My ignorance of poetry is pretty huge, I probably haven't read anything since college twenty five years ago except for a few Shakespearean sonnets during Shaketube last year. Having said that, I enjoy when others talk about it, and maybe my own love will be kindled one day 😊.
I feel the same way with sci-fi, I LOVE hearing people talk about it, more than I actually dive into it myself. I think with poetry it's always a very conscious decision of sitting down or doing it on a train with highlighter in hand to just have a focused time dedicated to it. Let me know if you end up reading some!
Pablo Neruda! He made his poetry about celebration and remembrance, even of the hardships and darkness in life. He wrote an ode to a tomato and it still stands as one of my favorite odes to this day. Plus, the way he writes about his muses and romance in general is so touching.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning!!!!! Charlotte Mew!!!! Robert Pinsky’s translation of Inferno!!!! Gwendolyn Brooks!!!!!!!! Robert Hayden!!!!!!!! Thomas Hardy, Louise Bogan, and I don’t understand a lot of Hart Crane but I love love love reading his poems aloud
You had the precisely correct amount of fun here. Right there with you on Plath, currently reading her Letters v.2 (someday I'll save up to buy both volumes). I think she is undervalued a bit because her biography (tho important) has overshadowed her actual poems; too many people seem to admire her more as an icon than a poet -- similar to liking Marilyn Monroe but never seeing any of her movies. Birthday Letters is on my shelf. Have you read Sexton's biography by Diane Wood Middleton? I thought it was *literally* perfect. Lowell leaves me cold, but yes on Dickinson (she puts a whole world into her tiny poems) & Ginsberg (love the Pocket Poets series, tho I never thought of him as a confessional poet, hmm ... ). I've read the WWI poets, so much there & could be said. Haven't read Rilke but have his "Letters to a .,", guess I should read it now. Ooh, I have Sunstone. Perhaps *you* will have to do the right & proper translation of Eminescu ... start with a couple shorter ones. I find most poets don't consistently hit their peaks (maybe I like poems more than poets), but I'll just mention Garcia Lorca from Spain & Neruda from Chile. This was really wonderful, hope you'll do more!
I love your assigned levels of fun! I completely agree on the Plath, and the thing is, here we're supposed to see that her biography is uniquely tied to her work and they are both equally important. I have not read Sexton's biography, but I'm adding it to the list. I don't feel equipped to take on translation work, though I am flattered by the thought. You are very encouraging and kind. Also you keep increasing my TBR. I will certainly try to weave poetry in more often. I have never read any Garcia Lorca, and have merely touched upon Neruda, but I'll keep an eye out. Thank you very much
This was great. Kelly -- Books I'm Not Reading- and I are reading Plath's poetry for our March "Poetry For Beginners" series and I have to say I am enjoying her poetry more than I expected to. There are so many poets on your list that I also like -- Paz, Rilke, etc.
I'm so glad you're reading Plath! If you have some time try the video on Plath by Nick Mount. He was my professor and he takes apart some of her poems while weaving some of her biography and I found that to be such a useful springboard when taking on the Plath journey.
I love that you have your own individualized copy of Sylvia Plath's poems. It's beautiful. I really need to get a copy of Winfred Owen's poetry, everybody sings his praises and what little I have heard of his poems sounds great.
Mary Oliver and oh Marion Woodman. The latter speaks to my womanhood in all its stages and phases. She has a nice little collection of poems (with Jill Mellick) in a book called "coming home to myself". Oh so sweet. I recently found your channel and love it. I was looking for a good review of "Women who run w the wolves" and really enjoyed your review so now I am catching up w your vids. Have a great weekend!
I have never read any Marion Woodman, I am adding her to the list. Thank you so much. I'm going to look for the collection. Welcome to our little bookish community! Glad to have you here, I hope you have a lovely weekend as well
Now if you wear blackleather kneeboots with that awesome poetry collection, that's just about perfect. Good to see someone value hardcopy books as artefacts as well as for the writing - - instead of these godawful ebooks. I'm thinking of getting Allen Ginsberg 3 CD Poetry Collection, because, though not cheap, it's cheaper than buying separately, and because he is so good at reading aloud. I have that 1947-97 collection in hardback and it's fab. Oh - and Jim Jarmusch's PATERSON is one of my fave films of all time, magnificent.
