with that poem has as much to do with its rhyme scheme as its meter. da-DA-da-DA-da-DA-da-DOT da-DA-the-LA-dy-of-SHA-lott > [@](#): > > Second, what are the good examples of trochaic octameter you’re holding them up against? If you’re taking the contrary position, shouldn’t that be your task? The point I was making was not that there were any other valid, worthwhile examples of trochaic octameter which have somehow been sullied. It’s that the meter is now essentially a closed wing of the building; any poem henceforth written in it will, regardless of its content, sound at best like a parody of “The Raven.” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/16 "2010-07-07T18:36:49Z")
My own favorites are: - The Second Comming (Yeats) [http://www.online-literature.com/donne/780/](http://www.online-literature.com/donne/780/) - The Cremation of Sam McGee (Service) > **[Poem: The Cremation of Sam McGee - Word Information](https://wordinfo.info/unit/2640?letter=C&spage=26)** > > an abnormal way of getting warm in the freezing conditions of a Canadian winter as expressed by Robert Service - Stars, I have Seen Them Fall (Houseman) [http://stuff.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/poetry/poems/stars.html](http://stuff.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/poetry/poems/stars.html) … which I am sure reveals me to be little better than a Neanderthal, poetry-wise. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/17 "2010-07-07T18:41:46Z")
Edit: to the OP, the first and last poem are full of tasty potential for analysis. I particularly like the Houseman poem, because it is so deceptively simple. But what does the author mean by it? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/18 "2010-07-07T18:47:42Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > If you’re taking the contrary position, shouldn’t that be your task? Since I would have cited The Raven as a good example, I would just be begging the question. But if all you’re not saying is that nobody can use the form anymore because the one exemplar looms so large, sure. I’ll buy that. Except that it mostly breaks into quadrameter by Poe’s own caesuras. But, hell, versification is nothing if not a series of linguistic challenges. Maybe this is what we should do next time instead of another damn haiku thread. Write trochaic octameter without sounding like Poe. But, my [Rime Royal](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=19413&highlight=rime+royal) challenge of (wow) a decade ago remains mostly unmet. ---
**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:** [July 7, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/19 "2010-07-07T18:51:02Z")
> [@Neofio](#): > > Specifically, I’ve liked: > > T.S. Elliot > John Milton > > I especially enjoy reading them then pausing to look up annotations and critical analysis (basically researching as I read). I like learning about all the hidden meanings and metaphors that basically make up every line (even if I don’t uncover them myself). > > Suggestions? Well, Eliot and Milton would qualify as dense, multilayered work that might come off as a little dry to some. For the sort of footnotey goodness plus dryness, perhaps try some Alexander Pope. For density, perhaps Edmund Spenser. For sheer complexity, perhaps Ezra Pound. There are lots of ways you can head, and lots of poets who do certain things very well. I don’t tend to be a huge fan of Milton OR Eliot, since my tastes run more toward the sweaty than the cerebral. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867/20 "2010-07-07T19:27:17Z")
For hugely enjoyable satire try Dryden, both the original stuff (Mac Fleckno, The Medal) and his wonderful translations from Juvenal (Satire VI especially) Pope, The Dunciad, one of the funniest poems in the language, densely allusive and it helps to know your Classics, but repays any effort needed a thousandfold. Browning’s huge poem The Ring and the Book - a murder recalled from a dozen different perspectives by a dozen different witnesses, incredible work, impossible to put down once started. Marvell - The Horatian Ode, The Garden, etc The translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses by Arthur Golding, one of the great Elizabethan translations, conveniently available in Penguin form. Marlowe’s Hero and Leander (‘Whoever loved that loved not on first sight’), brilliant poem. God, I could go on for ever. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-some-good-poetry/545867.md?page=2)