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/lit/ - Literature

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2754112 No.2754112 [Reply] [Original]

When I was a child I wanted to be a novelist. I think at the time I believed that was the only kind of writer that was. As I grew older, I was fixed on that idea, of writing novels.

I'd like, though, to try writing poetry.

Where do I start?

>> No.2754118

You need to discover poets you really admire and strive after their shadows until you find your own footing.

>> No.2754125

>>2754118
>You need to find poets you really admire
Okay, I need a kind of broad introduction to poetry. All I know is shit I read in high school and college.

>> No.2754138

When I was a child I was molested. I stopped wanting to be anything for most of my teens. That was until I met somebody who counseled me on how I dont have to carry the shame of others. My grades soon improves and I broke new ground in my social life. No longer was I scared of being linked to the monster before me. I am an okay person. I have ambition and I care for others like he never could. He lacked compassion. I am different.

>> No.2754140

>>2754125
Buy a Norton Anthology and read it all

>> No.2754147

>>2754125
Hmm do you have any favourite poets/poems that stick out in your memory? I might be able to recommend something.

You could get a Norton Anthology for a broad introduction. I've never used one of these personally though, so I can't vouch.

>> No.2754149

>>2754138
I'm sorry to hear most of that, but glad that you're a good person and feel better about yourself now.
>>2754140
Okay.

>> No.2754150

For every one hundred poems you read, write on yourself.

Repeat til death.

>> No.2754160

>>2754147
I remember hating Dickinson in high school, then loving her in college. I think I also liked Ginsberg.

This will probably make /lit/ hate me, but I fucking love Jim Morrison's Celebration of the Lizard, especially as performed live with the band in the background.

WAKE UP!

>> No.2754165

>>2754160
Oh, and this:

AFTER YEARS

Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer's retina
as he stood in the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell.

---Ted Kooser

>> No.2754168
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2754168

>>2754160
I think this picture is an appropriate response.

>> No.2754183

>>2754168
That doesn't really help, but... thanks?

>> No.2754185

Kipling Whitman Milton Tennyson Byron Dickinson Frost Cummings Tagore Basho Ovid Vergil Yeats.

FUCKING READ THEM

>> No.2754191

>>2754185
and Lawrence, Eliot, Pound, Carlos Williams, Blake, Shakespeare, Auden..

>> No.2754199

There's this piece I've been working on for a couple of months now but I have no idea how to end it.


There was a young man from Nantucket
His dick was two feet long so he sucked it

>> No.2754204

>>2754199
I think it's perfect as is.

>> No.2754212

>>2754185
>Kipling
meh
>Whitman
overrated
>Milton
All right.
>Tennyson
Not bad.
Byron
>THIS
>Dickinson
Oh please.
>Frost
Haha good one.
>Cummings
Sigh
>Basho
Yes.
>Ovid
meh
>Vergil
Fuck yes.
>Yeats
overrated like Whitman

>> No.2754215

>>2754212
>I don't like it
>better call it overrated
Okay mister poetry expert

>> No.2754218

>>2754216
He'd enjoy that

>> No.2754216

>>2754215
>implying I don't like Yeats

Whitman can go suck a cock, though.

>> No.2754228

>>2754216
And he will. Preferably youthful

>> No.2754233

>>2754212
>series of one-word responses in the negative or positive
Idiot.

>> No.2754260

>>2754160
Why are you all helping OP? He likes Morrison's poetry, for fuxake. He doesn't deserve good poetry.

>> No.2754315

OP I have a certain amount of sympathy for you because I too enjoy both actual poetry, and Jim Morrison's Celebration of the Lizard. Though I would always be deeply wary of any attempt to conflate the two.

Anyway, sorry, I don't really have any clue how to write poetry. But if you just want to read more poets, it can't be that hard to think of somebody revered, read them, and decide whether you like them or not. Poets I love who haven't been mentioned yet are Ginsberg, Olson, Shelley and Rimbaud (helps if you know some French but decent translations with parallel texts are available).

If you want to explore more of the threshold between music and poetry then check out Leonard Cohen (his published books of poetry are actually not bad), Bob Dylan (obvious but you didn't mention him so whatever, fuck his protest songs, somewhere like Highway 61 Revisited is a good place to start) and [spoilers]Rammstein[/spoilers]

>> No.2754330

>>2754315

I'm pretty drunk, please excuse my spoiler tag fail. Rammstein are pretty nice.

>> No.2756371

>>2754147
>>2754140
The Norton Anthology for anything is pretty much the gold standard. Good place to start.

>> No.2756383
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2756383

You should be happy enough writing for yourself. Also:

>Ellen Page