# What is your favorite poem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802 "2008-02-08T15:39:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Charley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/97f17d/32.png) [@Charley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charley)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/41 "2008-02-08T19:45:24Z")
I’m also a big fan of Wilfred Owen, but my favourite is [Strange Meeting](http://www.englishverse.com/poems/strange_meeting). This is the one which begins It seems that out of battle I escaped I cried in my English Lit class the first time we read it (it was a set book when I was 16) and I think I’ve cried every time I’ve read it since. It’s the first part of the last passage I love: I am the enemy you killed, my friend. Just sparse, powerful, beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/42 "2008-02-08T19:45:49Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] The Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof. Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep. Rotate your tires. Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself, and heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys. Know what to kiss, and when. Consider that two wrongs never make a right, but that three do. Wherever possible, put people on hold. Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment, and despite the changing fortunes of time, there is always a big future in computer maintainance. [/QUOTE] Sorry but that is from Deteriorata by National Lampoon. [A video of the song version.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1NAwlepnSs) ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/43 "2008-02-08T19:48:55Z")
[QUOTE=DrFidelius] ??? There’s a \*clean \* version? For heaven’s sake, why? [/QUOTE] The [clean version](http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/nantucket_island/104996) may have come first. It dates back at least to 1924. There once was a man from Nantucket Who kept all his cash in a bucket But his daughter named Nan Ran away with a man And as for the bucket, Nantucket. Dirty version: Eh, it practically writes itself. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/44 "2008-02-08T19:54:57Z")
[QUOTE=Love Rhombus] My favorite, which I carry in my wallet yet I don’t know the name or the author anymore… [/QUOTE] **Love Rhombus** , that’s “Ode,” by [Arthur O’Shaughnessy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_O%27Shaughnessy). ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/45 "2008-02-08T19:58:10Z")
[QUOTE=Love Rhombus] My favorite, which I carry in my wallet yet I don’t know the name or the author anymore… [/QUOTE] Looks to be Ode, by Arthur O’Shaughnessy. [http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/6.html](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/6.html) ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/46 "2008-02-08T20:34:40Z")
“He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven” by W.B. Yeats HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. My high school choir did a beautiful arrangement, and it has personal meaning. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/47 "2008-02-08T20:53:18Z")
> [@](#): > > There once was a man from Nantucket > Who kept all his cash in a bucket > But his daughter named Nan > Ran away with a man > And as for the bucket, Nantucket. Don’t forget the sequels: > [@](#): > > Paw followed the pair to Pawtucket > (The man and the girl with his bucket) > And he said to the man, > “Your’re welcome to Nan”, > But as for the bucket, Pawtucket. And the lesser-known: > [@](#): > > Then the pair followed Pa to Manhasset, > Where he still held the cash as an asset, > But Nan and the man > Stole the money and ran, > And as for the bucket, Manhasset. And see here: > **[There once was a man from Nantucket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_once_was_a_man_from_Nantucket)** > > "There once was a man from Nantucket" is the opening line for many limericks, in which the name of the island of Nantucket creates often ribald rhymes and puns. The protagonist in the obscene versions is typically portrayed as well-endowed and hypersexualized. The opening line is so well known that it has been used as a stand-alone joke, implying upcoming obscenities. > The earliest published version appeared in 1879 in The Pearl, Volume 3 (September 1879): > There was a young man of Nantucket. > Who... ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/48 "2008-02-08T21:00:07Z")
I have two favorites at the moment. The first is **To Amarantha; that She Would Dishevell Her Haire** by Richard Lovelace. The last stanza is particularly poignant. The best imagery is in the fourth stanza, though it takes a bit of parsing. Amarantha sweet and faire, Ah brade no more that shining haire! As my curious hand or eye, Hovering round thee, let it flye. Let it flye as unconfin’d As it’s calme ravisher, the winde, Who hath left his darling, th’ East, To wanton o’re that spicie neast. Ev’ry tresse must be confest: But neatly tangled at the best; Like a clue of golden thread, Most excellently ravelled. Doe not then winde up that light In ribands, and o’er-cloud in night, Like the sun in’s early ray; But shake your head, and scatter day. See, 'tis broke! within this grove, The bower and the walkes of love, Weary lye we downe and rest, And fanne each other’s panting breast. Heere wee’ll strippe and coole our fire, In creame below, in milk-baths higher: And when all wells are drawne dry, I’ll drink a teare out of thine eye. Which our very joys shall leave, That sorrowes thus we can deceive; Or our very sorrowes weepe, That joyes so ripe so little keepe. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/49 "2008-02-08T21:01:15Z")
