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/lit/ - Literature

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13715366 No.13715366 [Reply] [Original]

Where do I start with poetry? Who is worth reading and who is not?

>> No.13715376

If you are an English speaker, read Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton. Homer is important of course, and completely worth your time, just understand that you are reading someone else's interpretation of it in translation.

>> No.13715386

Shakespeare's Sonnets
Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake

>> No.13715413

>>13715386
based Blake

I enjoyed Byron a lot, but I discovered him pretty late and I'm not a native. Also try Trakl and Goethe as you progress. Trakl feels like Kafka as a poet.

>> No.13715450

>>13715376
>>13715386
>>13715413
Thanks for the tips bros!

>> No.13715507

Some short ones that should have a pretty obvious appeal
>Ozymandias
>In Memoriam AHH
>Hope is the thing with feathers

>> No.13715510

>>13715450
Forgot to mention Rilke. One of the top German poets I have read.

Don't know about the translations, but try Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Tutchevm Blok, Esenin, Mayakovsky, Ahmatova, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak and Brodsky. Essential Russian poetry, some I enjoy a lot, some not so much, but its all pretty good

>> No.13715515

>>13715366
Start with the geeks.

>> No.13715541

start with a storyline and turn it into an allusion which rhymes, strip down words you don't need to, make it all fit

>> No.13715591

>>13715366
From what I've read,

John Keats is solid if you're interested in Romanticism.
American poetry wouldn't be complete without Whitman and Dickinson. Sylvia Plath wrote some alright poems, but I honestly prefer her short stories.

>> No.13716930

The bet poet I believe I've ever read is James Baldwin. William Earnest Henley is probably one of the best in the 19th Century.

>> No.13716959

>>13715510
For Eugene Onegin by Pushkin the Falen translation reads beautifully, couldn't recommend more

>> No.13716970

>>13715366
my diary

>> No.13716972

Robert Frost

>> No.13716978

>>13715376
Spenser is garbage

>> No.13717447

>>13715366
Start with a collection of english lang poetry, probably norton or something, flag the poets you like and look more into them and their contemporaries first.

I also strongly urge you to explore some contemporary poets like ocean Vuong, R Reeves, Shane McCrae, Christian Bok, John Ashbery, and Sharon Olds

>> No.13717453

>>13717447
Dont believe people when they contemporary poetry is shit. A lot of it is, but not all of it! Im a poetry grad student and literally just this night my classmates and i were shitting on Rupi Kaur and other "objectively bad" poets

>> No.13717466

>>13716978
If you think Spenser is a bad poet, who can you possibly think a good one?

>> No.13718476
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13718476

>>13715510
>essential russian poetry
>not including Afanasy Fet
pleb

>> No.13718675

>>13715591
>Sylvia Plath wrote some alright poems, but I honestly prefer her short stories.
"some alright poems" lmao, she's a legendary poet and mediocre at prose. Ariel is a total classic. you should be more honest about your shortcomings instead of lashing out at the writer, it's clear you prefer her stories because they're more palatable, while her poems probably leave you scratching your head.

>> No.13718689

>>13716930
Ok.

>> No.13718697 [DELETED] 

>>13717447
>I also strongly urge you to explore some contemporary poets like ocean Vuong, Shane McCrae, Christian Bok, John Ashbery, and Sharon Olds
Fuck this was painful to read, I hate people. To list fucking Ocean Vuong as well, it's too much. I hope you die.

>> No.13718700

>>13717466
ignore him, he was obviously filtered hard and still reeling lmao

>> No.13718704

>>13717447
>Ocean Vuong
Where do you think you are? tumblr? you're approximately one single braincell away from recommending Rupi Kaur.

>> No.13718723

>>13717447
You've so transparently got no idea about poetry and only know what you've skimmed through contemporarily. Will never understand what compells such sorts to feign authority anonymously, and of their own volition.