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Thread: The greatest poet since Shakespeare

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    The greatest poet since Shakespeare

    Yeats is the greatest poet since Shakespeare according to Michael Longley, how true is this?

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    King of Dreams MorpheusSandman's Avatar
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    Everyone will have their own opinions, but if we're talking in terms of influence and import, then I'm not even sure Yeats would be in the top 5. Personally, I think Milton was was the greatest poet since Shakespeare, and I'd be tempted to even argue he was better. Why? Because Milton explored and perfected more genres and styles than even Shakespeare. Milton wrote THE English epic in Paradise Lost, but he also wrote close-to-definitive examples of the pastoral, elegy, ode, chamber drama, sonnet, and short lyric. After Milton, I think you'd have to put Wordsworth next, given his popularizing of romanticism that still reigns strongly today. After them, I think Blake, Keats, Eliot, and Yeats would all be in the conversation. Given the immense impact The Waste Land made on modern poetry, I'd be tempted to put Eliot 3rd.
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    Alea iacta est. mortalterror's Avatar
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    Best since 1610?
    1.Baudelaire
    2.Milton
    3.Jean Racine
    4.Goethe
    5.Leopardi

    Yeats
    Eliot
    Neruda
    Calderon
    Wordsworth
    Shelley
    Whitman
    Matsuo Basho
    Nguyen Du
    Keats
    Browning
    Tennyson
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    Artist and Bibliophile stlukesguild's Avatar
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    If the term "great" takes into account the poet's impact upon subsequent poetry as well as his or her aesthetic merit (which is far more subjective) I would agree that Goethe, Milton, Wordsworth, Whitman, Baudelaire, Eliot, and Neruda must all make the short list... and quite possibly Blake and Victor Hugo as well. Leopardi, Keats, Shelley, Byron, Browning, Tennyson, Rilke, Rimbaud, Yeats, Garcia-Lorca, Montale, Pessoa, and Wallace Stevens would round out the "runners up".
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    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    I agree with Morpheus that Milton is the greatest since and possibly greatest English language poet (dare I extend it further). Paradise Lost demonstrates the Sublime through and through - from the tantalizing rhetoric of Satan to the inaccessibility of God - so good.

    As far as use of language and subject, I do place Yeats pretty high: he would certainly make my short list.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

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    Litterateur Anton Hermes's Avatar
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    That Ern Malley was the real deal.
    Nothingness - A dark comedy about delusion, bad weather, and a 21st century witch hunt.

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    Artist and Bibliophile stlukesguild's Avatar
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    That Ern Malley was the real deal.

    An amateurish effort at best compared to Thomas Chatterton, James Macpherson, and Pessoa.
    Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
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    Litterateur Anton Hermes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stlukesguild View Post

    An amateurish effort at best compared to Thomas Chatterton, James Macpherson, and Pessoa.
    He aims...he shoots...he misses the joke.
    Nothingness - A dark comedy about delusion, bad weather, and a 21st century witch hunt.

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    Let's face it. It was Donald duck, before and after shake the spear.

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    Artist and Bibliophile stlukesguild's Avatar
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    He aims...he shoots...he misses the joke.

    Unfortunately the "he" who missed the joke is not the "he" he assumes. A bit slow today?
    Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
    The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
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    Unless you are fluent in another language it is very difficult to compare poets from different cultures in a sensible way. So if the question was about English poets then I guess Milton has as good a shout as anyone. Yeats was a flying fruit cake from the off. Now THAT'S a way to get banned. Calling a spade a shovel.

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    Litterateur Anton Hermes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stlukesguild View Post

    Unfortunately the "he" who missed the joke is not the "he" he assumes. A bit slow today?
    It was just a little gag at no one's expense, darling. No need for one of your pompous pronouncements. Or two.
    Nothingness - A dark comedy about delusion, bad weather, and a 21st century witch hunt.

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    Registered User Corona's Avatar
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    I can't say if there's ONE poet one could call the "greatest" after Shakespeare, especially given the number of great poets who came after S. It would be reductive naming just one poet and I believe it also depends on how you define greatness: lyrical beauty, innovation, inventive, variety?
    And another point not to be missed is that, like someone said, it's difficult judging poets from other countries; for language reasons, but also because of the different cultures: it's arguable how much does culture influence art, but it's a given understanding foreign art as a whole require a certain dose of knowledge, so there are too many factors to be take in account.
    By the way: why does everyone always forget mentioning Paul Celan?
    Last edited by Corona; 12-11-2012 at 07:41 AM.

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    Alea iacta est. mortalterror's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ennison View Post
    Unless you are fluent in another language it is very difficult to compare poets from different cultures in a sensible way.
    Oh, is it? I'd never heard that before.
    "So-Crates: The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing." "That's us, dude!"- Bill and Ted
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    No? Well then since the thread assumes Macpherson and Milton can be compared and sensible judgement obtained compare this
    Am faigh mi idir cuibhteas
    Do mo dhroch luchd muinntir fein
    Nach fhag a latha no dh oidhche mi
    S mi air mo dhruim san fheidhe

    To this
    And azure wings, that up they flew so drest
    And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes
    Before the Judge; who thence forth bid thee rest
    And drink thy fill of pure immortal springs.

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