Poetry
 

Do any of you like poetry? Have you read any poetry outside of school? Have a favourite poem/poet? Ever tried (seriously) writing a poem?

I think GD needs more literary threads.

Re: Poetry
 

I once took a poetry book by mistake (it looked like the book I was reading) onto the train and read it for a couple of hours that day. It was by modern Irish poets. It was not good. I always liked Hopkins in school despite the fact he was as gay as a jam sandwich. The Windhover I rather liked. Alliteration is a marvellous thing.

Re: Poetry
 

I've always liked this one, you have to read it (out loud preferably) in an odd accent.

I imagine it will be familiar to anyone who has done GCSE English, I don't read poetry normally because im culturally dead and stuff.

Excuse me
standing on one leg
I'm half-caste
Explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when picasso
mix red an green
is a half-caste canvas/
explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when light an shadow
mix in de sky
is a half-caste weather/
well in dat case
england weather
nearly always half-caste
in fact some o dem cloud
half-caste till dem overcast
so spiteful dem dont want de sun pass
ah rass/
explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean tchaikovsky
sit down at dah piano
an mix a black key
wid a white key
is a half-caste symphony/
Explain yuself
wha yu mean
Ah listening to yu wid de keen
half of mih ear
Ah lookin at yu wid de keen
half of mih eye
and when I'm introduced to yu
I'm sure you'll
understand
why I offer yu half-a-hand
an when I sleep at night
I close half-a-eye
consequently when I dream
I dream half-a-dream
an when moon begin to glow
I half-caste human being
cast half-a-shadow
but yu must come back tomorrow
wid de whole of yu eye
an de whole of yu ear
an de whole of yu mind
an I will tell yu
de other half
of my story

Re: Poetry
 

REP REP REP REP REP! (I can't rep you atm, sorry :()

Hopkins is very good. Windhover is very good.

I like Heaney, who is modern and Irish. Try The Skunk or Personal Helicon if you can be arsed.

Re: Poetry
 

How strange. I'd completely forgotten that poem, but remembered it once I'd started reading. It is quite clever in a quip-quip kinda way.

Re: Poetry
 

I cant say I'm a particularly big fan, but I like Eliot's Prufrock and a couple of pieces by Pound. However I generally enjoy good writing more when its being used to present ideas, rather than when its just writing for writing's sake. For instance, I would be inclined to classify the philosophy of someone like Wittgenstein as poetry, and I find his work very beautiful.

Re: Poetry
 

i'm obligied to loathe heaney on the basis that we were forced to study it in school.

Re: Poetry
 

I adore Dorothy Parker and dirty limmericks.

Re: Poetry
 

I did my staggeringly great leaving cert essay for poetry on Heaney so I've actually read both of those before. I've just never liked him that much for some reason. I dislike his down-to-earthness and colloquial nature and while he's obviously a fantastic poet it just doesn't appeal to me that much.

Re: Poetry
 

There's two candidates for me. The first is Kipling's IF. The second is less well known - Goblin Market, by Christina Rossetti.

http://classiclit.about.com/library/...tti-goblin.htm

It's quite long but read it anyway. Then think about giving this as a GCSE text to 14/15 year old boys. :D

Re: Poetry
 

That was the most boring piece of shit ever :(

I am not really a fan of poetry though I have read quite a few good war poems. Wilfred Owen is the only one who really sticks in the mind as someone who I have liked more than one thing by.

Re: Poetry
 

Have you read All Quiet on the Western Front? Not poetry, but one of the most affecting things written about war, imo. I liked Owen the most of all poets we studied at A-level.

Re: Poetry
 

yes.

this is something i hold pretty close to me, i never managed to find out who it was by, and it was recited to me by the vocalist of one of my favourite bands (Gatbsys American Dream):

"there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but i'm too tough for him, i say, "stay in there, i'm not going to let anybody see you". there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but i pour whiskey on him and inhale cigarette smoke and the whores and the bartenders and the grocery clerks never know that he's in there. there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but i'm too tough for him, i say, "stay down, do you want to mess me up? you want to screw up the works? you want to blow my book sales in Europe?" there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out but i'm too clever, i only let him out at night sometimes when everybody's asleep. i say, "i know you're there, so don't be sad." then i put him back, but he's singing a little in there, i haven't quite let him die and we sleep together like that with our secret pact and it's nice enough to make a man weep, but i don't weep, do you?"

edit: it's not exactly poetry mind you but still.

Re: Poetry
 

Insanity has loved me

this weekend I fear,
but i never really see
and I never really hear
it coming.

And as I look around
and smile at the debris
scattered on the ground
of my shattered life
I think.

It becomes me though
this eternal melanoma
of my malignant soul.
This cancer of humanity
laid bare.

Re: Poetry
 

I like Pablo Neruda, but I hear it's twice as good in its original launguage. Norway has a cool writer that also did a few poems, Jens Bjørneboe. Apart from those two, I can't really think of any names of poets that I like. I've heard quite a few poems that I liked, but can't link them to names.