Ship of Fools: Your favourite poems

Thread: Your favourite poems Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Playing the Poetry Association Game on this board has made me realize that some of the poems I like best aren't ones I previously thought of as favourites, and I've been particularly pleased to be able to quote from them. So I wondered what other people's favourites were, and why they chose those in particular. Is there a particular poet that speaks to you? Or some that you find yourself quoting, or do phrases from any one run through your mind from time to time?

Feel free to link to examples - though probably best not too many, for the sake of the board hosts...

Posted by Taliesin (# 14017) on :

Owl... is my favourite, who flies like a nothing thru the night, who who-ing...

I can quote huge chunks of this, but am aware I must not. [Smile]

No idea of the author.

Eta... I like it for its imagery. I encountered it in a book from a sister, then was very excited to find it in a proper school text book.

Black talons in petrified fur! Cold walnut hands on the case of the brain!

[ 13. August 2014, 17:19: Message edited by: Taliesin ]

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Taliesin:

No idea of the author.

George MacBeth

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

I've always liked the comic twisting of well known poems:

I must go down to the sea again,
To the lonely sea and the sky.
I left my shoes and socks there
I wonder if they're dry?

Milligan

I came across that one when I was a lot, lot younger and have loved it ever since. (Sea Fever is OK too.)

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

I think my all-time favourite poet is Edna St Vincent Millay. She writes better than anyone else I've read about loss and grief. Sometimes there's a spicing of cynicism or bitterness, but there's always worldly wisdom and above all, honesty. Two of her best:
Time does not bring relief
Dirge without music

Posted by the famous rachel (# 1258) on :

I love Carol Ann Duffy, particularly "The World's Wife". My favourite is Mrs Icarus.

I also have to confess to a fondness for Betjeman, particularly that old trope, "A Subaltern’s Love Song" singing the praises of Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.

I love all sorts of more serious stuff as well, but these were what sprang to the top of my mind when I saw a thread about favourites! Not sure what that says about me today...

Rachel.

Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on :

Ogden Nash is one of my favourite poets. What he writes in two lines is brilliant: my failed imitations are just doggerel!

Beside his work and Shakespearean sonnets, I specially like TS Eliot. My favourite in the book we have is The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock which I studied in secondary school.

Posted by ChastMastr (# 716) on :

Definitely Dante (Dorothy Sayers translation for the win!), Spenser, and Milton. <3

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