FAVOURITE POETRY

[missanonymous]

Well, obviously Shakespeare is a genius. Not only his actual sonnets and poems, but his books are also arguably poetry. Rhyming, iambic pentameter, he's phenomenal! I mean, it's hard enough to write a book, let alone making the majority of the text rhyme and follow the iambic pentameter!

[shanson1]

Shakespeare, Poe, E.E. Cummings, W. H. Auden, and most especially Bukowski...

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
― Charles Bukowski

[tobeywilson]

My favorite poet is Lord Byron (I'm kinda old fashioned). I also a recent piece I love is called OCD. Its absolutely beautiful.

[FunDuhMentalist]

I find it hard not to mention the following poem by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh titled "Because They Flame Is Spent". It is about love that is not returned, yet what matter? Do you stop loving because you are not loved back?

Because thy flame is spent, shall mine grow less,
O bud, O wonder of the opening rose?
Why both my soul and Love it would disgrace
If I could trade in love, begin and close
My long account of passion, like a book
Of merchant’s credit given to be repaid,
Or not returned, struck off with lowering look
Like a bad debt uncritically made.
What thou couldst give, thou gav’st me, one sweet smile
Worth all the sunlight that the years contain,
One month of months when thy sweet spirit awhile
Fluttered o’er mine half-thinking to remain.
What I could give, I gave thee, to my last breath
Immortal love, immovable by death.

[kdtaylor27]

Wait... Does Bob Dylan count?

Your breath is sweet
Your eyes are like two jewels in the sky
Your back is straight, your hair is smooth
On the pillow where you lie
But I don’t sense affection
No gratitude or love
Your loyalty is not to me
But to the stars above

<3 You can't tell me that's not poetry.

Well then I insist on Leonard Cohen

Then I second Cohen. How could I of possibly forget about him?? His music is pure poetry..... and everybody knows!!

You guys forget that Leonard Cohen was a poet first, then a musician. (; His collection "Book of Longing" is a bestseller.

[thsavage2]

One of my favorites is "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell. I just absolutely love everything about it, even though it's just some guy trying to convince his girlfriend to sleep with him. I love saying "Had we but world enough and time..." when I'm feeling rushed. Another vaguely related favorite is John Donne. His puns and (at times) ridiculously raunchy poetry make me laugh, but he can also be ridiculously sweet and eloquent and really seem like a man in love.

I also love Blake, Dickinson, Keats, e e cummings, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Also some of Jonathan Swift's poetry is not just great poetry but great satire as well.

[ipekbunsal]

Well, I love Shakespeare and sadly I did not read other poets a lot in the past.

[annareads]

I love the oldies and basically worship Shakespeare (completely agree with ya, missanonymous), but I've been getting into contemporary poetry lately and some of it is really amazing (once you get away from the angsty Tumblr poets and the esoteric jumble of hypermodern nonsense). Here's one if anyone is curious enough to dive in:

Saturday at the Canal

I was hoping to be happy by seventeen.
School was a sharp check mark in the roll book,
An obnoxious tuba playing at noon because our team
Was going to win at night. The teachers were
Too close to dying to understand. The hallways
Stank of poor grades and unwashed hair. Thus,
A friend and I sat watching the water on Saturday,
Neither of us talking much, just warming ourselves
By hurling large rocks at the dusty ground
And feeling awful because San Francisco was a postcard
On a bedroom wall. We wanted to go there,
Hitchhike under the last migrating birds
And be with people who knew more than three chords
On a guitar. We didn't drink or smoke,
But our hair was shoulder length, wild when
The wind picked up and the shadows of
This loneliness gripped loose dirt. By bus or car,
By the sway of train over a long bridge,
We wanted to get out. The years froze
As we sat on the bank. Our eyes followed the water,
White-tipped but dark underneath, racing out of town.

[zedie12]

My favorites are:
The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning
Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott
and
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

[Deee]

I'm random so I'll go with Edgar Allan Poe's (dream within a dream) and Maya Angelou's (Still I Rise) as two of my favorite poems.

[Williamz]

"Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horror of the shade

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid

.

It matters not how strait the gate

How charged with punishments the scroll

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul."

Invictus, by William Earnest