who's your favorite poet? why?

[andave_ya]

Haven't read very much, but Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke. The War Poets.

[JohnMelmoth]

I have a soft spot for the poetry of A.E. Housman. He suffered from unrequited love and so did I. He was a great comfort when I was in trouble.

[regularjoe]

Mine are : Shakespeare's sonnets (obviously).
I also love John Donne, George Herbert,Milton and Poe. I love some of Marvell's works but generally find him rather difficult to appreciate.

[Dark Lady]

I agree with a lot of the choices posted in the thread so far; there are some really good poets here. If I had to pick one I think at the moment I would have to go for William Blake. This is likely to change, though, since if I'd answered the same question a few months ago I'd have probably answered TS Eliot. A few months before that and I may have said Marvell or Donne. Shakespeare is always near the top, too.

[kelby_lake]

T.S. Eliot. Difficulty and obscurity aside, I find his poetry to be some of the most affecting work I have ever read.

Agreed. I can see the influence on Lolita. Although his poems got a bit tedious when they started going overly religious.

I quite like Hardy's poems actually, especially Neutral Tones.

I'm more of a person who likes individual poems: To An Athlete Dying Young, The Tyger, Remember (by Christina Rosetti)...

[Wilde woman]

I cannot come up with a single favorite. But recently, I've 'discovered' G.M. Hopkins and I find his sprung rhythm VERY exciting. I enjoy the way he coins hyphenated words and combines them with unusual rhythms and striking imagery to create a really fresh, vivacious brand of poetry. For me, it's very compelling.

I love Blake, for his deceptively simple songs. Also Keats and Tennyson...who, for me, are the quintessential Romantic poets. And in the Classical vein, Ovid.

[IndigoStorm]

John Keats ... His life was so short that he must hardly have had time to even edit his work and yet he still managed to produce some of the finest work ever written in the English language.

His last poem "Bright Star" written on board ship on his way to Italy where he died, is my favourite.

[Moshu]

I love Robert Frost, I can really make connections with his poetry. Others would be Milton, Lord Byron, Tennyson, Thomas Carew and Ben Johnson. Oh yes, Emily Dickenson and Edna St. Vincent Millay. =D There's so many; and I'm a sucker for classic poetry...

[stlukesguild]

Easily Dante. The Comedia is quite simply unrivaled. I would have no problem with suggesting that it is the single greatest creation in Western literature. Its breadth and depth are equaled only by the collected works of Shakespeare and the Bible. Had Dante not even written this, he would still be a marvelous and important poet. Along with Guido Cavalcanti he brought the sonnet and the sonnet cycle to a new level of depth and complexity. The poems included in the semi-autobiographical La vita nuova are quite marvelous and the entire cycle certainly sets a model for Petrarch, Ronsard Sidney, Spenser, and others.

[Diane Havens]

Pablo Neruda, Franz Wright, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Jane Hirshfield, John Keats, Laurence Ferlinghetti, and so many more

[blithe_spirit]

I never cared much for the War Poets as a group but the poems of Rupert Brooke never fail to move me. Other favourites whose poems have the same effect are Milton, especially 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso'; Matthew Arnold, especially 'The Scholar Gypsy'; Sylvia Plath and, of course, Shakespeare for his sonnets.

[cute angel]

Emily Dickenson

[JBI]

Easily Dante. The Comedia is quite simply unrivaled. I would have no problem with suggesting that it is the single greatest creation in Western literature. Its breadth and depth are equaled only by the collected works of Shakespeare and the Bible. Had Dante not even written this, he would still be a marvelous and important poet. Along with Guido Cavalcanti he brought the sonnet and the sonnet cycle to a new level of depth and complexity. The poems included in the semi-autobiographical La vita nuova are quite marvelous and the entire cycle certainly sets a model for Petrarch, Ronsard Sidney, Spenser, and others.

Hmm, I'd argue the sonnet would have taken form regardless - I don't particularly think its development was as reliant on Dante as other Dolce stil Nuovo poets, or even radical contemporaries like Cecco Angliolieri who certainly worked a lot more of them. Perhaps the cycle is indebted somewhat to Dante, but I think his influence is more essential in other areas - namely linguistics, and a popularization of themes that would dominate poetry up until this day in the West.

The Vita Nuova wouldn't have made such a splash over time (it certainly made a splash in its day) had it not been for its appropriation as a prologue for the Comedia. Still, such subjunctive thought goes nowhere - I will agree though, that he was the master, and to date is probably the most essential poet in Western literature, as you call it (I do not group Homer into this category, because quite simply, his inclusion in Western literature is a mere appropriation).

[Jozanny]

You know, I usually balk at these kind of questions, but if I am going to answer this honestly, my favorite poet is a post-modern atheist named Jerry McGuire, and evidently, stalking him down on Google has informed me that I am still in love with him, which should serve as a warning about honesty. Since he taught me Donne, Donne is my second favorite.

Let me try to add, again, that this board is too conservative; maybe it is natural that students do not read nor seek the influence of living poets, but luke, you know better. Dante is a great poet, but your favorite? In the 21st century? The Comedia is the classic Catholic nightmare, but it is also chock full of petty Florentine blowback. I pricked myself in tracking down my internalized Irish godhead, but at least it was through a contemporary that I learned how to branch out into the canon and the vibrant literary zine culture, one and the same.

[stlukesguild]

Let me try to add, again, that this board is too conservative; maybe it is natural that students do not read nor seek the influence of living poets, but luke, you know better. Dante is a great poet, but your favorite? In the 21st century? The Comedia is the classic Catholic nightmare, but it is also chock full of petty Florentine blowback. I pricked myself in tracking down my internalized Irish godhead, but at least it was through a contemporary that I learned how to branch out into the canon and the vibrant literary zine culture, one and the same.

Jozie... you are assuming that it is a sign of daring to prefer a contemporary as your favorite... and consequently it is proof of conservatism to admit to a preference for an established master. The reality is that I can't imagine finding the same degree of aesthetic pleasure in any Modern or Contemporary poet as I've found in Dante. Who? T.S. Eliot? Rilke? Montale? Neruda? Geoffrey Hill? None of them come close. As I don't turn to art to reinforce my own experiences and thoughts I don't feel a need for a favorite poet to be closer to my own time... my own experience. I have read the Comedia, the Vita Nuova and the sonnets repeatedly. The only poets I imagine as having read as much or as deeply or with as much pleasure would probably include Baudelaire, Rilke, and certainly Blake. By the same token my favorite composer is J.S. Bach... followed by Mozart and Wagner... in spite of the fact that I quite love Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones. I will admit your may be the preference of the artist for the work of another artist of his or her own time. Without the least hesitation I would place Michelangelo at the pinnacle of Western art... followed by Rembrandt and Rubens... but I just might admit to finding Bonnard to be my personal favorite... if not Max Beckmann. I'll also admit that if the question were broader... if we were asked who was our favorite writer... and if Shakespeare, Dante, and Blake were all off limits... I just might go with J.L. Borges.