# Your favourite poem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2001, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107 "2001-10-28T16:16:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/61 "2001-10-30T06:33:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nacho4Sara \* > > > [@](#): > > > > [vitriol] > > How condescending can you be there, Walt? What makes you think that someone who obviously has such a passion for knowledge and learning that he devotes his entire life to expanding the bounds of human knowledge, and who, I might point out, is part of the great tradition that provided enough modern day conveniences for your books to get bound and shipped and delivered so that you could make enough money to live your bohemian pot-smoking existence, what makes you think that he doesn’t enjoy looking at the stars? And in fact, I’ll be that he enjoys it more than you, because he can enjoy it on so many more levels than your glorying-in-your-own-ignorance ass! > > [/vitriol] > > Well, I interpreted this poem totally differently. Whitman isn’t saying that there’s anything wrong with studying astronomy. He is just espousing that there are different sorts of knowledge besides scientific knowledge. > … > If you look at Whitman’s poetry, and his identity as “the Poet of the Future,” then you can see a life marked by scientific advancements and modernity. I doubt he is the only one that questioned how much these discoveries mattered in the grand scheme of things. > \*\* I yield to your superior knowledge of Whitman, although I’ve been convinced that there’s a condescending tone to that poem for so long that I doubt I’ll ever be able to think of it differently. It reminds me of the scene from _Our Town_ in which the stage manager brings on a scientist and asks him about Grover’s Corners, and the scientist gives some boring spiel about the geology of the region, which is, of course, by far the least interesting thing about the town. In both examples I see an implication not only that scientists have their own specialized set of knowledge, but that their eggheaded-ivory-tower nature prevents them from seeing the other, presumably more important, side of things. Am I the only one with that reaction? ---
**Author:** ![alondra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@alondra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alondra)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/62 "2001-10-30T08:21:10Z")
Three of my favorites: Maxine Kumin’s [Morning Swim](http://www.nortonpoets.com/ex/kuminmselected.htm) Theodore Roethke’s [The Waking (1953)](http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=1069) Sharon Olds’ [Sex Without Love](http://www.geocities.com/una_sorella/propoetry/sex_without_love.htm) As well, I’ve always adored Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,” which was already mentioned. I love “Tenderness” **Nacho4Sara** , thank you for posting that. **tavalla** also reminded me of how much I like Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Thanks everyone, for sharing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/63 "2001-11-03T01:43:48Z")
That 29th by Will–I’d forgotten. Great! Thanks to Niobium Knight for bringing in Larkin. But I’d have chosen two others of his, where he so succinctly puts into words a really chilling and almost impossible to grasp reality of the nothing that awaits us. The poems are “Aubade,” and “Next, Please.” They’ll creep you right out. And they are short. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/64 "2001-11-03T03:14:34Z")
[Death of a Young Son by Drowning](http://user.icx.net/~richmond/fgcgathering/poematwood.html) by Margaret Atwood, [The Bear on the Delhi Road](http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/birney/poem4.htm) by Earle Birney, [Punishment](http://www.trireme.com/alan/poetry/punishment.html) by Seamus Heaney all rank as personal favorites for me. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/65 "2001-11-03T04:23:44Z")
My favorite poem by my favorite poet: " Her kind" by Anne Sexton. I have trouble picking favorites, so I feel I should mention the others I adore, too. “I feel as if I am at a dead end” by Allen Ginsberg “Midterm break” by Seamus Heaney “Not waving but drowning” by Stevie Smith “We Talk” by Jewel Kitchner “In this room particularly” by Jim Carroll For the most part, I only like modern and post-modern poetry, which was something than many of the other English majors I knew found offensive and incomprehensible. Sorry, I’m not one for blind adoration of an entire cannon of work, so sue me. Maybe people who kept telling me that one needs be crazy to major in English were right… ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/66 "2001-11-03T06:43:46Z")
When I was a young child, I had a book of poetry, with illustrations. My favorite poem in the book was William Blakes [“The Tiger.”](http://www.bartleby.com/101/489.html) It always makes me shiver to read it. I assume it’s out of copyright but I’ll just post my favorite verse: > [@](#): > > When the stars threw down their spears, > And water’d heaven with their tears, > Did He smile His work to see? > Did He who made the lamb make thee? :eek: I’ve also always liked Emily Dickinson - particularily [If I could stop one heart from breaking](http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/d/dickinson/vain.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/67 "2001-11-03T07:40:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > \*\*Maybe people who kept telling me that one needs be crazy to major in English were right… \*\* No no, the craziness comes from four years of hearing people remark, “Oh, an English major? Planning on becoming a teacher, are ya?” when, in fact, you’re not. Not that that happened to me at all. Nosiree. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/68 "2001-11-03T17:21:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeff \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > > \*\*Maybe people who kept telling me that one needs be crazy to major in English were right… \*\* > > No no, the craziness comes from four years of hearing people remark, “Oh, an English major? Planning on becoming a teacher, are ya?” when, in fact, you’re not. > > Not that that happened to me at all. Nosiree. \*\* You might be onto something there…and the fun never stops. My new favorite question is “You have a degree in English Teaching, why do you teach preschool now?” Because, obviously being someone who: is smaller than most of the teens I know; is often told looks 18 or 19 years old, and is a poor discipliner would be a perfect person to be seen as a classroom authority to 14-18 years olds. Of course the people who ask this are doing things even less connected to their degrees, which is all the more maddening. \ ---
**Author:** ![king\_of\_spain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7cd45c/32.png) [@king\_of\_spain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/king_of_spain)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/69 "2001-11-03T18:39:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > **For the most part, I only like modern and post-modern poetry, which was something than many of the other English majors I knew found offensive and incomprehensible. Sorry, I’m not one for blind adoration of an entire cannon of work, so sue me.** If it makes you feel any better, **elfkin** , you get the exact same crap if you generally _dislike_ postmodern poetry. ---
**Author:** ![Skwerl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Skwerl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skwerl)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107/70 "2001-11-04T01:20:05Z")
I’ve always liked “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by John Donne: No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine: if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-poem/90107.md?page=3)