New to poetry

[Evaril]

I'm becoming more and more interested in reading poetry, but I'm such a terrible reader. Could someone recommend a good book on reading poetry? And is there a list of the 'best' poems/poets? I'm having a lot of trouble trying to figure out where to start, where to proceed, and where not to go. Also, my college library subscribes to a huge collection of poetry journals. I'm not sure if I want to delve into them just yet, but I might as well ask now: which journals would you recommend?

[quasimodo1]

to Evaril: It would help to know what kind of poetry you have had any experience with....i.e. before making any recommendations. q1

[Evaril]

I've recently read Homer and a few lyrical poems by Yeats. I enjoyed them but it's difficult to say exactly what my preferences are like since I've only read this much. A wide-ranging recommendation perhaps?

[quasimodo1]

Well, I think Edgar Allen Poe would be a great beginning as he is both excellent and understandable to the new reader of poetry. Much of his poetry has depth and imagery which you might not get at first but try him out. First poem to read...."Ulalume". You can find the text on line or in any good American anthology. q1

[LitNetIsGreat]

I've recently read Homer and a few lyrical poems by Yeats. I enjoyed them but it's difficult to say exactly what my preferences are like since I've only read this much. A wide-ranging recommendation perhaps?

Yes I would read widely at first, different authors from different periods, any anthology that is wide-ranging would do. You don't want to get too bogged down in a particular poet, so personally I would just get a 'feel' for the poems and then you can dig into the area which you are interested in and take it from there.

I would also get a few general 'how to read poetry' type of books, again I would read widely from these sort of books, head down to the library would be my advice. :thumbs_up

[Jozanny]

I'm becoming more and more interested in reading poetry, but I'm such a terrible reader. Could someone recommend a good book on reading poetry? And is there a list of the 'best' poems/poets? I'm having a lot of trouble trying to figure out where to start, where to proceed, and where not to go. Also, my college library subscribes to a huge collection of poetry journals. I'm not sure if I want to delve into them just yet, but I might as well ask now: which journals would you recommend?

The first poet I ever responded to, with no training or background of any sort, was Robert Creeley. I picked up one of his smaller collections, read "The Crow", loved it, and kept a copy taped on my door, until recently. For whatever reason, that brief reading of Creeley marked my determination to join the club--but that random browsing did not spark instructional curiosity.

My advice would be: look up formalism, and discover what makes blank verse blank verse, sonnets, and the like, just to give yourself a sense of differences.

Then develop some awareness of poetic schools. Why is John Donne a metaphysical poet of the late Elizabethean era, but Keats a Romantic? Don't get too caught up in school-groupings, but gradually learn their significance.

Creeley, for instance, was, and perhaps remains, the last living of the more famous Beat poets, and a Beat poet is different from a Modernist, like Allen Tate, or a confessional poet, like Sylvia Plath. Take your time and you'll eventually acclimate if you have sympathies for the genre.

Look at some back issues of Poetry in your library archive. Better yet, let me give you the url (http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/1008/index.html). They publish the best there is to be had, and they feed my submissions to their grouper fish for their amusement.:p

[kelby_lake]

Yeah, I'd say do the movements- Romantics, Metaphysics, etc. Especially the Romantics- I like them.

Did you know that 'No Country For Old Men' is a quote from a Yeats poem?

[emily00]

I wouldn't start with books about reading poems. You will die of boredom.

Start with the poems themselves!

And if you are looking for recommendations, I urge you to read some Seamus Heaney.

[JBI]

I'd find soem contemporary poet reading around you, if it is possible, or just pick up a magazine, and find something you like, and then work from there.

[kelby_lake]

I wouldn't start with books about reading poems. You will die of boredom.

Start with the poems themselves!

And if you are looking for recommendations, I urge you to read some Seamus Heaney.

No! Unless you enjoy farming.

Mid-term Break is the only poem of his worth reading.

[meh!]

Get the rattle bag, the collection compiled by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. It introduces you to loads of poetry from all over the world and from different periods of time without lots of preamble about movements and such that you can learn about later if you so desire.

