Can You Recommend Your Favorite Poets?

[Ethical Edward]

I know "real men" aren't supposed to read poetry (least that's what some guy in a sports bar told me! ) but to tell the truth I need some beauty in my life and I find it lately in the collected works of John Keats. I love the imagery the words bring out in my mind even if I if don't get the full meaning of the poem. Needless to say I want more poets to read so can anyone recommend some of those nearest and dearest to you like Thomas or Tennyson?

 

[ChosenofMystra]

I know "real men" aren't supposed to read poetry (least that's what some guy in a sports bar told me!

That guy sounds like an idiot to me. Anyway, I happen to love poetry so here's some of my favorite poets.

Walt Whitman
Oscar Wilde
William Butler Yeats
William Blake
Langston Hughes
Samuel Coleridge
T.S Elliot
Robert Frost
Emily Dickinson
Sylvia Plath
Alan Ginsburg
Jack Kerouac

Hope you like some of those! I especially recommend Whitman, Wilde and Coleridge.

 

[venray]

Edgar Allen Poe...

 

[ChosenofMystra]

Edgar Allen Poe...

*slaps head* how could I forget Poe!! Thank God Venray here remembered him

 

[Shem the Penman]

Wallace Stevens. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=6576 -- "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" is probably his best known, but I'm particularly fond of "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," "Peter Quince at the Clavier," "The Idea of Order at Key West," and "Disillusionment of 10 O'Clock."

Yeats is a favorite too -- try "Sailing to Byzantium" (http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/781).

I also like William Blake, but he can be very difficult to grasp, especially when he starts delving into his personal mythology. His "Songs of Innocence and Experience" are probably his most accessible, and there are a lot of classics there, like "The Tyger," "The Sick Rose," and "London." http://www.online-literature.com/blake/

A few others that have stuck with me over the years: Browning's "My Last Duchess"; Robinson's "Richard Cory"; Cummings's "next to of course god america i," "i sing of olaf glad and big," "buffalo bill's defunct," and "anyone lived in a pretty how town"; Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," and I'll probably think of several more after I post this...

 

[ChosenofMystra]

I forgot Browning as well!

Try his poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"

Also try the poet Alfonsia Storni...she is wonderful

 

[Strider]

Anyone from the beat generation. I'm also a fan of Rainer Maria Rilke and Wallace Stevens. And Behan, of course.

 

[Ethical Edward]

I love ChosenofMystra's list. And yes I already have the collected works of Edgar Allen Poe already. Yeah that idiot at that dumb bar where I just went to pick up my now ex-girlfriend was just a drunk Yankee fan probably pissed that the Tigers destroyed 'em in the playoffs. Anyway i'm gonna check out that list at Barnes and Noble friday. There's no beauty in my life but reading that John Keats book as I said lets me see some in a world that can be so ugly. Actually I got Keats from the Christian Bale movie Equilibrium where his friend and later he read Keats and then quoted him before he killed the main villian. Great movie!

 

[FeatheryOctopi]

Big Poe fan here too, also Jack Kearoak(misspelled?), William Shakespear, Are musician poets, most music vocals rhyme. If so, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Chris Cornell, Maynard James Keenan, Shannon Hoon, to name a few.

 

[Goodieluver]

Hell, its how men of the good times woo'd a woman, with poetry


for me
Poe
shelley
Lord Byron
arthur rimbaud
shakespear
milton


I can also do musicians but most songs are in a way poetry(even shitty songs) so i dont wanna turn this into another "name your fave band" thread)

 

[Ethical Edward]

I noticed that nobody mentioned Lord Byron. Any reason or was it an oversight? I'm asking because they have a used book of his cheap at the bookstore and it's his completed works. Any thoughts on Lord Byron?

 

[ChosenofMystra]

I forgot about Lord Byron but declined posting it since I had posted so much in this thread already Same thing regarding Percy Shelly.

 

[Deadsea7777]

I know "real men" aren't supposed to read poetry (least that's what some guy in a sports bar told me! ) but to tell the truth I need some beauty in my life and I find it lately in the collected works of John Keats. I love the imagery the words bring out in my mind even if I if don't get the full meaning of the poem. Needless to say I want more poets to read so can anyone recommend some of those nearest and dearest to you like Thomas or Tennyson?

Rudyard Kipling.
Homer
Definitely those two can be read by any real man.

