Poetry Thread (Book Edition)

Who is the best translator for rilke (and is there a version that have both the translated and original version)?
And what should i get (read: edition of LoG) from Withman? I heard his later works are really lacking.

A Broken Appointment
Related Poem Content Details
By Thomas Hardy
You did not come,
And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb,—
Yet less for loss of your dear presence there
Than that I thus found lacking in your make
That high compassion which can overbear
Reluctance for pure lovingkindness’ sake
Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum,
You did not come.

You love not me,
And love alone can lend you loyalty;
–I know and knew it. But, unto the store
Of human deeds divine in all but name,
Was it not worth a little hour or more
To add yet this: Once you, a woman, came
To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be
You love not me?

>translated by Michael Hamburger

Poetry collection is scattered atm -- in totes and random shelves

Reading: Thomas McGrath, Charles Wright, and Gerard Manley Hopkins

Kudos for Roethke, Thomas, Whitman, and Rilke

S'en aller! S'en aller! Parole de vivants!

They're really not good, though, and Keats and Yeats don't rhyme anyway

Bad taste in poems from the past ~50 years

name some

I'm new to poetry but have recently read collections from Housman, Blake, Kipling, and Yeats. I enjoyed all of which; Housman had tremendous poignance, Blake was visionary, Kipling had great rhythm and command of vernacular, and Yeats had simply some of the most beautiful language I've ever read, even if I only understood a fraction of it. Anyone have a particular poet and collection I should move onto next?

Louis McNeice
Alfred Tennyson

By order of preference:

Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Villon, Hugo, Chénier, Nerval, Verlaine, Corbière, Musset, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Malherbe, Vigny, Leconte de Lisle, Apollinaire, Aubigné, Mallarmé, Valéry.

Add Lautréamont (and no one else) for prose poetry. Didn't include Marot and some others I don't know that much; didn't include Racine, Corneille and other tragedy makers either.

Great collection.

Why so you have do many editions of the divin comedy?

After yeats go to Berryman. I always felt him to be a more morose and modern years without the Irish affections and obsession with magic

It's time for you to embrace the 20th century, man. Il est temps.

Can you link me a decent translation of the testament by Villon all the translations I've read suck

>Add Lautréamont (and no one else) for prose poetry
Éluard? Michaux? Perse? Claudel?

Char?

...

Wonderful collection user, you're a man after my own heart. I'll recommend Stevens, since I'm quite unsure as to why you don't have him already. You might like Auden as well.

How do I into poetry? I've read Homer and appreciated it immensely. But I have a compilation of Milton and Whitman that I've been too daunted to pursue

Off the top of my head (my books are scattered and not at hand right now, so no picture):

Eliot, Pound, Yeats, Crane, Stevens, Merwin, Williams, Rilke, Montale, Leopardi, Ashbery, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Swinburne, Brodsky, Whitman, Lorca, Valery, Blake, Keats

Well, you started in the right place. If you really want to be a completist, then by all means read it chronologically to follow the chain of influence and reference. But good poetry is enjoyable even without full context, so really start with whatever looks enjoyable (it's probably a bad idea to read Paradise Lost without being decently familiar with basic Christian mythology though).

I love Hardy

Nice collection. I would love to find an ebook of Bloom's anthology, it looks so good.

I write poetry, but I want to become better aquatinted with more poems and poets. Among my favorites are E.A. Poe, Sylvia Plath, Cummings, Frost and Tennyson.

Joseph Cadora's translation of New Poems is the single best work of translation I've ever read.

Which would be good channels on YT for poetry and it's authors? You know, like recorded college classes and such.

I'd love to watch this kind of stuff online, but I don't know what to search for since I'm Brazilian.

What is the best intro book that provides an overview of poetry (history, types of poems, critical interpretation, etc.).

The Yale open course videos are good for courses and spokenverse is good for readings of poems.

Poetic designs by Stephen Adams is a great books for the first two but doesn't have critical analysis. I don't know of any book that has both.

And do you know any that's strong on analysis (you know, more than footnotes once in a while)?

I don't understand the dislike for Ginsberg, can somebody explain what you don't like about him? Is it that he is popular?

I've only seen them for individual poems not a general guide. I don't know if there can even be a general guide since poetry is so vast. I suggest just reading lots of poetry and practice. You don't read a poem the same way you read a novel.
Maybe learning about different rhetorical techniques and how/why they are used could improve your understanding. A great book for this is classical rhetoric for the modern student by Corbett.

I'm only asking asking because I'm new to it. Wouldn't it be "il est du temps"?

Here is a test for you alleged Literarians.

