Favorite poets?

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As the topic statwes - who is your favorite poet? Why?

I personally must name the second Earl of Rochester, John Wilmot, as my favorite; Not only was he quite the personaity, he had a wit nigh unmatchable. His poems were passionate and timeless, and, well, he just kicks ass.

Adding my favorite of his poems here to illustrate the point:

Here is his wikipedia article to enlighten you more

(And no, it is not thanks to Johnny epp that I love Rochester; a friend of mine, who is working on a Rochester biography, had me hooked long before the Libertine came out)

My second-favorite poet is Tolkien.

 

Tops is Emily Dickenson. Second is Ogden Nash. His poems were funny and not hard to memorize for speech competitions.

 

Robert Frost. My mother introduced me to him at a very early age, and I have loved his poems ever since. I especially like Stopping By a Snowy Wood. I had it memorized for years.

 

Sylvia Plath. Now that's a romantic if there ever was one. Just let the feelings flow sister.

 

Alexander Pope. Although Rochester's a close second (raunchy poetry, after all, has its place )

 

There are so many good ones, it's very difficult to pick just one. But William Blake and Andrew Marvell are two that I especially like.

 

Difficult to choose just one, but if I have to Shakespeare

 

Celesialraven, it's agrave disservice to rochesterto only rremember him for his, ah, more colorful works; his satire was pretty damn awesome, too

 

Arabwel, yes yes, i'm just saying that 'tis a fine poet who can come up with over a dozen names for his... er... 'thunderbolt below' in a poem the length of "the imperfect enjoyment"

 

Oh, indeed... I personally favor a ramble in St. Jameres park out of his more bawdy work - most poetic use of the f-word I have ever seen.

 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[ April 05, 2006, 20:01: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Hmm, poet, I'm not sure. I know some of my favourite poems though.

'O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.'

La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Keats

ANother:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
" 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door;
Only this, and nothing more."

The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe

And my favourite poem of all time:

"Is anybody there?" said the Traveler,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence chomped the grasses
Of the forest's ferny floor.
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the traveler's head:
And he smote upon the door a second time;
"Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveler;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his gray eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveler's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:--
"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Aye, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

The Listeners, Walter de la Mare.


Still, poets: Poe, Tennyson, Keats, Chaucer(since you all mentioned lewd poetry), oh lots of poets.

 

ROBERT FROST! Sorry, I just have to shout that...

 

William Blake and Edgar Allan Poe. I'm really not a fan of poetry, but these two could almost make me change my mind about the whole thing. Especially Poe, who I see as writing poetry even in his other works (poetic prose if you will).

 

Hmm, I'm undecided on Blake. I just took an A Level module on him, but my impression is that it's his subject matter, not his poetry that makes him great. His poetry itself is mediocre, but the ideas expressed in it are the main factors.

Auguries of Innocence and Marriage of Heaven and Hell are great poems though

 

I enjoyed Eliot's "The Waste Land". Completely confusing at first, but I think I eventually comprehended it well enough.

 

I'm not cultured* enough to have a favourite poet, sadly. I don't think I even know any!

* I couldn't decide whether to settle on cultured or sad! - joking lads and lasses!

 

Yeah, the "Waste Land" is a great poem. But "Hollowmen" is my favorite by TS.

 

I'm not much into poetry, but of the poets I know, I like Heinrich Heine best. A great satirist and very competent observer of the german mind.

The translation sounds a bit awkward, but the intention is rather clear.

 

Fabius, that was great