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Irenicus · 2009-11-22, 00:22

You do...realize of course that "good poetry" is the kind of term that turns docile literary scholars into bloodthirsty gladiators fighting all out death matches, right? If all art is subjective, then poetry is in its own class of quantum confusion. If all art is actually objective after all, then the snob who claims to really know good poetry is still bullshitting you anyway.

But I shall hold back my philistine posturings on poetry and list a few famed English poets for your interest:

- William Shakespeare is a playwright. Captain Obvious says he's the most famous guy to ever write rhymes in English. Captian Not-So-Obvious claims he knows everything there is to know about everything, or something like that.

- John Donne is a famous representative of a certain kind of metaphysical Elizabethan poetry. Don't ask me what that's supposed to mean.

- John Milton is a legendary figure of 17th century English poetry. His magnum opus on Satan's epic quest to mess shit up (also known as Paradise Lost) is considered one of the greatest English epics of all time.

- For the Romantics, see TRL's recommendation of Wordsworth, to which I'll add Coleridge and Shelly.

- Going way back in time, 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, a major work in the landscape of English poetry. Make sure you read a modernized version, given that he didn't write in your grandfather's English, but some weird foreign language they call Middle English.

- On the American side of things, Emily Dickinson is a household favorite. Just for the record, there are essentially two versions of her work out there (not counting countless complications of complex literary issues), the ones with lots of dashes (what she wrote) and the ones that replace the dashes with more "sensibly mainstream" punctuations, courtesy of her original publishers.

- Continuing to American modernism, the two giants are Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot.

- Contemporary poetry is a much, much more difficult world to grasp. Given that I know jack all about it, all I can really suggest is go through a list of poets laureate and see whose poetry catches your fancy.

- As said, though, I won't give opinions on how "good" I think each of them are. I can argue a good case for a good novel, but arguing poetry is a battle you come prepared with chariots, machine guns, and tactical nuclear weapons and a willingness to be thoroughly mutilated after all is said and done, only to get some worthless little corner of a foreign field to call your own [hint: that's a reference to Rupert Brooke, another English poet you might wanna look at].

2009-11-22, 00:22	Link #3322
Irenicus Le fou, c'est moi Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA Age: 34	You do...realize of course that "good poetry" is the kind of term that turns docile literary scholars into bloodthirsty gladiators fighting all out death matches, right? If all art is subjective, then poetry is in its own class of quantum confusion. If all art is actually objective after all, then the snob who claims to really know good poetry is still bullshitting you anyway. But I shall hold back my philistine posturings on poetry and list a few famed English poets for your interest: - William Shakespeare is a playwright. Captain Obvious says he's the most famous guy to ever write rhymes in English. Captian Not-So-Obvious claims he knows everything there is to know about everything, or something like that. - John Donne is a famous representative of a certain kind of metaphysical Elizabethan poetry. Don't ask me what that's supposed to mean. - John Milton is a legendary figure of 17th century English poetry. His magnum opus on Satan's epic quest to mess shit up (also known as Paradise Lost) is considered one of the greatest English epics of all time. - For the Romantics, see TRL's recommendation of Wordsworth, to which I'll add Coleridge and Shelly. - Going way back in time, 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, a major work in the landscape of English poetry. Make sure you read a modernized version, given that he didn't write in your grandfather's English, but some weird foreign language they call Middle English. - On the American side of things, Emily Dickinson is a household favorite. Just for the record, there are essentially two versions of her work out there (not counting countless complications of complex literary issues), the ones with lots of dashes (what she wrote) and the ones that replace the dashes with more "sensibly mainstream" punctuations, courtesy of her original publishers. - Continuing to American modernism, the two giants are Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. - Contemporary poetry is a much, much more difficult world to grasp. Given that I know jack all about it, all I can really suggest is go through a list of poets laureate and see whose poetry catches your fancy. - As said, though, I won't give opinions on how "good" I think each of them are. I can argue a good case for a good novel, but arguing poetry is a battle you come prepared with chariots, machine guns, and tactical nuclear weapons and a willingness to be thoroughly mutilated after all is said and done, only to get some worthless little corner of a foreign field to call your own [hint: that's a reference to Rupert Brooke, another English poet you might wanna look at]. Last edited by Irenicus; 2009-11-22 at 00:36.