Who are your favourite Poets and Poems? I could make a long list, but two favourites of mine are Alfred Lord Tennyson and Edmund Spenser.
I was taught to speak a poem five times to get the full benefit. I speak long poems in manageable chunks. I start with the poems I enjoy the most before tackling the harder ones.
I read a poem each day. It is less time consuming than reading a chapter of a book if I am busy. One line of poetry can have a profound effect and inspire my writing.
There are some excellent books of collected poems. for adults and children.
I reccomend, 'The New Faber Book of Children's Poems, Charles Causley's The Collected Poems of Children, and Staying Alive the Bloodaxe book of contemporary adult poetry,
I believe poetry broadens the mind and enhances creative thought.
Poetry has helped my writing considerably.
'Cursed be the social lies that warp us to the living truth.' - Alfred Lord Tennyson.
My main literary interest is poetry and I do read a lot of it. I tend to read shorter poems as it fits more with my style of writing. My inspiration mainly comes from the styles rather than the content. Although, some contents do leap up at me to inspire me.
Recently, I am trying to read poetry from different regions and I'm enjoying Carribean writers at the moment, my next stop is Spanish writing. Of courses, I was bred on English poetry and poetry in English from West Africa.
So yeah, as I said, I'm more inspired by form rather then content.
Hi Kerensa.
I am not familar with some of them , but I am sure they are fine poets.
Amongst my collection of Poetry books are Norton Critical Editions of Byron, Shelley, Yeats, Blake, Donne, Browning, Wordsworth, and Spenser.
For those with an interest in Poetry, I highly reccomend, The Norton Anthology of Poetry and The Norton Making of a Poem.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.' - Dylan Thomas.
I’m a bit like you, Adrian, I tend to read a little bit of poetry every day. It can be a tonic, a provoker of thought, an outlet for both pleasure and melancholy.
I can lose myself in poetry, but also love the way it whirrs the cogs and wheels of my mind. The best poems stretch you, challenge you, force you to think; then reward you with an (albeit temporary) transcendent sense of being.
I’ve just completed my first novel, Seas of Snow. It’s the fictional account of a young girl who escapes the torment of her life through poetry. Gracie Scott becomes fascinated by the work of Rainer Maria Rilke and delights in his words for guidance and succour.
The reader sees poetry through her eyes – learns how to make mind shapes and peel back the layers with each new reading.
She is inspired by him to create her own, childish verses. And she comes to rely on him for words of wisdom as she tries to cope with the abuses she suffers at the hand of her psychopath uncle Joe.
Rilke’s poetry is truly amazing – I first came across him at university but still read his work with a passion. I never stop discovering new and intriguing elements both in terms of ideas and the writing itself.
I also particularly love the poetry of (long list coming up)... Pablo Neruda, Stephane Mallarme, Walt Whitman, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, EE Cummings, John Donne, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and – of course! - Shakespeare.