Give a short and to the point poem regarding the love a man has for a good woman that is not pretencious or try-hard. It can be self written or a work of another author.

Go.

How about you give us a challenge that you're not obviously going to use a no-true-scotsman response to regardless of what you're shown?

I am actually baiting to see if some one can come up with something unique and over used so I can write it in her birthday card. I am not literarily skilled or a good writer unfortunately.

Tell her how you feel. Say it plainly. Make it crisp and fresh. You don't need to hand her a bouquet in a card.

I don't know how I feel.

>I can't explain how I feel, but my dick can.
Alternatively use lips instead if dick, and kiss her as she reads it.

Poem is titled "1952-1977" by Philip Larkin

In times when nothing stood
but worsened, or grew strange,
there was one constant good:
she did not change.

>In times when nothing stood
>but worsened, or grew strange,
>there was one constant good:
>she did not change.

I like it.

I'm starting to read Paradise Lost and they have a complete course on Milton, simply amazing!
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2103FD9F9D0615B7

That was a great tip, thanks a lot man.

René Char.

We are English.

Paradise Lost is an amazing book, I hope you enjoy it.

I have the complete poetry of T.S. Eliot and I feel like a moron for not understanding anything besides Prufrock.

>Bunting

You beauty.

Asides Sandover, what would people recommended for James Merrill?

"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood." - T.S. Eliot

Eliot is my favorite poet (solely on the merit of his longer, more serious works, most of his short, satirical poems do nothing for me), and I'm far from insightful or intelligent. Read poetry for the feeling of it, not for understanding.

I've read a bit of his stuff, not sure how I feel about him though. Any recs of what you think is his best work?

Here is my attempt at writing poetry to add into my GFs birthday card that is for the 1st July. I don't claim to be good or even educated in the matter beyond GCSE English in the subject, but neither is she.

What do you make of the following:

When I search the depths of my heart,
for non but me to see,
what was discover deep within,
is my love for you with me.

The heart within my chest,
is bound by lock and key,
yet this is no cause for lament,
Nor worry or torment.

For it is a promise of consent,
eminating a candesant aura,
which can only be my love for you,
my beautiful and beloved,
Laura.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Amendments? Advice?

If you gf is worth a shit, she'll appreciate the effort and not care if it's perfect. What matters is the sentiment, user, no need to overthink it.

Have you read the Ariel poems? They are pretty straight forward.
Also, consider his life for context of the poems. For example, ash Wednesday was written after his conversion to Anglicanism. The poem deals with the new faith and the struggle with his identity with within that context. How does he reconcile his poetry and faith?
In the four quartets he finally comes to a kind of serene acceptance of himself and his faith.
Everything prior to ash Wednesday has similar themes to prufrock. Isolation, dry, despair, loneliness, etc. This is seen most clearly in the hollow men. In the wasteland there is hope for redemption, but none can be seen in the hollow men.

Imo after writing the hollow men Eliot either had to change his outlook or kill himself, because it was so bleak.

That is why I want to put effort into it because she will appreciate it and cherish it, she keeps cards from years ago and re-reads them occasionally. I want to make sure the lay out is in good form and it actually makes sense.

I've read them now, and they were easier. I think placing feeling over making sense of it helps a lot in reading them well. I know the story of his life around the time of The Wasteland, though I haven't heard about The Hollow Men. I really did not see anything hopeful in The Wasteland, though.

That's very helpful advice.

The hopefulness comes from the suggestion that he hopes to be able to weather the storm: "These fragments I have shored against my ruins" and "Shantih. Shantih. Shantih." both imply a sort of bittersweet resignation that, while the world will probably end up going to shit, he might be able to preserve some "fragments" of himself.

One of the main reoccurring motifs in the poem is lust and sex without love. Another is forgetting religious dogmas in favor of worldly pleasures.
"The fire sermon" was preached by the buddah against the fires of lust and other passions that prevent their regeneration. This theme is seen in both eastern and western philosophy. That is, the path to redemption is through maintaining discipline and controlling lust.
In "what the thunder said" we see the Fisher king in an arid land contemplating whether he should sacrifice himself for his country - then rain would probably come. This, to me, seems to again show that if we are able to sacrifice and restrain ourselves we can hope to regain a beautiful world.

In short if we can revive morality, discipline and benevolence we can hope for redemption.

Interesting, thanks for the clarification. I noticed that same theme of discipline in Ash Wednesday with how he seems to put the blame on himself.

