Favorite Poet?

[Kowalskil]

Recently I have been getting into Baudelaire (again).
What is your favorite poet (or poem)?

[Gannon]

I'm not too much into poetry but my favorite poem is much madness is divinest sense, by emily dickenson

[Dshipper]

I've never been big into poetry, but William Blake has a few I like. A Poison Tree comes to mind. Same thing with Robert Frost. The Road Not Taken is a particular favorite.

[Johngshin]

The only poem I've ever really loved is Jabberwocky which was in Through the Looking Glass & What Alice Found There by Lewis Carol. It's basically a nonsense poem, but it's such fun & filled with such drama that I always adored it & it's the only poem I've ever committed to memory. And if yuo ever want to know what the words mean, read the book - Humpty Dumpty expllains a lot of it to Alice personally!
JABBERWOCKY
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
[PS It made a wonderful film too!]

[Creepshow09]

My favourite poem is Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. I also love The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, whom we studied extensively in school.
I also like Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas and Howl by Allen Ginsberg.
Other than that, I'm not very well versed (pardon the pun!) in poetry, although I would like to change that. I must devote more reading time to poetry! I've downloaded plenty of poetry that is in the public domain...just got to read it!

[Creepshow09]

I've never been much into poetry either. But I do hold a soft spot for the works of Robert Service.
Especially his poems "The Cremation of Sam McGee":
http://www.geocities...ervice/sam.html
and "The Shooting of Dan McGrew":
http://www.geocities...e/shooting.html
Here's the links page for those two where links to more of his poems can be found:
http://www.geocities...rt_service.html

[Creepshow09]

I am not familiar with many poets either. I have undoubtedly read many good poems for which I haven't noted the author. From school I liked Tennyson's The Charge of The Light Brigade, John Keats and Robert Browning and I love Shakespeare. I should pay more attention.

[Woodland Nymph]

I am not much into poetry myself and the only book of the genre that I own is The Best of Robert Service; I like the sense of adventure imbibed in his poems, notably Spell of the Yukon.

The wife likes poems by Ogden Nash & Robert Frost.

[Dshipper]

My ultimate favourite is Sylvia Plath and has been for a long time. I do love the imagery she uses and the passion I read in her poetry. Although perhaps I shouldn't, I do like Ted Hughes too, 'Birthday Letters' in particular is worth reading. I also love TS Eliot, WH Auden and Phillip Larkin.

[Dougiezerts]

Oblomov said:I can't help but quote a verse from Robert Service's Spell of the Yukon. I think it superbly reflects the peculiarities of human nature:

There's gold and it's haunting and haunting
It's luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
So much as just finding the gold.
It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace.

This way of looking at life is true with us in so many situations. We often do things not so much because of the ultimate reward, but for the thrill gleaned by searching for it high and low.