Wow you're Sylvia Plath collection is amazing! I enjoy Plath's poetry though I think The Bell Jar is her masterpiece personally. I adore Wilfred Owen's poetry. Did you ever read the Pat Barker Regeneration trilogy based around his life and a few other war poets? I really enjoyed that work. My favourite poet at the moment is Kate Tempest but I also love Undying by Michelle Faber as it's so raw. This was such an interesting video :)
thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I did not read the Pat Barker trilogy but I will look out for it, sounds amazing. I have never tried Kate Tempest but I do own the Faber book, and you're right it's so heartbreaking and raw. Thanks again for watching and for your kind comment :)
Here’s a good example of a creative poem from simply observing a dove or doves supposedly the birds of peace but the hunters could care less because to them they were just a dinner meal. These are probably the thoughts that ended up in the following poem by my favorite poet, who also painted as evidenced by his original paintings he did in his limited edition poetry books. Here’s the poem: PEACE 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
Gool ol' Bukowski. I read the Notes of a Dirty Old Man and Women back in first year of undergrad, but I could never find his poetry in bookstores. I found out his works along with Philip K. Dick's were the most stolen items from bookstores at the time. His use of language doesn't appeal to me as much but I do respect his honesty and rawness when it comes to human behaviour and that pure raw feeling undressed and free of pretentiousness.
That Emily Dickinson anthology is such a gorgeous edition. Andreea, maybe you'd like to do the Poetrytube newbie tag? You can talk about all your favourite poetry there and elaborate on discussions like humour in poetry. Getting to know readers' poetry tastes is so interesting to me because they're actually quite individual. So many of us claim that we're not well versed in poetry but we actually do have distinct tastes. I just feel like I don't "get" Plath. Maybe i need to go read her poetry because i wasn't a fan of her writing style in The Bell Jar or that poem with the peanut crunching audience. (Lady Lazareth?) With confessional poetry, biography absolutely matters. You can't "criticize" someone's life or experiences because everyone's experiences are valid. Style, on the other hand, is such a subjective thing to connect to.
There is something very personal to poetry... and you know what if a poet doesn't click with you that's perfectly fine, you don't have to force it. It will only build resistance if you didn't click with the poet and others try to force you to keep trying it. I would say don't try to "Get" Plath...if it didn't work, it didn't work, and that's okay. I will keep an eye out for the poetrytube newbie tag and try to film it in the future. It sounds like fun. One of my old uni professors filmed his lecture on plath, his name is Nick Mount and he's very entertaining. I found his lectures provided a great springboard for me. Thank you for your comment :) always happy to hear from you
Plath is a very strong poet. Most, if not all, of her poems are perfect, and many of those poems do touch me and move me deeply. However, Anne Sexton I would place higher than Plath. I agree with you about Robert Lowell: I don't love everything he wrote; but I am very attached to his collection, "Notebook." Of all the poets you mention, Emily Dickinson ranks highest for me. None of these, however, are in my top-5 poets; none of them are even in my top-10. (As you said, a lot of picking favorites is subjective. I am of the mind that picking personal favorites is the fun part of criticism.) "Paterson," however, is one of my favorite individual book-length poems, even if it s author's oeuvre isn't high on the list as a whole. I have just discovered your videos, and have questions. Are you, I take it, a librarian by trade? And also, You haven't made any videos in a little over a year: have you had any ideas of doing so since your last video? Your voice is an important contribution to the modern discussion of literature.
Thank you Sebastian for your very thoughtful comment. I do love Anne Sexton too and lately, the more I get into nature writing the more I love Dickinson. Yes, I have taken an accidental break from booktube as life events took over but I am hoping to return very soon! I'm brainstorming some video ideas and hopefully I'll be back soon. Thank you again for your encouraging words
@@InfiniteText This is fantastic to learn. Many others as well as myself very much look forward to hearing someone with a serious interest in literature talk about books and poetry and writing.
no rupi kaur? jk jk, translation is important in every literary work, in poetry its importance is too much tho, so I'm very glad to know spanish and english, if you liked pablo paz check out these southamericans poets, they're my personal favorites cesar vallejo (universal poet, one of the best of all time and i'm not exxagerating, he's so well known there has to be good translations out there) pablo neruda (he has all the attention vallejo deserves but he's amazing too) alejandra pizarnik!!! (if you loved Sylvia Plath you'll definetly like her, she's basically the argentinian enfant terrible, very baudelaire like, very sylvia plath like, however her poems are very experimental in it's language use so you really need to find the proper translation of her, if there is one) hope you check at least one of them out, just discovered your channel, subbed!
My ignorance of poetry is pretty huge, I probably haven't read anything since college twenty five years ago except for a few Shakespearean sonnets during Shaketube last year. Having said that, I enjoy when others talk about it, and maybe my own love will be kindled one day 😊.
I feel the same way with sci-fi, I LOVE hearing people talk about it, more than I actually dive into it myself. I think with poetry it's always a very conscious decision of sitting down or doing it on a train with highlighter in hand to just have a focused time dedicated to it. Let me know if you end up reading some!
Pablo Neruda! He made his poetry about celebration and remembrance, even of the hardships and darkness in life. He wrote an ode to a tomato and it still stands as one of my favorite odes to this day. Plus, the way he writes about his muses and romance in general is so touching.
Thank you for recommending poetry that isn't of the contemporary Instagram genre. I love Sylvia Plath as well.
Thank you for watching :)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning!!!!! Charlotte Mew!!!! Robert Pinsky’s translation of Inferno!!!! Gwendolyn Brooks!!!!!!!! Robert Hayden!!!!!!!! Thomas Hardy, Louise Bogan, and I don’t understand a lot of Hart Crane but I love love love reading his poems aloud
You had the precisely correct amount of fun here. Right there with you on Plath, currently reading her Letters v.2 (someday I'll save up to buy both volumes). I think she is undervalued a bit because her biography (tho important) has overshadowed her actual poems; too many people seem to admire her more as an icon than a poet -- similar to liking Marilyn Monroe but never seeing any of her movies. Birthday Letters is on my shelf. Have you read Sexton's biography by Diane Wood Middleton? I thought it was *literally* perfect. Lowell leaves me cold, but yes on Dickinson (she puts a whole world into her tiny poems) & Ginsberg (love the Pocket Poets series, tho I never thought of him as a confessional poet, hmm ... ). I've read the WWI poets, so much there & could be said. Haven't read Rilke but have his "Letters to a .,", guess I should read it now. Ooh, I have Sunstone. Perhaps *you* will have to do the right & proper translation of Eminescu ... start with a couple shorter ones. I find most poets don't consistently hit their peaks (maybe I like poems more than poets), but I'll just mention Garcia Lorca from Spain & Neruda from Chile. This was really wonderful, hope you'll do more!
I love your assigned levels of fun! I completely agree on the Plath, and the thing is, here we're supposed to see that her biography is uniquely tied to her work and they are both equally important. I have not read Sexton's biography, but I'm adding it to the list. I don't feel equipped to take on translation work, though I am flattered by the thought. You are very encouraging and kind. Also you keep increasing my TBR. I will certainly try to weave poetry in more often. I have never read any Garcia Lorca, and have merely touched upon Neruda, but I'll keep an eye out. Thank you very much
This was great. Kelly -- Books I'm Not Reading- and I are reading Plath's poetry for our March "Poetry For Beginners" series and I have to say I am enjoying her poetry more than I expected to. There are so many poets on your list that I also like -- Paz, Rilke, etc.
I'm so glad you're reading Plath! If you have some time try the video on Plath by Nick Mount. He was my professor and he takes apart some of her poems while weaving some of her biography and I found that to be such a useful springboard when taking on the Plath journey.
@@InfiniteText Thank you for the lead. I will look for that. I really like "Full Fathom Five" and "Black Rook in the Rain"
Right on . . .
Well said!
I love that you have your own individualized copy of Sylvia Plath's poems. It's beautiful. I really need to get a copy of Winfred Owen's poetry, everybody sings his praises and what little I have heard of his poems sounds great.
I just finished reading your post on Plath and Hughes and that was wonderful and so informative. Thanks for linking to it!
Mary Oliver and oh Marion Woodman. The latter speaks to my womanhood in all its stages and phases. She has a nice little collection of poems (with Jill Mellick) in a book called "coming home to myself". Oh so sweet. I recently found your channel and love it. I was looking for a good review of "Women who run w the wolves" and really enjoyed your review so now I am catching up w your vids. Have a great weekend!
I have never read any Marion Woodman, I am adding her to the list. Thank you so much. I'm going to look for the collection. Welcome to our little bookish community! Glad to have you here, I hope you have a lovely weekend as well
Great video, hon!! Keep em coming!
Now if you wear blackleather kneeboots with that awesome poetry collection, that's just about perfect. Good to see someone value hardcopy books as artefacts as well as for the writing - - instead of these godawful ebooks. I'm thinking of getting Allen Ginsberg 3 CD Poetry Collection, because, though not cheap, it's cheaper than buying separately, and because he is so good at reading aloud. I have that 1947-97 collection in hardback and it's fab. Oh - and Jim Jarmusch's PATERSON is one of my fave films of all time, magnificent.
