I have always been a huge fan of poetry; reading and writing from a young age. Eventually, I moved onto songwriting and the lyrics of Hendrix, Dylan or the Beatles replaced Larkin, Yeats and Allan Ahlberg for profound, metaphorical needs.
However, there are some classic poems out there that safely capture the wisdom of the ages on paper.
Here are my Top 6 Poems of all time
1.Pablo Neruda – ‘How long?’
I loved this poem since the first time I read it in my early 20s. It sums up the hypocrisy of society and pointless ritual of diplomacy that a young man challenges when first going out and learning how the world works. I wish I had listened to the pallbearers back in then though.
2. DH Lawrence – ‘Song of a man who is not loved’.
A perfectly succinct but dangerously truthful explanation of how it feels to be lonely and unloved, for those that really do feel like they are outside the realm of happiness.
Lawrence’s antidotal bookend poem ‘Song of a man who is loved’ makes an effort to show the other side but it is not nearly as powerful or haunting in my opinion.
3. W.B. Yeats – ‘He wishes for the cloths of heaven’
An absolute classic, short sweet and perfect prose in every way; semantics, linguistics, rhythm. The final verse brought to life by Sean Bean in Equilibrium:
4. Allen Ginsburg – ‘A Supermarket in California’
Arguably the first postmodern prose ( never argue about postmodernity, someone always has different ideas). The poem really captures that all day drinking, in your early 20s/ optimistically ‘follow the night and see where you end up’ vibe well.
If you aren’t familiar with Walt Whitman, you might know him as ‘Uncle Walt’ from the immortal ‘O’captain, my captain’ line in Dead Poets Society:
5. Philip Larkin – ‘This be the verse’
Agonistic teenage rebellion coated with Larkin’s own middle-aged lethargic nihilism. The lyrics are true to any family if only uttered under the breath of the subconscious. It was also one of his rare ‘upbeat’ poetic works, hidden amongst his a-typically passively descriptive back catalogue.
6. Dylan Thomas – ‘Do not go gentle’.
This poem to literature is likened to what Nietzsche’s ‘ Twilight of the Idols’ is to philosophy. The struggle of life and survival is laid out bare for all to see and understand. Every verse of this immortal poem reflects a stage in a lifetime, offering some contribution of comfort to it too.
‘Death shall have no dominion; is also a great effort from the man who managed to offer lyrics that are remarkably comforting around the balance of nature but yet remain consistently defiant of it.
So there you have it! My Two ( or Six ) cents in the matter of poetry,. I write my own too so feel fee to stop over on my other blog and have a read.
Rant &Rave 