Name your poet(s)

[s1m0n]

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes.

[Lambchop]

Ogden Nash

[brewerpaul]

I may be a Philistine, but I have to admit that most poetry eludes me. I do like a lot of Robert Frost and Walt Whitman though. And Robert Service is fun to read aloud even if it isn't great poetry.

[emmline]

Shel Silverstein

ahem...
Always sprinkle pepper in your hair,
Always sprinkle pepper in your hair.
'Cause then if you are kidnapped by a wild barbazoop,
Who sells you to a ragged hag, who wants you for her soup,
She'll pick you up and sniff you, and then she'll sneeze "aachoo!"
And say, "My tot, you're much too hot, I'll fear you'll never do!"
And with a shout, she'll throw you out, and you'll run away from there,
And soon you will be safe at home, a'sittin' in your chair.
If you always always always always always always always
Always ALWAYS sprinkle pepper in your hair.

And Robert Service is fun to read aloud even if it isn't great poetry.

Yes. My grandfather (who died when I was eleven,) used to wrangle me into listening to The Cremation of Sam McGee.
I would demur and resist, but finally agree to listen, expression grumpy.

Naturally I am still very fond of that poem.

[SteveShaw]

I may be a Philistine, but I have to admit that most poetry eludes me. I do like a lot of Robert Frost and Walt Whitman though. And Robert Service is fun to read aloud even if it isn't great poetry.

I'm with you. I had Wordsworth drummed into me at school and I fear it disabled the poetic bit of my brain for life. I found much of his work to be unhealthily obsessed with his lost childhood and very inward-looking. Trite at times even. Occasionally I find a line or two in a poem that articulates an idea for me that had remained stubbornly inchoate in my own head. Burns can do it, as can Blake. If I were forced to have a favourite poem it would have to be Sonnet 18. But thy eternal summer shall not fade...how I'd love to earn that accolade.

[dwest]

Frost
Sandburg
Parker
Nash
Hobhouse
Yeats

[izzarina]

Wilde And Ben Johnson, Shelley, some Dickenson. Yeats, Marlowe, and Ogden Nash. I could keep going.......

[gonzo914]

e.e. cummings and Robert W. Service, and I like to sing Emily Dickenson to the the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

I also like to sing "The Cremation of Sam Mcgee" to the tune of "Star of the County Down."

And I once tried to sing "The Waste Land" to the tune of "Rocky Road to Dublin," but I hurt myself.

And I'll leave you with another Service poem that I like -- The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill

[Hotblack]

Another philistine here. I somehow never got the whole poetry thing. Probably because it was rammed down my throat at school. How I can still appreciate Shakespeare I've no idea, the way he's taught in school. *shudder*

I hate the way poetry seems to be pretentiously intoned in a very sombre manner. Radio 4 are brilliant at doing that. I love a good novel however.

I like Spike Milligan's stuff but I suppose that's more doggerel than poetry. The only other poem I ever liked was Philip Larkin's 'This Be The Verse', probably 'cos it has a couple of rude words in it. How mature of me

They f**k you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were f**ked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.

[dwest]

To paraphrase Mark Twain, "I have attended poetry readings, whenever I could not help it, for most of my life. I am sure I know of no agony comparable to the listening to a poetry performance. By contrast kidney stones are but fleeting pleasures."

[Nanohedron]

...and I like to sing Emily Dickenson to the the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

Yes, and thank you for that. Not so long ago an Irishman was glowingly telling me of his discovery of Dickinson, and I mentioned that; you know, just in passing, like. He paused, thought a bit, got a black look on his face, spat out some choice words of a rather personal nature, told me he would never be able to read Dickinson again without The Yellow Rose Of Texas going thru his head, and that he whould hate me forever for it.

[I.D.10-t]

Often Billy Collins seems like the poet for those that don't like poetry.
Poking fun at the use of suddenly.
Tension by Billy Collins

[gonzo914]

...and I like to sing Emily Dickenson to the the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas."

Yes, and thank you for that. Not so long ago an Irishman was glowingly telling me of his discovery of Dickinson, and I mentioned that; you know, just in passing, like. He paused, thought a bit, got a black look on his face, spat out some choice words of a rather personal nature, told me he would never be able to read Dickinson again without The Yellow Rose Of Texas going thru his head, and that he whould hate me forever for it.

The response to that should have been, "Oh, and speaking of roses, you know that Charles Foster Kane guy? Well, 'Rosebud' was his sled.'"

[Nanohedron]

It was enough for me to bask in his ire, and smile.

[s1m0n]

I'm with you. I had Wordsworth drummed into me at school and I fear it disabled the poetic bit of my brain for life.

The great tragedy of Wordworth's life is that he lived and went on writing well into his 80s.