I would not suggest reading by 'movement' as you will get so bogged down in the history of it, the specifics of each author that you'll quickly tire of reading.


No! Unless you enjoy farming.



Or words, or life...

>.>

:p:

[emily00]

No! Unless you enjoy farming.

Mid-term Break is the only poem of his worth reading.

What? :flare:

Have you never read his Bog People poems?

They are brilliant, and nothing to do with farming.

[mono]

A few people have recommended looking into some anthologies, which I second, especially for anyone beginning to read poetry, but they can prove relatively helpful for any poetry reader. I enjoyed Immortal Poems of the English Language edited by Oscar Williams as a decent anthology; it features some remarkable poetry everywhere from the 1500's to the anthologies publication year, sometime in the 1950's or 1960's, I believe. Williams appropriately sectioned it into genres and eras of poetry that may help you "choose your flavor," so to speak, of what poetry you enjoy the most, whether of such-and-such time period or this-or-that genre.
Good luck! :)

[Wilde woman]

I think Robert Frost and William Blake are good poets to start with because their poems are relatively accessible. You can read as much or as little meaning into their words as you'd like.

And if you're looking for a good anthology, start with the Norton anthology of poetry: http://www.amazon.com/Norton-Anthology-Poetry-Margaret-Ferguson/dp/0393979210/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243020533&sr=1-1

It's big, heavy, and pricey, but very well-respected. Also, I was surprised to find some non-English, non-American poets in there, though they are few and far between.

[kelby_lake]

I think Robert Frost and William Blake are good poets to start with because their poems are relatively accessible. You can read as much or as little meaning into their words as you'd like.


I second that. One of my party tricks is being able to recite The Tyger off by heart :D

[Nadia Scores]

One of my favorite poets is Robert Frost. Frost is known for creating simple poems that can be interpreted on many different levels. He also loved to inject everyday, colloquial speech into his poems. He was big on sounds, often talking about how the sounds of words carry more meaning than the words themselves. In his classic poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Frost seems almost hypnotized by the woods. He is compelled to stop and stare at them on the freezing, dark winter evening. His language is simple and beautiful and the lines are difficult to forget long after you have put the poem down. If you want to know more about Frost or even about poetry (http://www.shmoop.com/poetry/) in general, visit Shmoop. It will really help you start things off.

[March Hare]

There is a Poetry handbook by Mary Oliver which isn't too boring. And I remember one by John Hollander or John Gardner, I think, which I found interesting and informative.

A nice anthology of mostly shorter English (country, not language) poems was edited by Robert Penn Warren. Six Centuries of English Verse, maybe.

[stlukesguild]

Too often Blake is underestimated. On the surface his Songs of Innocence and Experience are accessible... but they have more depth than that one might initially grasp. A good deal of Blake's poetry is actually among the most challenging verse to read. Personally, I would recommend a good anthology and just pick and choose. When you find something that really grabs you, then look into reading more by that author.

[mayneverhave]

My first major introduction to poetry was the Norton Anthology of English Literature (8th ed.), which gives such a broad selection of the major authors that I could basically read whatever I wanted. My first attractions were to the Romantics, especially Keats, and also Yeats and (somewhat contradictorally) T.S. Eliot.

My early undergrad English classes had us buying so many different anthologies that you can quickly learn the "big players" in literature with only a little scanning.

Also, I agree with stluke. Blake is hardly what I would call an accesible poet.

[JBI]

My first major introduction to poetry was the Norton Anthology of English Literature (8th ed.), which gives such a broad selection of the major authors that I could basically read whatever I wanted. My first attractions were to the Romantics, especially Keats, and also Yeats and (somewhat contradictorally) T.S. Eliot.

My early undergrad English classes had us buying so many different anthologies that you can quickly learn the "big players" in literature with only a little scanning.

Also, I agree with stluke. Blake is hardly what I would call an accessible poet.

