When I was at school I remember the absolute horror I and my classmates felt when it was announced we were going to spend one third of our English Literature classes on metaphysical poetry.

How grateful I am now, to that teacher who forced us to really look at the poems, as they continue to be my favourite genre to this day. I love the fact you can really analyse them and get deeper meanings as well as just read them on the surface.

If I had to nominate a couple of favourites, they would be To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell and The Relic by John Donne. Though some of the works of George Herbert are also wonderful.

So if you were to nominate a poem or favourite poet, what would it or who would they be?



[ 05-12-2002, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Flapjack44 ]

Oh Yes, John Donne, of course, every time. Like you I was required to study the metaphysical poets and loved them , mainly because of dedicated teaching , by a lady called Helen Morris, who taught English at Homerton, and wrote a book called "Where's That Poem?"). I find something new and delightful every time.It is so refreshing. This from a poet writing in 1600:
------------------------------------------------
For God's sake hold your tongue and let me love,
Or chide my palsy or my gout,
My five grey hairs, or ruined fortune flout,
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve,
Take you a course, get you a place
Observe his honour, or his grace
And the king's real, or his stamped face.
Contemplate what you will,approve,
So you will let me love.
________________________________________________
Thank goodness , I was also required to learn great chunks by heart and recite them.

Whats a metaphysical poem anyway?? I like John Donnes 'Death Be Not Proud' It really made an impression on me when I was at school, since then I have grown to love 'Hurt No Living Thing' by Christina Rosetti although I absolutely hated it when I was a child.

Also there's a poetry book called Fridge over Troubled Water although I can't remember who by but thats really funny too!!

What I see as Metaphysical poets are those who used unusual comparisons in their work,rather far-fetched words to describe feelings especially.Some critics said that this showed they lacked feeling,were too complex and showed some conceit by trying to confuse people by appearing too intellectual, and on a higher plain. To me Donne is the true exponent... I feel the others followed his lead, in wanting to use less 'floral'language and be more down to earth.. What do others think here?

"Hurt No Living Thing" is lovely, I'm going to teach my child that one.

My hero is the wonderful Samuel Taylor Coleridge, his "Kubla Khan" is the longest poem I can recite by heart. One of the most beautiful is "Frost at Midnight", the closing lines are just magical:

"whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet moon".

Dylan Thomas,the Welsh Poet is one of my favourites. Fern Hill is one of the most beautiful but difficult poems I have ever read. His poem Go Not Gently Into That Goodnight which he wrote about the death of his father is one of the most moving ever written-Fight!Fight! against the coming of the night.Marvellous!

A.B. Paterson, commomly known as Banjo, wrote some terrific accounts of life in the Australian bush. 'The Man from Snowy River' still sends a chill down my spine.

For a bit of a giggle, Edmund Lear's Jabberwocky is great, and Spike Milligan wrote poems so corny that they are hilarious.

Oopsy, another double post.

[ May 20, 2002, 05:21 PM: Message edited by: ozzz2002 ]

I like poems that tell a story and that I don't have to think about this metaphysical stuff

I'll go along with Ozzz about Banjo Paterson ... he is my all time favourite and writes mostly in a ballad way, although does have a great love poem called "As Long as Your Eyes are Blue" ( click here to go to my Banjo quiz ).

Another I like is C.J Dennis, another Australian who did some great funny poems like "Triantiwontigongolope" and "The Songs Of A Sentimental Bloke " ... again, very Australian.

Copago.

'a'h dips me lid' to ya. I hope you do not expect any non-Aussies to be able to read C. J. Dennis..

Do you know what the significance of Christmas Day is ar Tangmalangaloo? or Frying Pan's Theology?

Triantiwontigongolope- I have not heard that word since Jezza wore shorts, thanks for the memories

[ May 20, 2002, 10:52 PM: Message edited by: ozzz2002 ]

I knew the Tangmalangaloo one, (the day before the races ) but admit to having to look up Frying Pan's Theology.(shame on me, a Banjo one and all )

Roberts Burns and Edgar Allen Poe are prolly my favorite poets. I love "My Heart's in the Highlands"(Burns) and "Banks of Doon"(also Burns).
Although I like Poe's stories better than his poetry. Ex: I loved "How to Write a Blackwood Article"
Come to think of it, I think I'm going to go look for that....

