Poetry: where to start..?

[NUT]

Hey up!

I was led here by a link to a Dickens article, and was impressed enough to register. After a quick browse round, it seems that this is a well-grounded and friendly site, and the connection to full texts online is fab.

My first hope for these forums is to find some stimulation regarding poetry. I've just finished school and feel that I haven't quite had the introduction to poetry that I would have ideally liked, in that, although I can analyse a poem and discuss it technically, I've yet to 'fall for' any particular poet or poem.

I know that other people feel incredibly passionate about poetry, and would like to also be able to genuinely connect with a poem, in the same way I can with a novel or play.

I'm not sure if this is to do with what I'm reading, my approach to it, or both, but I'd appreciate any suggestions of where or how I might find a way to kick-start something beautiful!

I presume that to some extent this is to do with experience, but any suggestions of a starting point would be most gratefully received!

Brief biog.: I'm an 18 year old lad from the North of England. Enjoy the theatre when I can afford it, music (listening to, playing, writing), rugby, adventure racing, reading and writing. Am enthusiastic and inquisitive, and enjoy discussing my own and other peoples thoughts and opinions.

I'm currently on a GAP year before studying English Literature at uni, and this exploration of poetry is one of my projects for the year.

Thanks in advance for any feedback, and look forward to seeing you around the site!

NUT :)

[TheFifthElement]

Hi NUT, welcome to Lit-net. I too am from the North of England - are you enjoying the rain? ;)

My advice with poetry is just to read lots of it, and you'll eventually find some that you love. I think in England in general there's a tendancy to study and read the 'classics' which is fine but you can find yourself so busy struggling through the archaic language that you kind of miss the point. However, you might find if you read some more modern poetry it will mean more to you, and affect you more. At the moment I'm loving the Americans (!) Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Theodore Roethke (just discovered - brilliant!), Robert Creeley, Charles Bukowski, William Carlos Williams. Get yourself down the library and try some anthologies, anything published by Bloodaxe is excellent (try 'Being Alive' or 'Staying Alive'), very contemporary, but still beautiful.

Hope this helps & I look forward to seeing you around the site - Fifth :)

[karo]

Hey! I think it's great that you're willing to make the effort with poetry. At 18, I don't think I would've had the patience or the inclination. So, yes, sometimes I think experience helps in our appreciation of poetry just because we can relate better to what we find in poetry since we have experienced it. I guess, in your place, I'd look for poems which deal with issues I was passionate about. They don't have to be the old calssics. There's lots of amateur poetry on the web - people of all ages writing poems on just about any conceivable subject. I'd go there. You might even be encouraged to write some of your own and post them. I've done that, and found it helped no end in my understanding of poetry, life, the universe & everything.

[NUT]

Thanks for the feedback, I suppose that getting stuck in an reading anything I can find is a good start! I've been to the library today, but their poetry's limited 'cos it's only a small one, so I'm going to make some requests for some of those suggestions online. See what turns up!

And karo, I will try and find something presentable in my scraps of notes and ideas to risk on the poetry forum! Thanks for the encouragment :)

[ReynardtheFox]

I'll list you somes poems, check them out and see if you like them. They should all be available online in various places.
1) Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Bells
2) Dickinson - Because I could not stop for death
3) Robert Service - The Cremation of Sam McGee
4) Kipling - Natural Theology
5) Coleridge - The Rime of the ancient Mariner
I's imagine that if you're going to do a English Lit course Renaissance and Romantic poetry will probably be part of the course requirements. Let poetry slow you down, you're meant to enjoy the meandering of the words as they bump up against each other.
Also, Poe always sounds better when read outloud. But close your door or else people in your dorms will think your going mad rattling on about
The tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells