I cant for the life of me like poetry.I cant see the point of it.I didnt like it at school,I dont like reading it,and I dont like writing it.Been watching some t.v.programmes on John Betjamin,but I dont like his poetry either.Cant see what the fuss is about,even though he was The Poet Lauriet.The only poet that touches me slightly is Wordsworth.I think the modern songwriters are more poetical,than poets.Irving Berlin,Rodgers & Hammerstein ,Sammy Cann,The Beatles, Elton John.Even Barrie Manilow can write poetical lyrics,quote: Music was my first love,and it will be my last
Music of the future, Music of the past.

Now that I understand. :)

But thats Poetry as well isn't it.:confused: :cool:

I cant for the life of me like poetry.I cant see the point of it.I didnt like it at school,I dont like reading it,and I dont like writing it.Been watching some t.v.programmes on John Betjamin,but I dont like his poetry either.Cant see what the fuss is about,even though he was The Poet Lauriet.The only poet that touches me slightly is Wordsworth.I think the modern songwriters are more poetical,than poets.Irving Berlin,Rodgers & Hammerstein ,Sammy Cann,The Beatles, Elton John.Even Barrie Manilow can write poetical lyrics,quote: Music was my first love,and it will be my last
Music of the future, Music of the past.

Now that I understand. :)
You just haven't found the poetry that works for you yet pattricia. Don't give up, there's some outstandingly beautiful stuff out there.

I like some poetry, but I know what you mean. Some of it I just don't 'get'. :)

Some I do like :

WB Yeats - "The Second Coming", "An Irish Airman foresees his death"
John Masefield - "Sea Fever"
Thomas Hardy - "Drummer Hodge", "The Man he Killed", "Beeny Cliff"
Dylan Thomas "Do not go quiet in to the night"
Henry reed - "The naming of parts"
Christina Rosetti -"Remember"
Rupert Brooke - "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"

Ok...I probably like poetry more than I think. :)

Joe, I love 'An Irish airman foresees his death' and also Reed's 'Naming of parts'. Top stuff.
Do you know any Carol-Ann Duffy? She writes exquisitely about human emotion and sexuality.

Joe, I love 'An Irish airman foresees his death' and also Reed's 'Naming of parts'. Top stuff.
Do you know any Carol-Ann Duffy? She writes exquisitely about human emotion and sexuality.

I've heard the name but not read any of her stuff.

I came across 'An Irish airman...' after I first read 'The Second Coming' and grabbed a book of Yeats. I seem to remember it was used in the film 'Memphis Belle' as well. A great poem.

Joe, I love 'An Irish airman foresees his death' and also Reed's 'Naming of parts'. Top stuff.
Do you know any Carol-Ann Duffy? She writes exquisitely about human emotion and sexuality.
Well I will try & find books on these poets in the library,and see if I can see what you & Joe mean. :thumbsup:

Sylvia Plath, TS Eliot, E.A Poe, John Cooper Clarke...

I'm not a massive fan of poetry, but there is some great stuff out there.

Pattricia :

http://www.web-books.com/classics/poetry/anthology/Yeats/Irish.htm

http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html

Pattricia :

http://www.web-books.com/classics/poetry/anthology/Yeats/Irish.htm

http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/namingofparts.html
Thanks Joe, never thought about The Web. :thumbsup:

But thats Poetry as well isn't it.:confused: :cool:
Yes, but poetry in motion.Big difference to me when its combined with music.

lots of regular poetry has its own rhythm and motion, depending on its style, the writer and the reader.
The main difference to me when they're written down is that 'regular' poetry won't have the repeated lines and words that are commonplace in song lyrics, or any 'chorus'.

if you were reading something i'd written, but could only do so by 'attaching it' to a particular tune, I wouldn't have a problem with it if it meant you could enjoy what I'd written.
Come to that, small amounts of my meagre writing have been effectively re-written lyrics to existing songs and tunes

John Cooper Clark and Micheal Rosen were the first couple of poets that i enjoyed but when Edgar allen Poe writes in verse his writings are among the best ever

Ive tried hard over the years to read and appreciate poetry and ive decided that you need a very special sort of soul to understand it.