Wow you're Sylvia Plath collection is amazing! I enjoy Plath's poetry though I think The Bell Jar is her masterpiece personally. I adore Wilfred Owen's poetry. Did you ever read the Pat Barker Regeneration trilogy based around his life and a few other war poets? I really enjoyed that work. My favourite poet at the moment is Kate Tempest but I also love Undying by Michelle Faber as it's so raw. This was such an interesting video :)
thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I did not read the Pat Barker trilogy but I will look out for it, sounds amazing. I have never tried Kate Tempest but I do own the Faber book, and you're right it's so heartbreaking and raw. Thanks again for watching and for your kind comment :)
Here’s a good example of a creative poem from simply observing a dove or doves supposedly the birds of peace but the hunters could care less because to them they were just a dinner meal. These are probably the thoughts that ended up in the following poem by my favorite poet, who also painted as evidenced by his original paintings he did in his limited edition poetry books. Here’s the poem:
PEACE
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
Gool ol' Bukowski. I read the Notes of a Dirty Old Man and Women back in first year of undergrad, but I could never find his poetry in bookstores. I found out his works along with Philip K. Dick's were the most stolen items from bookstores at the time. His use of language doesn't appeal to me as much but I do respect his honesty and rawness when it comes to human behaviour and that pure raw feeling undressed and free of pretentiousness.
My 5 favourite poets -
Shadwell
Cibber
Rowe
Byron
Austin
I have never read any Shadwell or Cibber. Any suggestions on a starting point? Thank you for your comment
@@InfiniteText
If you wish to you could look up the poem 'The Blind Boy' by Cibber on the computer.
It is a well loved poem. You'll probably enjoy it.
That Emily Dickinson anthology is such a gorgeous edition. Andreea, maybe you'd like to do the Poetrytube newbie tag? You can talk about all your favourite poetry there and elaborate on discussions like humour in poetry. Getting to know readers' poetry tastes is so interesting to me because they're actually quite individual. So many of us claim that we're not well versed in poetry but we actually do have distinct tastes.
I just feel like I don't "get" Plath. Maybe i need to go read her poetry because i wasn't a fan of her writing style in The Bell Jar or that poem with the peanut crunching audience. (Lady Lazareth?) With confessional poetry, biography absolutely matters. You can't "criticize" someone's life or experiences because everyone's experiences are valid. Style, on the other hand, is such a subjective thing to connect to.
There is something very personal to poetry... and you know what if a poet doesn't click with you that's perfectly fine, you don't have to force it. It will only build resistance if you didn't click with the poet and others try to force you to keep trying it. I would say don't try to "Get" Plath...if it didn't work, it didn't work, and that's okay. I will keep an eye out for the poetrytube newbie tag and try to film it in the future. It sounds like fun. One of my old uni professors filmed his lecture on plath, his name is Nick Mount and he's very entertaining. I found his lectures provided a great springboard for me. Thank you for your comment :) always happy to hear from you
Plath is a very strong poet. Most, if not all, of her poems are perfect, and many of those poems do touch me and move me deeply. However, Anne Sexton I would place higher than Plath. I agree with you about Robert Lowell: I don't love everything he wrote; but I am very attached to his collection, "Notebook." Of all the poets you mention, Emily Dickinson ranks highest for me.
None of these, however, are in my top-5 poets; none of them are even in my top-10. (As you said, a lot of picking favorites is subjective. I am of the mind that picking personal favorites is the fun part of criticism.) "Paterson," however, is one of my favorite individual book-length poems, even if it s author's oeuvre isn't high on the list as a whole.
I have just discovered your videos, and have questions. Are you, I take it, a librarian by trade? And also, You haven't made any videos in a little over a year: have you had any ideas of doing so since your last video? Your voice is an important contribution to the modern discussion of literature.
Thank you Sebastian for your very thoughtful comment. I do love Anne Sexton too and lately, the more I get into nature writing the more I love Dickinson. Yes, I have taken an accidental break from booktube as life events took over but I am hoping to return very soon! I'm brainstorming some video ideas and hopefully I'll be back soon. Thank you again for your encouraging words
@@InfiniteText This is fantastic to learn.
Many others as well as myself very much look forward to hearing someone with a serious interest in literature talk about books and poetry and writing.
no rupi kaur? jk jk, translation is important in every literary work, in poetry its importance is too much tho, so I'm very glad to know spanish and english, if you liked pablo paz check out these southamericans poets, they're my personal favorites
cesar vallejo (universal poet, one of the best of all time and i'm not exxagerating, he's so well known there has to be good translations out there)
pablo neruda (he has all the attention vallejo deserves but he's amazing too)
alejandra pizarnik!!! (if you loved Sylvia Plath you'll definetly like her, she's basically the argentinian enfant terrible, very baudelaire like, very sylvia plath like, however her poems are very experimental in it's language use so you really need to find the proper translation of her, if there is one)
hope you check at least one of them out, just discovered your channel, subbed!
Great video👌
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)