My second is Pablo Neruda’s **Sonnet 27**. Note that this is a translation from the original Spanish. Naked you are simple as one of your hands; Smooth, earthy, small, transparent, round. You’ve moon-lines, apple pathways Naked you are slender as a naked grain of wheat. Naked you are blue as a night in Cuba; You’ve vines and stars in your hair. Naked you are spacious and yellow As summer in a golden church. Naked you are tiny as one of your nails; Curved, subtle, rosy, till the day is born And you withdraw to the underground world. As if down a long tunnel of clothing and of chores; Your clear light dims, gets dressed, drops its leaves, And becomes a naked hand again. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/50 "2008-02-08T21:04:52Z")
Henry Reed’s series “Lessons of the War” ---
**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/51 "2008-02-08T21:15:32Z")
I liked Bagpipe Music but my personal favorite is “The Cremation of Sam Mcgee” by Robert W. Service [http://ingeb.org/songs/thereare.html](http://ingeb.org/songs/thereare.html) I liked it when I was a kid but once I moved it a snowy place it took on special meaning. I’m going to get a professionally framed version when I move to Durango. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/52 "2008-02-08T21:22:22Z")
I’ve got a fondness for Poe’s _The Bells_, though I was shocked to hear that he wrote it as a celebration of the bells, rather than the final scream of someone being driven mad by them. I’m also surprised to see that **WordMan** chose that poem by Stephen Crane - I memorized it years ago, and thought I was the only one to be so affected by it. These days, my favorite poem is Robert W. Service’s [_The Man From El Dorado_](http://www.robertwservice.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=62). The last stanza appeals to me. (Yes, I like my melodrama. :p) V He’s the man from Eldorado, and they found him stiff and dead, Half covered by the freezing ooze and dirt. A clotted Colt was in his hand, a hole was in his head, And he wore an old and oily buckskin shirt. His eyes were fixed and horrible, as one who hails the end; The frost had set him rigid as a log; And there, half lying on his breast, his last and only friend, There crouched and whined a mangy yellow dog. On preview: **Oredigger77** , Brother! ETA: Of course, if you ask me tomorrow you may get a different answer. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/53 "2008-02-08T21:23:18Z")
Funny you should ask this. Just today I ran across this: - As I walked by the dockside one evening so fair To view the still waters and take the salt air, I heard an old fisherman singing this song, Won’t you take me away boys, my time isn’t long. Chorus: Wrap me up in my old oilskins and jumpers, No more on the docks I’ll be seen, Just tell me old shipmates I’m taking a trip, mates, And I’ll see you someday in Fiddler’s Green. ``` On Fiddler’s Green is a place I've heard tell Where fishermen go if they don't go to hell, Where the weather is fair and the dolphins do play, And the cold coast of Greenland is far, far away. (Chorus) Where the sky's always clear and there's never a gale Where the fish jump onboard with a swish of their tails, Where you lie at your leisure, there's no work to do; And the skipper's below making tea for the crew. (Chorus) When you get back in dock and the long trip is through There's pubs and there's clubs and there's lassies there too, Where the girls are all pretty and the beer is all free, And there's bottles of rum growing on every tree (Chorus) Now I don't want a harp nor a halo, not me Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea, And I'll play me old squeeze-box as we sail along, With the wind in the rigging to sing me this song. (Chorus) Just tell me old shipmates I'm taking a trip, mates, I'll see you some day in Fiddler’s Green. * ``` Hear it [set to music](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z26aMM1-3r0). The tune they chose did nothing to disabuse my new found affection. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/54 "2008-02-08T21:32:09Z")
“Fiddler’s Green” is one of my favorite songs. Was it a poem or song first, I wonder? I have a wonderful version of the Frost “Stopping by the Woods” poem set to music. Can’t recall the artist at the moment, tho. The folk show on Wisconsin Public Radio did an entire show recently of poems set to music. Some of the ones mentioned in this thread were included. Was a good concept, I thought ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/55 "2008-02-08T21:32:29Z")
