Hello, fellow fediverse poetry lovers! Like the title suggests, who are your favorite poets? I figured a post like this could be fun and could help us all discover new poets!
To start things off, I’ll list my top three at the moment:
- William Carlos Williams
- Pablo Neruda
- T.S. Elliot
Happy to elaborate on why I chose any of them or share my recommendations for poems by any of them. More importantly, though, I’d love to hear what you guys think!
Generally, Walt Whitman, Poe, and Maya Angelou. And yeah, I know, I’m basic as hell lol.
My top three are
- W.B. Yeats
- T.S. Elliott
- HD
Also an excellent selection. You know, it’s funny: I really enjoy Ezra Pound (huge fan of Na Audiart). And despite her association there with, I’ve never really gotten into HD. Would you have any recommended starting points?
I mean given you like Pound I feel I have to suggest “Epigram” and “Priapus”
I will be investigating those poems after work today, thank you very much!
I posted a poet spotlight about Marianne Moore, a contemporary of HD’s, not too long ago. Also, HD was one of the first poets I posted here: https://lemmy.world/post/58034
I wouldn’t say that work in particular is representative of her whole style, but she was very eclectic in her subject matter. If you dig into it, you’ll find work of hers that speaks to you!
After reading Helen via your post, I’m even more excited to get into imotali’s recommendations after work today. I’m a sucker for the imagists and I’m also a sucker for heavy use of allusion, so that scratched several itches of mine.
As a side note, I see you’re the person responsible for creating this community! On behalf of all of us, thank you for doing so!
There’s a poetry place now? Phenomenal!
Picking a top three is difficult. I pick Eliot, for imagery and mastery of meter and allusions/historical webs of meaning. I love Auden the same.
At the moment I’m really into Safia Elhillo and Matthew Dickman, they’re my favorite contemporary poets.
I credit Shel Silverstein for my earliest love of poetry.
As Scaldart said, I’m unfamiliar with Dickman, so thank you for linking an example! It’ll be a fun read this evening , along with some other new recommendations I’ve gotten here already!
Regarding Shel Silverstein: I think he deserves a lot more credit than he seems to get (at least in my experience). He’s a great balance of accessible to young audiences without becoming too ridiculous or grating. Personally I think he had a great talent. As a fun side note, I learned during a recent Wikipedia rabbit hole descent that he wrote the lyrics to Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue!
I’m not familiar with Dickman. At least, I don’t recognize the name. I’ll have to look him up!
I just read his All-American Poem in April thanks to some librarians’ curated National Poetry Month display. It’s ecstatic, melancholy, silly sometimes. Check out “Grief” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/150394/grief-5d0c057c36f0c
There is a lot to examine in that poem, wow! I love the last five lines-the tonal shift is excellent!
Oh wow. That is wonderful! I’ll have to read it several more times in the morning. Thank you for sharing!
What an interesting question! I think it depends a lot on how we define “favorite,” so I’m going to be roundabout.
My formative poets:
- W. B. Yeats
- Edgar Allan Poe
- T. S. Eliot
- Robert Frost
My favorite reads:
- e.e. Cummings
- T. S. Eliot
- Charles Bukowski
- Longfellow
I won’t endeavor to create a comprehensive list for those that I enjoy—it would be inexhaustible—but if anyone is interested, I can provide recommendations. Lol.
Thanks for the question! It’s interesting to think about.
