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/lit/ - Literature

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695007 No.695007 [Reply] [Original]

So /lit/, the boredom has set in. I'm tired of everything I've been reading, so I need something new. I realized that I never really read poetry at all, except when I was forced to in school, so I figure you fine people could get my head out of my ass and pointed in the right direction.

tl;dr I need good poetry that I can give a shit about.

Pic related. It's the standard by which everything will be judged, as it's the only poetry I've really read thoroughly of my own volition.

>> No.695011

I, too, only read poems I had to in English class.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner was the only one I ever liked.

>> No.695012

Your problem is that you started with some of the greatest. It will be hard to beat.

>> No.695010

Try other epic poetry if you liked The Poetic Edda. Get a verse translation of The Iliad, The Odyssey, or the Metamorphoses.

>> No.695020

>>695010
Any specific translators? I really got lucky with Hollander, I've read several translations since then, and his was the best, poetically.

>>695012
Inorite?

>> No.695033

>>695020
Fagles translations of Homer's work.

>> No.695053

>>695033
I'll definitely check that out.

>>695011
That too

Keep being awesome, /lit/.

>> No.695070
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695070

>> No.695117

I've always liked Robert Service, manly poems about the frozen north!

>> No.695135

Borges, seriously. I don't even like poems but I loved the ones he wrote.

"We are the time. We are the famous
metaphor from Heraclitus the Obscure.

We are the water, not the hard diamond,
the one that is lost, not the one that stands still.

We are the river and we are that greek
that looks himself into the river. His reflection
changes into the waters of the changing mirror,
into the crystal that changes like the fire.

We are the vain predetermined river,
in his travel to his sea.

The shadows have surrounded him.
Everything said goodbye to us, everything goes away.

Memory does not stamp his own coin.

However, there is something that stays
however, there is something that bemoans. "

>> No.695152

Leaves of Grass
Frost
Poe

Easy enough without a bunch of crazy metaphors muddling up the message. Should get you interested in poetry.

>> No.695165

>>695152
Really, Poe isn't a very good poet. And if The Poetic Edda is OP's style, Poe won't do the trick. Whitman is good but probably also unlikely to be to OP's taste. Frost might be, especially his more rhythmic poems.

>> No.695170

Read Goethe. First Sorrows of Young Werther, then Faust. Do it do it do it!!!

>> No.695428

I really really enjoyed the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost. Also you can't go wrong with the Iliad or the Aeneid.

>> No.695441
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695441

>>695165
> Poe isn't a very good poet
Take that back!
Actually, he was more a stylistically "good" poet. Sort of like Fitzgerald. Beautiful to read, but empty when you actually think about it.

>> No.695444

Beowulf in the Seamus Heaney translation will be perfect for you, I think.

>> No.695454

>>695441
He wasn't a stylistically very good poet. He could make the ends of his lines rhyme and write a good story into his poems, but his language was empty compared to the great poets of his day. That's not to say his poems aren't fun to read, but he was hardly a master poet. It's popcorn poetry, not high art.

>> No.695458

>>695454
>not high art
Oh, here we go again. Nice job, faggot.

>> No.695463

>>695458
Still doesn't change the fact that. Video games are not art.

>> No.695465

>>695458
I guess I mean to say that Poe's genius is all in his narrative, not in his words. Most poets pick each syllable with precision. Poe wanted to drive his tale forward. It doesn't mean he was bad, but he had a very different goal than a typical poet.

>> No.695469

>>695465
Then do you consider Bukowski a good poet? His poems are purely story driven as well.

>> No.695482

>>695469
Honestly, no, I don't think Bukowski's a very good poet. He's a good storyteller, though, and I have three of his poetry readings on my iPod. To me they really feel like stories chopped up into short lines. His way with language isn't his strength in his prose or poetry. His storytelling is often top-notch.