**UncleRojelio** , AIUI, that’s been a traditional seafaring song for ages, now. Alas, Wikipedia disabuses me of [that](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddler%27s_Green): It was apparently written for the 1923 US Army Cavalry manual. I’d always thought it was simply one more iteration of the [_Unfortunate Rake_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_Laredo_%28song%29) series of folk songs. Don’t be surprised that the link goes to the Wikipedia article about _The Streets of Laredo_, it will explain the connection if you read the link. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/56 "2008-02-08T22:20:41Z")
As a devotional poem, this shouldn’t be my style, but I like it anyway: [The Hound of Heaven](http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~gbrandal/Illum_html/hound.html) by Francis Thompson (who I suspect of being Jack the Ripper, but that’s neither here nor there). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/57 "2008-02-08T22:40:31Z")
Here’s Lessons of the War, btw, starting with part one, [“Naming of Parts”](http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html). ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/58 "2008-02-08T22:45:09Z")
Hard to say. Two favorites are both terribly cynical, but start off seeming not at all cynical. First, a Margaret Atwood poem: _We fit together Like hook and eye: A fish hook An open eye_ The second is one of e.e. cummings’s many misanthropic works: [humanity i love you](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/humanity-i-love-you/). He’s got a bunch of them, including several hilariously mean sonnets; they’re tons of nasty fun. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/59 "2008-02-08T22:56:38Z")
Can I pick the entire book “The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills” by Bukowski? They all work together so well that it is hard to pick only one. Excerpt: and she says when I defame her dream: you are trying to pull me down by the wings. I posted a few on my blog [here](http://wereallallwevedone.blogspot.com/) ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802/60 "2008-02-08T23:30:59Z")
I came into this thread thinking “well, I’m not much for poetry but…” and after about the fifth poem I came up with that I really like I’m having to reconsider my stance on the subject. Maybe I really DO like poetry after all! I love this fragment from Swinburne’s “The Garden of Proserpine” \*From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no man lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea. \* I love Poe–especially **The Raven,** which I used for a dramatic reading in high school and got a standing O from the class for. Not the only reason I like it, though. Wallace Stevens’ **The Emperor of Ice Cream** has always been a favorite, the language is so evocative and it just obscures the subject matter enough for it to come getcha later: The Emperor of Ice-Cream \*Call the roller of big cigars, The muscular one, and bid him whip In kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Let the wenches dawdle in such dress As they are used to wear, and let the boys Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers. Let be be finale of seem. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. Take from the dresser of deal, Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet On which she embroidered fantails once And spread it so as to cover her face. If her horny feet protrude, they come To show how cold she is, and dumb. Let the lamp affix its beam. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.\* I’m not really a morbid person, I swear! I have a longstanding fondness for Don Marquis’ archy poems, especially [mehitabel and her kittens,](http://www.donmarquis.com/readingroom/archybooks/kittens.html)which I swear is a perfect encapsulation of my parenting skills… 😛 I love Peter Beagle’s poem “The Way I Behaved” from **The Last Unicorn** and I had a chance to let him know that the poem was quite often performed as a sung piece (to the Welsh tune “The Ash Grove”) which he did not know. He was quite pleased and surprised–and autographed a very nice note into my first edition of **Folk of the Air**. Such a nice man. \*When I was a young man and very well thought of I couldn’t ask aught that the ladies denied I nibbled their hearts like a handful of raisins And I never spoke love but I knew that I lied But I said to myself “Ah, they none of them know The secret I shelter and savor and save I wait for the one who will see through my seeming And I’ll know when I love by the way I behave” The years drifted over like clouds in the heavens The ladies went by me like snow on the wind I charmed and I cheated, deceived and dissembled And I sinned and I sinned and I sinned and I sinned But I said to myself, “Ah, they none of them see There’s part of me pure as the whisk of a wave My lady is late but she’ll find I’ve been faithful And I’ll know when I love by the way I behave” At last came a lady both knowing and tender Saying you’re not at all what they take you to be I betrayed her before she had quite finished speaking And she swallowed cold poison and jumped in the sea And I say to myself when there’s time for a word As I gracefully grow more debauched and depraved “Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved”\* **koeeoaddi** thank you for that sestina–it’s an incredibly difficult verse form and that was a masterful example. **Trunk,** ouch! But wow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/436802.md?page=4)