Recently Mike asked me for some good poetry recommendations. I’ve decided to turn my response into its own post, so here goes (forgive the comment-response format):
I’m a big fan of Milton (Lycidas, Il Penseroso & L’Allegro, At a Solemn Musick, etc.). Then there’s Shakespeare, of course. Yeats, Keats, The Brownings (Robert, Elizabeth), Gray (Favourite Cat…, Elegy in a Churchyard, etc.), Donne (Death Be Not Proud, etc.), Hopkins (Carrion Comfort, etc.), Wordsworth, Thomas (Do Not Go Gentle, etc.). There are a lot of good poets referenced in Elisabeth Elliot’s Passion and Purity and Sheldon Van Auken’s A Severe Mercy as well. T. David Gordon, in his recent book Why Johnny Can’t Preach, highly recommends Harold Bloom’s The Best Poems of the English Language : From Chaucer Through Robert Frost. (If you buy something, be sure it’s well-annotated; annotation can be a life-saver if one has no teacher to question.)
Another great resource for (especially devotional) poetry is the Trinity Hymnal and the Olney Hymns of John Newton and Charles Simeon. (I will often incorporate hymns into my private or family devotions for their theological as well as aesthetic value.) There’s so much out there – good and bad. Perhaps if Lauren (the lady-of-letters extraordinaire) stops by, she could give you some advice too…?
Anyone else have any favorite poems, poets, or any otherwise helpful advice regarding ‘the lofty rhyme’?
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well i have never been called “the lady-of-letters extraordinaire,” and with the response i am going to give, i may never be called that again!
i am not a big poetry fan. it’s not a lack-of-exposure issue, either – i took plenty of poetry classes in college. poetry is, i feel, one of the few genres that, unless you are madly in love with the stuff, requires a very self-conscious approach.
what do you want to get out of the poetry you read? because of how emotionally powerful poetry can be, no matter how much you dissect it, you come away from a poem with a certain feeling. it may not be the same as someone else would get (for example, we were subjected to a dreadful poetry reading in scotland where a pornographic poem was presented – i can’t remember if it was just in the material passed out or if it was read aloud. anyway, the point is that while some might have been titillated or gotten a laugh out of it, i was absolutely appalled.), but the feeling part of poetry is inescapable.
ok, so on to actual recommendations (i do have some, believe it or not). there are a few exceptions to my general blechness toward poetry. i LOVE homer – i think he was brilliant and i love to read his stuff. (both works, but especially the odyssey, are chock full of common grace insights, which is astounding when compared to the blindness inherent in them.) shakespeare’s plays i like (i’m afraid my shakespeare class ruined me for his sonnets, which i now find repulsive), and the brownings are good (although i think my opinion is strongly influenced by how great their love story is). i recommend shel silverstein for a laugh, and sylvia plath for a picture of what life without God feels like. emily dickinson’s theology isn’t always great, but she’s definitely one to make you think. robert frost is generally enjoyable. i love old hymns, but i find them more compelling when sung than when read as poetry.
there is a scottish poet (NOT the one mentioned previously) whose name i can’t recall who does some good Christian post modern stuff. or he did, like 7 years ago. when i go back to dallas in a couple weeks i can find the book of his poetry i bought, if you like.
as you can tell, i am not the poetry diva. far from it. i mean, my favorite poems are all works i learned in elementary school – “paul revere’s ride” by henry wadsworth longfellow; “trees” by joyce kilmer; “i’m hiding” by dorothy aldis; “it couldn’t be done” by edgar guest.
honestly, perhaps your best bet is picking up an anthology of classic children’s poetry.
but if dr seuss counts, maybe he wins.
Since you mentioned hymnals, I have to plug the Cantus Christi. Fantastic, thoughtful, purposeful collection of hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs. I really can’t recommend it highly enough.
Ballad of the White Horse and Lepanto by Chesterton. Epic poems ala Milton. White Horse is about the good King Philip and how he saved England from the invading hordes, while Lepanto recounts the great naval battle which is noted as one of the pinnacle battles saving Christian Europe from, shall we say…forced conversion.
I love Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet. Very earthly, simple language (I only read English translations). His “Odes to Common Things” and “Odes to Opposites” are my favourite collections; “Twenty Love Songs and a Song of Despair” is another. If you must only read one of his poems, read “Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines.”
I should add a commendation of The Song of Roland.
Thanks for all the recommendations! I have many places to start from now. I may start with Tolkien. He wrote a new release (though its not actually new) called the Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun based on Norse mythology.
Thanks again!