Poetry
As I sit here typing from the bowels of Levinas (god, I can't wait for this semester to be over!!!), I became bored. So bored that I checked up on livejournal. livingfossil (hey, you've been getting some press in my journa lately, eh?) asked for reading suggestions and I made some. The point here is that he asked about poetry, and I like peotry a lot even though I have not been thinking about it that much recently. His need to read, then, inspired me to think about what i like about poetry and who some of my favorite poets are. You will notice in the following list that it tends to the more traditional, wih notable exceptions. I think the bootom line is that I think much of contemporary poetry has lost something of the pathos that older verse seems to have, losing itself in the cleverness of playing with words (note how I reserve the term language). We can discuss that if you wish, and I am open to suggestion of poets who y'all think are interesting, but, without further ado, here is my list in no particular order (with a few additions and alterations):
Ranier Maria Rilke-Need I say why? Probably not, so I would actually recommend Letters to a Young Poet if you haven't read it. It really contextualizes Rilke a lot and is filled with beautiful little gems that leave you wishing you could express yourself with such lucidity.
e.e. cummings-Admittedly, some of it is too "Modern" for me, but cummings still ends up on my list because when he is on, he is on. Here is an instance of bending the language as well, not merely playing with words. Meaning happens at the interstices, never stated and always shining though. Powerful and cryptic, cummings brings forward so many different aspects of our contemporary existence with a misplaced question mark or an intrusive parenthsis.
John Donne-Even though I am not religious at all, I really dig Donne's devotion to something outside of himself that in the end is engaged in out of his own love of self and life. I recommend reading the original texts and not the ones that are brushed up into contemporary English, however. There is a marked difference. Donne feels his love so intensely, so passionately, you cannot help but feel with him. I think the reason I like Donne so much is that special sort of intensity because it so closely resembles how I think of my own life (saying that will probably make some of you laugh!).
Juan Ramon Jimenez-my favorite Spanish language poet. I just love the way he captures images in his verse and imbues them with meaning that we usually don't notice. If you can read Spanish, it will be well worth your while to read him in that idiom as I am yet to find an English translation that comes close to capturing the textures of his words.
Edna St. Vincent Millay-I shit you not, I was first introduced to her work in a dream. I had seen her picture in my American Lit. book in the 11th grade, but never read anything she wrote until I dreamt of her poem Hawkweed, which actually exists. Given the oddity of the situation, I read an awful lot of her works and always found them marked with a peculiar melancolia and gentleness.
Ogden Nash-Fun and quick to read, America's own master of "light" verse, though he rejected the lable. Good for sunny afternoons in the park or reading at th beach (assuming you have such a luxury), Nash's comedy comes from both his playful nature and acute understanding of American life. "I think that I shall never see/ a billboard as lovely as a tree/ and unless those billboards fall/ I'll never seee a tree at all" (more or less--It's off the top of my head.)
John Keats-A classic to be sure, but there is so much more to Keats than what gets anthologized. So frequently written of as "romantic", I think Keats still has a lot to offer those who read him today. Anguish not only in love, but in the very fact of living along with others. I have to admit that I have a soft s[pot in my heart for the later romantics, but Keats is far and away my favorite.
Billy Collins-he was the poet laureat for a while and does a wonderful job ofcreating emotive scenes out of everyday life. I particularly enjoyed his book Drowning. The way he writes is to draw a picture out of words of a singular context and then through use of particular words and rhythms to draw you into that context before quietly shutting the door on you. In his finer poems, Collins leaves the door slightly ajar so that you can keep peeking in without disturbing what is happening there.
Donald Hall-His poems range from a bit dark to the touchingly mundane, but his words are truly heart wrenching and beautiful. After his wife's death in 1997 (I think), he published a book of verse called Without, which is diffidult to read because it is so dark, but is very, very powerful stuff and well worth a read if you are up to it. He has also written a number of children's books.
Gabriela Mistral-Chilean poet, she writes primarily pastoral and political verse and won the Nobel Prize for it. I just discovered that her verse has finally been translated into English by Ursula K Le Guin. As I have not read them, I can't vouch for their quality, but I still had to read her with a dictionary, though, because she writes a lot in regional dialect (and I don't mean Castellano), so they might be worth checking out.