Strangely enough, Eliot can, and has been read as a romantic figure, despite the modernist label. The Waste Land, and much of the Four Quartets seem very romantic in fashion, though an argument can be made against that for the Waste Land, and there is still much strife in discourse on that subject. Four Quartets though, is most certainly a romantic poem - he even breaks his rules and directly puts autobiographical bits in there (essentially all section Vs of the poems, with the exception of The Dry Salvages). Of course though, nobody should really read the late Eliot stuff, or even The Waste Land, until they have fed on much of the earlier work.

It seems, as a sort of method, most people begin by jumping in at Wordsworth, and then somehow work back to Jacobean verse, and then forward until they hit modernism. Wordsworth is essentially everyone's introduction to poetry, though personally, mine was, strangely enough, John Donne, by some fluke - I had read a bit of him in one of my classes, and somehow months later ended up picking up the completed poems. From there I went to all the popular canonical poems, then worked my way around, starting with the Romantics, then doubling back, and then forward. Contemporary poetry, which seems my real interest, came late, as is expected - though, I did have a decent grounding in the classics before I read anything substantial, so that helped - I memorized a reference of Greek mythology, so I essentially get every reference without effort. In truth though, the most practical place to start is contemporary poetry, as the sounds and images are rooted in today, though the Romantics are still the introduction of choice for essentially everybody.

[Jozanny]

t seems, as a sort of method, most people begin by jumping in at Wordsworth, and then somehow work back to Jacobean verse, and then forward until they hit modernism. Wordsworth is essentially everyone's introduction to poetry, though personally, mine was, strangely enough, John Donne, by some fluke - I had read a bit of him in one of my classes, and somehow months later ended up picking up the completed poems.

Kind of an odd observation JBI, though there may be some truth to it. Unlike most of you, I am getting on a bit to remember my advanced course work prior to university, but I do remember an unwieldy textbook, and the class focusing on Wordsworth.

I blew up at my mother because she had a Ron McKuen paperback or something--not up to Googling to get it right--and as with many things, feel guilty there, though as far as being a kid goes, I think I used McKuen as an excuse and the blow up had another trigger.

My father, curiously enough, liked Arabic poetry, and read me some in translation, and I found the Beats on my own, as I previously posted, but I think you are right about Wordsworth, at least in formal study.

[mayneverhave]

Kind of an odd observation JBI, though there may be some truth to it. Unlike most of you, I am getting on a bit to remember my advanced course work prior to university, but I do remember an unwieldy textbook, and the class focusing on Wordsworth.

I blew up at my mother because she had a Ron McKuen paperback or something--not up to Googling to get it right--and as with many things, feel guilty there, though as far as being a kid goes, I think I used McKuen as an excuse and the blow up had another trigger.

My father, curiously enough, liked Arabic poetry, and read me some in translation, and I found the Beats on my own, as I previously posted, but I think you are right about Wordsworth, at least in formal study.

You're slightly more lucky than I am. My discovery of poetry was all my own effort - aside from a more cultured cousin of mine handing me a copy of Dylan Thomas's and Oscar Wilde's Collected Poems.

My mother, when she reads, reads Nora Roberts, or some other such nonsense. Wiki says that the woman wrote 165 romance novels. Really, I wonder how much variety is in those 165. Is it really necessary to continuously revisit that genre? My father enjoys ghost-written autobiographies of professional wrestlers.

[JBI]

You're slightly more lucky than I am. My discovery of poetry was all my own effort - aside from a more cultured cousin of mine handing me a copy of Dylan Thomas's and Oscar Wilde's Collected Poems.

My mother, when she reads, reads Nora Roberts, or some other such nonsense. Wiki says that the woman wrote 165 romance novels. Really, I wonder how much variety is in those 165. Is it really necessary to continuously revisit that genre? My father enjoys ghost-written autobiographies of professional wrestlers.

She wrote 165 yes, but didn't actually write them, perhaps. Major romance writers like that often (not saying she did, though it usually is the case with these sort of mass-produced authors) hire ghosts and merely stick their name on the cover. Style like that isn't that difficult to emulate.