My 5 Favorite Poets

[@jeanettehasley7054]

Late to the conversation...but I love Robert Frost and Langston Hughes Enjoy hearing your love for words

[@---vv5oy]

"building cathedrals with words" -- just the right words to sell me on checking any piece of poetry or literature. Thanks man!

[@nostalgiaxx-fc38]

I am in love with your gestures hahaha

[@earthbyapril915]

I just found this one, and I feel so pleased to find that you love the same poets I love. Hopkins is my number one.

[@1m2a3t4t5]

Po, Pound, Cortazar, Matsson, Allegheri, Dylan, some beat poetry here and there, some other verse at other times...still exploring, will take a while.

[@jamesbutler4911]

Wonderful video as always! I'm so glad you included Robert Browning. I first came across him through My last Duchess and went on to read the longer poems. I enjoy the historical, Italian setting of a great deal of his poetry and his ability to let the characters reveal themselves, sometimes quite unconsciously, through their recounting of events.

[@TheBookchemist]

+James Butler Exactly, that's exactly what makes me like his poetry so much. Gee, the sheer narrative genius of how he presents his characters is astonishing. Also yep!, as an Italian I see why he used the country as the setting of so many of his poems. I saw his house in Florence and it's right in front of a big-ass palace called Palazzo Pitti. The guy sure lived large!

[@jameswiblishauser9745]

probably helps to study the craft a bit, like you said, knowing about meter, symbolism etc. like with classical music, it helps to know a little on the technical side.

[@cunningba]

Enjoyed your video. An interesting selection of poets. Kudos especially for including Stevens, one of my favorites. I didn't find Cook's guide especially helpful. I found Helen Vendler's books on Stevens much more insightful. There are also a couple of recent biographies of Stevens which I found very insightful and helpful in understanding his poetry by Alison Johnson and Paul Mariani. Of course on a list of 5 there will always be many left off. I can't resist sharing a few that would have put in or near my top 5. The first that springs to my mind is Ezra Pound, his reference in Canto II connects to what was perhaps one of Browning's worst efforts, Sordello. Pound was an immense influence on 20th century poetry. The breadth of his work is amazing. Unfortunately he was frequently an insufferable, obscurantist, delusional twit. But however opaque and pretentious some of his work is, he could also write something like "In a Station of the Metro". He's more difficult than Stevens because he's trying to impress us with his erudition, whereas Stevens is merely trying talk about what he finds important without revealing too much of himself. Next on my list I would add E. E. Cummings. Again, a unique voice with an immense influence on modern poetry. Many of his poems are absolute jewels. One interesting way of approaching him is through his memoir about his imprisonment during WWI, The Enormous Room. It sounds like a dreary subject, but his humor and boundless love transform it into something luminous. Finally, I would add one more quintessentially American poet, Carl Sandburg. Probably the most accessible one on my list. But more than a poet, his memoirs of his childhood, his children's stories, his historical writing, his work with his brother-in-law Edward Steichen on The Family of Man exhibit, and his performing career earn him a unique place in American literature.

[@boazzpitzer1877]

what a great list. i really liked that you metioned an italian poet because as a native hebrew speaker my favorite poets are zelda, yehuda amihai ans s.i agnon i love english poetry as well but poetry in your own languege is so powerfull and beautyfull. i think you said it best in your episode about the devine comady

[@treyrogge9675]

Michael Ondaatje is a wonderful poet I think you will like, if you haven't read him already. His collection "The Cinnamon Peeler" is a damn fine book of poetry that covers a solid range of topics and is both hilarious and beautiful. Highly recommended.

[@TheBookchemist]

+Trey Rogge I have only read his fiction so far - In the Skin of a Lion; thanks for the suggestion :)!

[@You-vz5jh]

Poetry in prose is like heart and mind in concordance: Proust, Schulz, Vian, Heym, Baudelaire, and even Nabokov are so melodiously mellow, passing through like an electric current evoked by this sensory titillator of yours.