The closest I can get to this is with stuff that usually starts off with "There was a young fellow from..."

Id like to be able to appreciate poetry but Im too much of a pleb.

a teatcher once told me people who dont like poetry often havent been taught it properly, havisham carol ann duffy for example is excellent

a teatcher once told me people who dont like poetry often havent been taught it properly, havisham carol ann duffy for example is excellent

Well, I started the thread, and I still do NOT like poetry. I was taught it properly, as I went to a private school, where we had poetry thrust at us, even if we didnt like it.

myybe you dont like it because you dont want to like it (no need to get stropey)

Well, I started the thread, and I still do NOT like poetry. I was taught it properly, as I went to a private school, where we had poetry thrust at us, even if we didnt like it.

Perhaps that's the problem - is having it thrust at you being taught it 'properly'? It's certainly not how I was taught it (properly and at a state school), by passionate and inspirational teachers but who let us find our own way.

I find it difficult to accept your statement that you don't like poetry across the board, simply because poetry is so varied, and a great deal is little different to prose set out in a particular format, it certainly has the same qualities, and you clearly enjoy good prose. What do you like about prose that you don't find in poetry?

My own favourites, that I could (and have) read for hours and hours, and now enjoy reading to my son at bedtime, include:

Simon Armitage (All Points North is a particular favourite, disturbing number of parallels with my own life). Very real, observational, down to earth, northern, etc.

Seamus Heaney (partly, but far from only, because of the social/political context to much of his work). His work is so fluent it's as if he's just reeled it of, but you can see how painstakingly it has been constructed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgS5XyNuhKM

Dylan Thomas, I've got a anthology beside me which includes about fifteen 'favourites'! Can't really explain why, and hate some of his work, but the rest just leaves me astounded each time I read it. Of course, you've got to read it out loud, and slowly, which can make you look like a bit of a pillock on the number 52! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIoXV-HXobo

Dylan Thomas, I've got a anthology beside me which includes about fifteen 'favourites'! Can't really explain why, and hate some of his work, but the rest just leaves me astounded each time I read it. Of course, you've got to read it out loud, and slowly, which can make you look like a bit of a pillock on the number 52!

Fair comment RedWizard:thumbsup:

try some haiku - not formularised 575 but real haiku - or haibun - they are so unpoetic in terms of western style - with objects plants animals becomimg the poetry - that they open up new ways of thinking - this said - i love wordsworth!

KC

Perhaps that's the problem - is having it thrust at you being taught it 'properly'? It's certainly not how I was taught it (properly and at a state school), by passionate and inspirational teachers but who let us find our own way.

I find it difficult to accept your statement that you don't like poetry across the board, simply because poetry is so varied, and a great deal is little different to prose set out in a particular format, it certainly has the same qualities, and you clearly enjoy good prose. What do you like about prose that you don't find in poetry?

My own favourites, that I could (and have) read for hours and hours, and now enjoy reading to my son at bedtime, include:

Simon Armitage (All Points North is a particular favourite, disturbing number of parallels with my own life). Very real, observational, down to earth, northern, etc.

Seamus Heaney (partly, but far from only, because of the social/political context to much of his work). His work is so fluent it's as if he's just reeled it of, but you can see how painstakingly it has been constructed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgS5XyNuhKM

Dylan Thomas, I've got a anthology beside me which includes about fifteen 'favourites'! Can't really explain why, and hate some of his work, but the rest just leaves me astounded each time I read it. Of course, you've got to read it out loud, and slowly, which can make you look like a bit of a pillock on the number 52! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIoXV-HXobo

exactly

(GL Note::.....initial single word answer too short to define the Quote Box. This Note was placed to redefine the Quote Box for other readers of this thread :))

Thanks for your links Marc. I will look them up when I have time, and read them properly.

there from TheRedWizard it was suppost to be a quote (sorry TheRedWizard)

marc1990, I have edited Post 21 to reinstate your intended Quote Box. :)

I have to say, when I found out that I had to do poetry for my degree I was a little (no, actually, a lot!) scared and miffed. I mean, I never get it! It's just words! The only poetry I've ever got are humorous poems such as Wendy Cope, and that bit in Four Weddings and a Funeral where John Hannah reads out W. H. Auden's "Stop all the clocks . . ." But really, most of the time I need someone to hold my hand if I'm going to be reading poetry!