Wolf

I'm not a fan of traditional poetry, but epic poetry is great.. So, here are some of my favorite epic poets:

Homer (The Iliad and the Odyssey)
Hesiod (Theogony)
Ovid (The Metamorphosis)
Virgil (The Aeneid)

..and many many more

Oh...don't forget the great epics....Song of Roland, Kelavala, Enuma Elish, Poem of Aqhat, Gilgamesh, Mahabarata, Ramayana, etc. etc. There are lots of fun ones!

Has anyone read the poetry of Li Po or Tu Fu? It's really worth a look. Tao Chien (Tao Yuanming) is really the best of the Chinese poets though...with Wang Wei being a distant second. And yes...there are English translations!

Following on from Jazz I'd like to recommend "Pan Tadeusz" by Adam Mickiewicz, the most famous and revered writer in Poland. I've got an excellent translation if anyone would like details, it's very Romantic stuff and VERY readable (he was a huge admirer of Byron).

'Jabberwocky' is one of my all-time favorite poems, but it was written ny Lewis Carrol, a.k.a. Charles Dodson, and apprears in Alice in Wonderland.
I also love Odgen Nash, and Dylan Thomas.

I like the poems by Edgar Allen Poe. My favorite is The Raven. I think it's a really good poem.

moonchild, I think the author of the poem you are referring to (fridge over troubled waters) is Judy Rose...

I too enjoyed Edward Lear's nonsense poetry and Lewis Carroll's poetry in the "Alice" books, both of which I found on my own in grade school. Unfortunately my public school education did not expose me to poetry at all, with the exception of Amy Lowell in High School detention. I was in detention (for skipping my 1st period class), and we all had to copy one of Amy Lowell's poems. I chose "Daffodils", and I liked it so much that I purchased the complete works of Amy Lowell soon after. I wish I had taken a class on poetry at some point in my life so that I could appreciate it better.

Favourite poets? Yes of course. I never got to study English poetry at school and at college most poetswere mangled through the English and American literature classes (2 semesters each). I did get a liking for Frost, though. W.H. Auden we studied at great length and I did come out with a great love of his work. The same goes for the Victorian poets, especially Tennyson. Teaching children I later discovered Ogden Nash, who is really funny.

Favourite poems on the other hand are
'A Man Said to the Universe' by Stephen Crane
'Invictus' by William Ernest Henley
and (yes, probably boring)
'The Road not Taken' by Robert Frost

Take a look at my signature, and you'll know my favorite poet

No, really, I absolutely love Edgar Allan Poe
Since I am German I don't know so many American and English poets (we hardly did poetry in school), and I really can't remember when I started to be interested in Poe. We NEVER talked about him in the English lessons...
Some favorite German poets are Goethe and Schiller, of course, but I like Conrad Ferdinand Meyer the most. He wrote "Vercingetorix" and "Die Füße im Feuer", maybe you've come across these some time.

Richard Brautigan was one of the poets that marked me growing up. I'm not sure how you'd qualify him. It was a California thing I suppose.
My childhood would have to be Lewis Carroll.

Paul Durcan-an amazing Irish poet. If you've never read his stuff, I highly recommend it, I'll put a short verse on here to give you a sneak peak:

"Felicity in Turin"

We met in the Valentino in Turin
And travelled down through Italy by train,
Sleeping together.
I do not mean having sex.
I mean sleeping together.
Of which sexuality is,
And is not, a part.
It is this sleeping together
That is sacred to me.
This yawning together.
You can have sex with anyone
But with whom can you sleep?

I hate you
Because having slept with me
You left me.

I sincerely hope no one was offended by the words. I think this is a poignant and beautiful poem that everyone should read.

There's a memory. Thanks ozzz. Spike Milligan. I used to read everything he published. Sillier than Monty Python! What a giggle.

I didn't appreciate poetry properly untill I went through a period of trying to write the stuff.

My faves are Robert Browning. Not too abstract for my simple brain and brilliant rhythm. Samuel Rodgers is worth reading if you like things of nature and of course Lord Byron and Mr Moore are good starting points.

My favorite poem is 'The Raven' Edgar Allan Poe

'And the raven never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore'