Poetry ... so much, so often so important. Some of Shakespeare's
Sonnets, Prospero's farewell in "The Tempest" ("Our revels now are
ended ...), Donne, Blake, Coleridge, Keats ... moving into the 20th
Century, Frost, Eliot, Auden. Dylan Thomas at his best is simply
magnificent ("Life held me green and dying, though I laughed in my
chains like the sea.") Sometimes Philip Larkin.Reflecting my Irish background, Austin Clarke, Tom Kinsella, Seamus Heaney. And, of course, Yeats. I spent the most formative years of my youth in Sligo, W.B.'s home town. His Nobel medal was on display in the local museum. We had him almost rammed down our throats at school, only I opened my gullet wider and couldn't get enough. He pops up here from time to time, from "Come away, o human child ...", to " ... the centre cannot hold / mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ...[and the] rough beast, its time come /slouching towards Bethlehem ..." September 1913, Easter 1916, No Second Troy, The Circus Animal's Desertion, Sailing to Byzantium ... so many heartbreaking works of staggering genius. Perfection. On a lighter note, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" was one of the first poems we learned as schoolkids, as Innisfree was a composite of various islands in Lough Gill, just down the road. As kids we had our own version, solemnly, sonorously declaiming the first line: "I will arise and go now ..." But then continuing with the non-approved version - "... and go to feed the ducks, and whether they are there or not, I do not give a f**k ..." Francis On 10 Feb., 10:09, Don Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > I haven't thought about poetry in a while either. All my picks are > things I read in school 20+ years ago. My fav. back then was ee > cummings 'she being Brand.'(my teen-aged self was impressed) Seems a > bit silly now. > > I was surprised to notice that my favorites almost always are heavy on > death and/or dying. I really never considered myself morbid but it > seems my tastes run to that direction. > > I'd also be interested to hear people's least favorite poems and why. > For instance; I can't stand Thomas Hardy's 'Hap.' I was forced to > read several of his books in an advanced Lit. class in high school and > I damn near dropped the class in protest. I would have except it > would have hurt my GPA. Awful depressing and whiny rants. Well > written but lousy with 'why me.' Drives me crazy. Makes you think > though. > > dj --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