But, my mum got me Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ode-Less-Travelled-Unlocking-Within/dp/0099509342/ref=sr_1_2/026-4592312-1708431?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191793107&sr=8-2), which is fantastic! I've been suggesting it to anyone who'll listen :hihi: It might be because it's Stephen Fry, and I tend to listen to whatever it is he has to say, but he really just makes you realise what poetry can do, or at least what it does to him. I learnt more from him in the first two chapters then I did throughout my entire GCSE's! It's essentially written for you if you want to write poetry, but don't let that put you off because it also goes into a lot of detail on how to read a poem too.

Another good compilation, that's on my reading list too, is Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Staying-Alive-Poems-Unreal-Times/dp/1852245883/ref=sr_1_1/026-4592312-1708431?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191793601&sr=1-1), which has a very good introduction and good notes on the poems inside - which range from Wilfred Owen, to Seamus Heaney and many many more. That's good to get a general overview of modern poets, and I'm sure you're bound to find something in there that you like.

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do, is also very good and some poets even have recordings of them reading out select poems too!

But, my mum got me Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ode-Less-Travelled-Unlocking-Within/dp/0099509342/ref=sr_1_2/026-4592312-1708431?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191793107&sr=8-2), which is fantastic! I've been suggesting it to anyone who'll listen :hihi: It might be because it's Stephen Fry, and I tend to listen to whatever it is he has to say, but he really just makes you realise what poetry can do, or at least what it does to him. I learnt more from him in the first two chapters then I did throughout my entire GCSE's! It's essentially written for you if you want to write poetry, but don't let that put you off because it also goes into a lot of detail on how to read a poem too.


Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled.
That Book is definitely a must read.

I like some poetry, but I know what you mean. Some of it I just don't 'get'. :)

Some I do like :

WB Yeats - "The Second Coming", "An Irish Airman foresees his death"
John Masefield - "Sea Fever"
Thomas Hardy - "Drummer Hodge", "The Man he Killed", "Beeny Cliff"
Dylan Thomas "Do not go quiet in to the night"
Henry reed - "The naming of parts"
Christina Rosetti -"Remember"
Rupert Brooke - "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester"

Ok...I probably like poetry more than I think. :)


Hi,

I grew up with most of the poets on this list, plus Wordsworth, Tennyson, Longfellow, etc. I must admit that much of the verse that came later doesn't do an awful lot for me.

I think poetic appreciation has a lot to do with how your tasted developed after school. If you continued to ready poetry in your later years, then you probably followed the trends and retained an appreciation.

If, on the other hand, you were like me and pitched into a heavy technical environment which left absolutely no time for poetry or distraction reading of any kind, then your brain would probably re-wire itself to cope with your immediate needs only.

Then, If you tried to rekindle an interest in poetry in later years, as I did and hadn't kept up with the trends, you are quickly turned off. Its very easy to dismiss poetry written in the last, say, 40 years as lacking (and that's being polite about it).

Regards

I am the same, I don't like poetry. It just seems pointless to me, espec modern stuff. I HATED doing wilfred owen at school....the only poem I liked was one by e.e cummins and probably only because it was a bit dirty!

I'll keep searching

I am the same, I don't like poetry. It just seems pointless to me, espec modern stuff. I HATED doing wilfred owen at school....the only poem I liked was one by e.e cummins and probably only because it was a bit dirty!

I'll keep searching

Yes, Im of the same opinion as you, as I was the OP. It does seem pointless, and the only one I have time for is Wordsworth. I would much rather read or sing the lirics of the modern songwriters like Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Irviling Berlin and Sammy Caan.To me words without the music is nothing.

Nobody has metioned Limericks. Isn't that poetry as well?

My poetic efforts have been reduced to righting in this style. My last effort was inclined to be rude and would probably get me arrested if I ever went back to Iran.