[@alfogel3298]

I thought the dove was the bird of peace but here they were shooting them out of the brush and climbing up the sides of mountains and banging them down; and everywhere the doves went there were the hunters blasting and beaming and blasting, and one man who didn't in the slightest resemble a dove was shot in the shoulder; and there were many complaints that the doves were smaller and scarcer than last year, but the way they fell through the air when you stung the life out of them was the same; and I was there too but I couldn't shoot anything with a paintbrush; and a couple of them came over to my canvas and stood and stood and stood until I finally said, for God's sake go look at Picasso and Rembrandt, go look at Klee and Gauguin, listen to a symphony by Mahler, and if you get anything out of that come back and stare at my canvas! what the hell's wrong with him? the one guy said. he's nuts. they're all nuts, the other guy said. anyhow, I got my 10 doves. me too, his buddy said, let's go home: we can have them in the pan by 2:30. -Charles Bukowski

[@adrianac3258]

Great video as always !!of all you mentioned the only one I read is Robert Browning and his wife there is a lot of latin poet influence in his style .My favorite poets are John Donne,Christina Rossetti ,William Blake,Percy Bysse Shelley(England),Alejandra Pizarnick, Jorge Luis Borges ,Alfonsina Storni and Antonio Porchia (Argentina), Pablo de Rochka,Vicente Huidobro,Nicanor Parra ( Chile), Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz and Octavio Paz ( México) ,Emily Dickinson,Allen Ginsberg( U.S.A),Charles Baudaulaire and Mallarme ( France),Rainer Maria Rilke ( Germany) ,Virgil and Pier Paolo Passolini (Italy).Long list but couldnt leave anyone out XD!!

[@hckbdc3232]

+adriana adriana Nice collection of authors. Let me include: Miguel Hernández (Spain), Federico García Lorca (Spain), Robert Lowell (US), John Ashbery (US). Vladimir Mayakovsky (Russia).

[@adrianac3258]

Omg how I left out Miguel Hernández , Garcia Lorca and Esporonceda out I love all three of them what a shame.When I think of Spain I think of novelists and playwrights . I do enjoy many authors of Spain though.Haven't read anything of Robert Lowell , John Ashberry or Vladimir Mayakovsky sure I will look at something from them thank you for the suggestions XD!!!

[@TheBookchemist]

+adriana adriana I'd really like to read some of Borges' poems, as I love his short stories so much :)

[@adrianac3258]

The_Bookchemist Borges poems are awesome have great images full of wordplays and puns.With his usual scholarly inclined fantasy and always very endearing.May I suggest you do a review on Borges ,I think you will do a great job analyzing his work he does have elements of postmodernism and a great influence on many modern writers. As a latinamerican he is the best author of that region far superior than Gabriel García Márquez!!

[@alfonsomango_suyu]

Uh, I forget the great García-Lorca !! that's a good one. And Quevedo.

[@GeorgeMillerUSA]

Can you check out Bolaño’s poems? He wrote poems, too.

[@Pantano63]

Quite subpar poetry. Bolaño was many things but a good poet was not one of them.

[@alfonsomango_suyu]

I only have read some Browning and some Hopkins, either in english or translated to spanish. Both are good to me, specially Browning. I read also Hugo and Lamartine specially in french even with my poor knowledge of french. More snobism: I read Pessoa in portuguese. And lots of good brazilian, argentinean and chilean poets overshadowed by Neruda and some other junk food.

[@QZaccardelli]

Excellent!

[@Ocelot1962]

Dylan Thomas and AR Ammons are two of favourites.

[@AndalusianIrish]

Hey there. I also love Yeats (coming from Ireland it would be criminal if I didn't) and Frost. Since you like Yeats you should check out John Hewitt and Michael Longley - two Belfast poets who continue his legacy. You should also check out Paul Muldoon who is admired by a lot of big singer songwriters like Dylan and Springsteen www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/31/paul-muldoon-life-in-poetry . I love guys like Wordsworth and Coleridge and I get dismayed that Sir Walter Scott is largely ignored nowadays - both prose and poetry.

[@TheBookchemist]

+Andy McKinney I'll check out those poets indeed - and I think a friend of mine is a great fan of Muldoon :)! I will admit I only know Scott as a novelist - is his poetry very good?

[@AndalusianIrish]

+The_Bookchemist I like his poetry anyway. Look up Twist Ye Twine Ye and Jock Of Hazeldean.

[@frederickbee9976]

How about recommending some Italian poets for those of your followers who can read Italian (or even those who need a translation)?

[@TheBookchemist]

I am afraid I am far from an authority on Italian poetry! My favorite ones are the very canonical ones I studied in high school - among those I'd say my favorite were Dante, Pascoli and Montale!