Well, that's a lot of typing, so I should probably get back to work now. Just a final thought: I have always found that poetry functions more as an emotional amplifier for me than anything else. When I am in a certain mood, I read certain poets and through their words my own emotions and feelings intensify. Sometimes this is cathartic, other times an opening up of new possibilities, and in still others the verse simply allows me to be where I am more peacefully. If you have read this far: what, if anything, do you find of value in poetry? Why do you read it? Who are some of your favorites?
Ranier Maria Rilke-Need I say why? Probably not, so I would actually recommend Letters to a Young Poet if you haven't read it. It really contextualizes Rilke a lot and is filled with beautiful little gems that leave you wishing you could express yourself with such lucidity.
e.e. cummings-Admittedly, some of it is too "Modern" for me, but cummings still ends up on my list because when he is on, he is on. Here is an instance of bending the language as well, not merely playing with words. Meaning happens at the interstices, never stated and always shining though. Powerful and cryptic, cummings brings forward so many different aspects of our contemporary existence with a misplaced question mark or an intrusive parenthsis.
John Donne-Even though I am not religious at all, I really dig Donne's devotion to something outside of himself that in the end is engaged in out of his own love of self and life. I recommend reading the original texts and not the ones that are brushed up into contemporary English, however. There is a marked difference. Donne feels his love so intensely, so passionately, you cannot help but feel with him. I think the reason I like Donne so much is that special sort of intensity because it so closely resembles how I think of my own life (saying that will probably make some of you laugh!).
Juan Ramon Jimenez-my favorite Spanish language poet. I just love the way he captures images in his verse and imbues them with meaning that we usually don't notice. If you can read Spanish, it will be well worth your while to read him in that idiom as I am yet to find an English translation that comes close to capturing the textures of his words.
Edna St. Vincent Millay-I shit you not, I was first introduced to her work in a dream. I had seen her picture in my American Lit. book in the 11th grade, but never read anything she wrote until I dreamt of her poem Hawkweed, which actually exists. Given the oddity of the situation, I read an awful lot of her works and always found them marked with a peculiar melancolia and gentleness.
Ogden Nash-Fun and quick to read, America's own master of "light" verse, though he rejected the lable. Good for sunny afternoons in the park or reading at th beach (assuming you have such a luxury), Nash's comedy comes from both his playful nature and acute understanding of American life. "I think that I shall never see/ a billboard as lovely as a tree/ and unless those billboards fall/ I'll never seee a tree at all" (more or less--It's off the top of my head.)
John Keats-A classic to be sure, but there is so much more to Keats than what gets anthologized. So frequently written of as "romantic", I think Keats still has a lot to offer those who read him today. Anguish not only in love, but in the very fact of living along with others. I have to admit that I have a soft s[pot in my heart for the later romantics, but Keats is far and away my favorite.
Billy Collins-he was the poet laureat for a while and does a wonderful job ofcreating emotive scenes out of everyday life. I particularly enjoyed his book Drowning. The way he writes is to draw a picture out of words of a singular context and then through use of particular words and rhythms to draw you into that context before quietly shutting the door on you. In his finer poems, Collins leaves the door slightly ajar so that you can keep peeking in without disturbing what is happening there.
Donald Hall-His poems range from a bit dark to the touchingly mundane, but his words are truly heart wrenching and beautiful. After his wife's death in 1997 (I think), he published a book of verse called Without, which is diffidult to read because it is so dark, but is very, very powerful stuff and well worth a read if you are up to it. He has also written a number of children's books.
Gabriela Mistral-Chilean poet, she writes primarily pastoral and political verse and won the Nobel Prize for it. I just discovered that her verse has finally been translated into English by Ursula K Le Guin. As I have not read them, I can't vouch for their quality, but I still had to read her with a dictionary, though, because she writes a lot in regional dialect (and I don't mean Castellano), so they might be worth checking out.
Well, that's a lot of typing, so I should probably get back to work now. Just a final thought: I have always found that poetry functions more as an emotional amplifier for me than anything else. When I am in a certain mood, I read certain poets and through their words my own emotions and feelings intensify. Sometimes this is cathartic, other times an opening up of new possibilities, and in still others the verse simply allows me to be where I am more peacefully. If you have read this far: what, if anything, do you find of value in poetry? Why do you read it? Who are some of your favorites?