Guys please don't cringe at me. I'm new to poetry and so far I enjoy Ovid and the bible poetry because its easy to get into. but I've gotten that Harold Bloom best poetry book and the poems generally have way too many references that I'm not familiar with for me to fully appreciate them. So what do you guys recommend me to read in order to appreciate them, or alternatively, what entry level poetry do you think I'd appreciate more? Please be specific and not just "Greeks". Thank you

Briggflats is definitive. Get the Bloodaxe edition with him reciting it and other dvd based goodies.

If you want to understand every reference, get Harold Bloom's Western Canon and read the works listed in chronological order. Plus the Bible, obviously (or some summary or selection of its commonly referenced parts).

Just read what you want, you will likely never get every reference. In most cases the reference or allusions adds to the poem, but doesn't make or break it. If a specific name or something comes up you can always look it up.

It might be my favorite book. I've bought 5 of them. Two for me and 3 as gifts.

>John Crowe Ransom
My nigger

This tbqh
Needs some Wilbur, Heaney, and Ashbury

Heaney is there.

I've read some Ashbury, but didn't really like him. I admit I didn't really understand the poems though.

Why do you retards keep misspelling Ashbery?
Also, it's not surprising you don't understand them, he's a poet writing for academia, total dogshit.

I just bought the Norton anthology of poetry lads. What to expect?

the fugitives are my favorites easily, warren, ransom, fletcher, tate

so damn good

I honestly have a hard time understanding wallace stevens, i dabble every once in a while

nigger I have heaney, i have a collected wilbur too just forgot to show it, and cannot enjoy ashbery

its good, just find shit you like and ignore the rest pretty much

Ὀρφεύς

Honestly the best way to communicate your feelings for her is to write something yourself. Just be you. It's nice to get a well-written poem with finesse, but it's nicer to get something from the soul of the one giving it to you, as corny as it sounds. Like you said just make it non-try-hard-esque and to the point. It's the thought that counts.

are you the pleb formerly known as axe?

if so, paul valery wrote a short play based on the tale of doctor faustus

Thank you for demonstrating your complete ignorance. He's not writing for academia at all, look up his interview with the Paris Review.

Also, by disparaging people for a simple spelling error, you've shown yourself to be a hypocrite as well as an idiot. This is a nice thread, go somewhere else.

>what was discover
do you even english?

>The heart within my chest,
is bound by lock and key,
yet this is no cause for lament,
Nor worry or torment.

cliche.

Don't write for women, shit never works out. If you know she'll think it's sweet then you could write about enemas and it would be fine. If she's more learned than you, then enjoy getting cucked the same day you give it to her.

You think I'm trolling but you're the one who posted pepe, search your heart, you know my words to be true.

Sweet beauty of yours
like heroin through my veins
Sweet words of love
like drums to the ear

By C.W Smith
Your arms like grace
awaiting an embrace
Your eyes like glass
holding water till a fracture
Your mouth so sweet
dancing on my lips in a sing
Your legs were worn
waiting for a rest from the floor
Your breast like money
cause theyre the first thing I notice
just joking about that part
Your sense of humor
very much superior
Your Intelligence
captivating and unjealous
Your cake so sweet
like cheeries on cream
See it isnt just that all these things
Will make everyone see what I see
It's that all these things
Are what mean the most to me
Were like atoms when we come together we are matter
And like matter we cant be destroyed
And like atoms we gas up and explode
into a beautiful secenery
And they'll take pictures
And they'll call it history
But to you and me
Its just a cornerpiece to our masterpiece painting

I don't see how you can qualify that as ignorance.
Also one person did it, which made someone else do it. It's best to correct the mistake before even more people do so. I don't actually think these people are retarded, but, if you can't handle that tone on this board I suggest you go back from where you came from.

thanks ill check it out

can i have some of your money plz?

>Asides Sandover, what would people recommended for James Merrill?
not really sure why you would start with that.

there's a collected poetry volume, it's good from the start, just start reading through it

references don't mean anything on their own. if you are hell-bent on starting with older poetry, just start with donne, merrill, or shakespeare's sonnets. otherwise look around at contemporary poetry that has won prizes. ashbery may be a little bit too out there for you right now, but you could try siken or gluck

ashbery is pretty good and i'm not really part of academia, although it's subjective i guess. not really sure how you could conclude that he's "total dogshit" though, a lot of what he did was pretty innovative in a more or less objective sense.

idk a lot of stuff that you don't like, maybe a little that you do. just kind of pick and choose and move through it quickly. use it to find more poets/schools that you like

A heard that ashbery won a poetry competition and later the judge (himself a well known poet) admitted he didn't understand the poem.

ok

terrible

It was Auden, and it was a book of poetry, not a single poem. Doesn't matter though, in my opinion at least. As Eliot himself says (), poetry isn't necessarily about understanding.