[@LiteraryGladiators]

Frost and Yeats are two of my absolute favorite poets. I did papers on both of them, but the thing about them is that they possess such a great range to the point that they cannot be classified into any genre, yet they become the genre, especially Frost. Yeats could be deemed as a symbolist, but Frost is often studied with the Modernists, yet he does not take any particular positions aside from his own. He is pure genius! Thank you for sharing! -Josh

[@grantwallace1882]

Would be interested in hearing your thoughts on Charles Bukowski - novels and poems

[@alfogel3298]

My favorite poet. I had an extensive correspondence with Bukowski in the late 70s. Great letter writer and also painter. -Al Fogel

[@puggythepug6263]

how do you recommend reading poetry like Allen ginsbergs howl or Sylvia plaths Ariel collection which makes no sense when your reading it? I really love poetry but struggle to read poems I don't understand

[@TheBookchemist]

+PuggyThePug I suggest getting a brief and concise reader's guide or introduction to the author (suddenyl I can't suggest any for the poets you mention, as I'm not their biggest fan). I'm not the greatest fan of nonsensical poetry, but it can be tons of fun (Wallace Stevens is often borderline-nonsensical), but you need some critical insight to start developing your own opinion of a specific writer.

[@gaildoughty6799]

Love this video.

[@lshe2467]

I study English/ American Literature and Civilization and I was wondering do we really enjoy poetry written in a foreign language as we do when we read poetry in our mothertongue ?

[@rjd53]

I would say definitly: YES! My native tongue is German, and there are quite a number of the best poets ever in that language, Hölderlin, Rilke, Eichendorff, Benn, Trakt etc., but I just as much enjoy reading American and French poetry. I cannot read other languages good enough, but there are so many perfect translations of Paz, Parra, Borges, Transtromer, Zagajewski, Hauge, Pessoa, just to name a few i love most, into English, so, i think, if you can read English well, you have much of the world's poetry at hand. Even if these translations were not accurate, they are great poems in their own right, and that's what counts in the end.

[@lshe2467]

I master three languages French , English and Arabic ! I enjoy Pessoa, Neruda ,Lorca and apollinaire's ,to name a few.But I always find that I don't enjoy poetry as much I do when I read Arabic ones. I think it's relative.

[@TheBookchemist]

+‫مريمات L/She‬‎ It's a nice question and I really don't know the answer - sometimes I think I'll never appreciate English poetry as fully as a native speaker would, not becasue of an issue of language skills but for the musicality and complexity of the whole experience. Volumes have been written on the topics!, and I know both optimists and pessimists on this front :)

[@AnandVenigalla]

My own favorite poets are Walt Whitman, John Milton, William Shakespeare, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost

[@Pantano63]

That's a much better list.

[@FleurPillager]

My favorite American poets are Wallace Stevens, Theodore Roetthke and Whitman.

[@FleurPillager]

Mark Strand and Billy Collins get an honorable mention.

[@AbstractASMR1]

wow those are my three favorites, too...with wc williams as a close fourth

[@Kenji.95]

do you have any recommendations on how to enjoy and appreciate poetry more? I've been interested in poetry for so long but whenever I find something that may sound worthwhile I just feel confused and know I'm missing something if that makes sense. any tips or book recommendations would be great! thanks

[@TheBookchemist]

+Alan Estrada I know the feeling and it took me years to really start to enjoy poetry on a personal level. The main trick with it is that poetry starts giving you something once you've re-read it and again again; it's very rare to find a poem that's also highly enjoyable at first reading (at least for reasons that go beyond its musicality). My suggestion would be to choose one or two poets that interest you, one or two poems that sound good (for whatever reason, really), and try to re-read them every once in a while, like three or four times a week. Every time they'll tell you something new. Also, do use reader's guides and such stuff, or even the Genius website, in 99% of cases they'll give you insights you would have otherwise missed (happens to me, at least!)

[@johnoconnor3843]

Why only English language poets?

[@olemomo8434]

dead poets society is an amazing movie :-D

[@enigma9306]

I enter here, The doorway like a monolith of blackness welcomes me with a wave of disquiet. Then I turn on the light, and see her sitting there. She has a thousand faces. She rises and walks through me like air. Or perhaps I am air. Sartre. Perhaps I am not there and she is not aware of my broken soul, a rebus eggs-essentially stuck somewhere in the margins of a page, lost in a poem that has lost its poetry. That has grasped it once upon a time but no more. And that has lost all ability to communicate meaning. And why? I wrote it. I move in, The darkness now scatters behind me. Only now, but the light is already on. All those shadows walk out on their infinitely articulated legs and they merge with the darkness and their self righteous selfsameness in an omega point that sends back tendrils through imaginary time which wrap me up and pull into the light. I close the door, I lament because this is the room of lamentations and I sit on them and I sit on my bed like Ezekiel sits on his bed of Lamentations. Oh faith! And faithfully I give Adam-pleation of an ocean of disquiet. And I wait for the door to open again, because this is a prison, and I a prisoner. And the guard. And the judge. But the key is outside, somewhere in the shadows....

[@daytonadane]

Interesting how your favorite novels are contemporary, but your favorite poetry collections are by older classic writers.