Also the best two form Central and SouthAmerica if you feel exploring:

Pablo Neruda
Ruben Dario.

About the specific topic of love, have you read :Love, "Del l'amour" in its original title by Sthendal? Is not poetry is about love. And one unique piece of exquisite sensibility.
He was also a very brave soldier of the French Revolution and Napoleon, a true man no doubt, of almost feminine sensibility who at 50 years old used to write the names in the beach of the 11 women he has been in love with but never married.

 

[Ethical Edward]

I forgot about Lord Byron but declined posting it since I had posted so much in this thread already Same thing regarding Percy Shelly.

So you endorse Lord Byron then ChosenofMystra cuz I already bought his complete works.

 

[ChosenofMystra]

So you endorse Lord Byron then ChosenofMystra cuz I already bought his complete works.

Sounds like his recommendation was not needed then

 

[Goodieluver]

I noticed that nobody mentioned Lord Byron. Any reason or was it an oversight? I'm asking because they have a used book of his cheap at the bookstore and it's his completed works. Any thoughts on Lord Byron?

:: points to my post like venrays siggy:::

 

[luvgirlsfeet]

Edgar Allen Poe has always been my favorite

 

[Ethical Edward]

:: points to my post like venrays siggy:::

Sorry Goodie. I'm not myself today.

 

[blackfeather]

read charles baudelaire (le poète maudit) and dont forget Gabriela Mistral and Claudia Lars



"O wise among all Angels ordinate,
God foiled of glory, god betrayed by fate,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
O Prince of Exile doomed to heinous wrong,
Who, vanquished, riseth ever stark and strong,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
Thou knowest all, proud king of occult things,
Familiar healer of man's sufferings,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
Thy love wakes thirst for Heaven in one and all:
Leper, pimp, outcast, fool and criminal,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness..!"

C. Baudelaire

 

[ScienceGirl]

My little imput...

I happen to be a fan of Emily Dickinson, Alfred Noyes, and Robert Frost. As for Poe, he is one poet who was never hugged as a child...

 

[Ethical Edward]

read charles baudelaire (le poète maudit) and dont forget Gabriela Mistral and Claudia Lars



"O wise among all Angels ordinate,
God foiled of glory, god betrayed by fate,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
O Prince of Exile doomed to heinous wrong,
Who, vanquished, riseth ever stark and strong,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
Thou knowest all, proud king of occult things,
Familiar healer of man's sufferings,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness!
Thy love wakes thirst for Heaven in one and all:
Leper, pimp, outcast, fool and criminal,
Satan, O pity my long wretchedness..!"

C. Baudelaire

Is that the "Buddy Christ" from Dogma? I've never seen the movie but my friend is a big Kevin Smith fan.

 

[crydun]

I know "real men" aren't supposed to read poetry (least that's what some guy in a sports bar told me! ) but to tell the truth I need some beauty in my life and I find it lately in the collected works of John Keats. I love the imagery the words bring out in my mind even if I if don't get the full meaning of the poem. Needless to say I want more poets to read so can anyone recommend some of those nearest and dearest to you like Thomas or Tennyson?

Keats is who I was going to reccomend. Also, Emily Dickinson and Christina Rosetti.

 

[Redmage]

I recommend Rudyard Kipling. His "Dirge of Dead Sisters" and "Hymn of Breaking Strain" still make me cry. And his soldiers' ballads are good commentary on any war - the current one more than most.

 

[Mastertank1]

Most of My favorites have already been listed, but some have not.

Herewith my list.

Rudyard Kipling (for many, many works.)

H. Rider Haggard (Kipling's cousin and kindred spirit)

Omar Khayyam (in translation from the original Farsi)

Virgil (in translation from the original Latin)

Homer (or the group hidden behind that psuedonym)

Snorri Sturleson (mostly for his "The Elder Edda")

Billy Joel (Yes, his songs are poetry too)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (for "Ulysses" and "The Charge Of The Light Brigade")

Khalil Gibran (very thought provoking stuff)

Johnny Cash (especially his later stuff).

And for anyone who says I'm unmanly for liking poetry, I challenege you to a duel, to the death, with endless Dim Sum platters at the Wok 'n' Roll in downtown Pittsburgh as the weapons! Beer optional.

 

[ChosenofMystra]

Don't forget Dante and his "Divine Comedy" or Milton's "Paradise Lost"

Both of those are deeply profound in my humble opinion.