Speaking of Limerick's, does any one know the one about the Girl from Devises - "Whose breast were in two different sizes".

If you you could remind me of the ending, I would be most grateful.

Regards

Carol Ann Duffy. I've read "The world's wife" and "The Hat", two of her compilations
and also other stuff that I've come across, since she became Poet Laureate.
She's talented and funny but I don't think all her work can be described as poetry.
It makes me wonder if her diverse background influenced the people who select
Poet Laureates, after all, quite a number of previous one's have had diverse
back-grounds too.
Now that the post is a temporary one, there's a good chance that Benjamin
Zephaniah will be selected next, as he's quite good, topical and ticks a few boxes.
Any views on this opinion?

I know what you mean, I feel the same way. I haven't got the patience to figure out the meanings behind the metaphors. The agony over the placement over a full stop or comma, the implications in carefully placed words yadda yadda. It's all too much work.

But occasionally I read it and even if it's just a few lines can see the beauty - like in keats, Yeats or Rimbaud.

I think this is an example of the kind of thing I mean:

Cloths of Heaven - Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

It's so well known it's almost a cliche, but is undeniably beautiful.

I was just going to reply to the OP agreeing with them, when I realised that the OP was me ?:hihi:

Poor, poor Pattricia. John Betjeman would have loved you too, with your private
education and all. (Shades of Miss Joan Hunter Dunne)
In my opinion however, his work was slanted mainly at a male audience.
I find most of Wordsworth to be dull. Comic verse, not nonsense, usually grabs my
attention. Pam Eyres is always worth a listen and often hits the right spot.
Carol Ann duffy? Talented yes, but she's almost as well-known as a Scouse-schooled,
Sapphic Scot as she is as a poet.
I suppose poetry can be likened to classical music, in that most of us know some and
have favourite bits but how many of us could sit through a whole symphony?
Thank you to SarahD. it's years since I read "The cloths of Heaven"
Took me right back, it did.

Falls. Are you still there?
About your young girl of Devises,
Whose breasts were of two different sizes.
One was so small,
Almost nothing at all.
The other was big and won prizes.
END
There, was it worth the wait?
G12

Falls. Are you still there?
About your young girl of Devises,
Whose breasts were of two different sizes.
One was so small,
Almost nothing at all.
The other was big and won prizes.
END
There, was it worth the wait?
G12

Definitely !! :thumbsup:

A fresh frosty morning, a bright sky so blue,
A gift that needs opening, a robin or two,
The winter’s first snowfall, so pure, crisp and white,
A thick winter’s duvet All snuggled down tight.

The sound of small children, all giggling with glee,
With rosy complexion, Minds all clutter free,
We look forwards to springtime, And fresh morning dew,
The warmth of the sun is just shining through.

As days start to lengthen and night time grows short,
We look to the future, with hope in our hearts,
Then follows summer, and our holidays are planned,
We look for adventure, in far away lands.

The Nights turn out warmer, Love seems to fill hearts,
Couples walk in sunshine, Vowing never to part,
We some how feel better, both inside and out,
eating BBQ`s and partying, We wear ourselves out.

The summers end comes closer, and trees start to thin,
Dropping acorns and dry leaves, as autumn draws in,
There’s something romantic, as we walk hand in hand,
Through woodland and meadow, in awe of the land.

We know winters coming, another year will soon pass,
We look back on our love; we knew it would last,
Time keeps on passing, and years come and go,
Our love just gets stronger, as our feelings grow.

Before we both know it, Our lives we have spent,
And we look back with fondness, at where the years went,
The good times and bad times, the friends we have made,
The romance and closeness, not a one we would trade.

I wouldn’t have the memories, or the love we have shared,
We have beaten the hardships, our souls we have bared,
We travelled together, both walked hand in hand,
On life’s special journey, through gods promised land.

And if it were possible, to re-live years past,
Its you I would journey with, I know our love would last.

I'm not one for poetry myself, but there's a few I like. You could always try 'Winter' by Abigail Elizabeth McIntyre. It goes:
























***** ME
IT'S COLD!