Date |
Poem |
Poet |
First Impression |
December 19, 2017 |
Dulce et Decorum Est |
Wilfried Owen |
Asshole people |
December 20, 2017 |
Mowing |
Robert Frost |
Just about working. The job is the poetry. |
December 21, 2017 |
Out, Out |
Robert Frost |
Working is dangerous. Poem for the workshop |
December 22, 2017 |
Birches |
Robert Frost |
Very Nice. |
December 23, 2017 |
Home Burial |
Robert Frost |
Sad. How do people live after death of a kid. |
December 24, 2017 |
|
|
|
December 25, 2017 |
Directive |
Robert Frost |
This poem makes me feel dumb, or young. Or both |
December 26, 2017 |
The Road Not Taken |
Robert Frost |
Honest about old men. |
December 27, 2017 |
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening |
Robert Frost |
Sweet, lonely. One to keep going on. |
December 28, 2017 |
The Gift Outright |
Robert Frost |
USA! USA! USA! |
December 29, 2017 |
The Song of Wandering Aengus |
W.B. Yeats |
Romanitc fantasies can be nice. |
December 30, 2017 |
Mending Wall |
Robert Frost |
IF it doesn’t make sense, stop doing it. Nom atter what people say.
|
December 31, 2017 |
A Coat |
W.B. Yeats |
Yes! Paint this on a wall somewhere |
January 1, 2018 |
The Fisherman |
W.B. Yeats |
Yes, Mr. Yeats. People are idiots. |
January 2, 2018 |
Easter, 1916 |
W.B. Yeats |
I know too little history |
January 3, 2018 |
The Second Coming |
W.B. Yeats |
Scary, disturbing |
January 4, 2018 |
The Magi |
W.B. Yeats |
Glorious after re-reading in it’s antipathy to people |
January 5, 2018 |
Leda and the Swan |
W.B. Yeats |
I know too little mythology.Final question reminded me of the Crosses…did they know what they were doing?
|
January 6, 2018 |
Sailing to Byzantium` |
W.B. Yeats |
I identify with it a bit too much. |
January 7, 2018 |
In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz |
W.B. Yeats |
Again, I know too little history. I enjoyed more once I educated myself.
|
January 8, 2018 |
Charge of the Light Bridage |
Tennyson |
Sad but….juanty. The juanty glorifies too much for my taste. Not to reason why….to hell with that.
|
January 9, 2018 |
Two Songs from a Play |
W.B. Yeats |
No video Fourth stanza…buddhism, hedonic adaptation. Round and Round
|
January 10, 2018 |
Vacillation |
W.B. Yeats |
A mountain that can’t be climbed at work. Excerpts are nice advice
|
January 11, 2018 |
Crazy Janes Talks with the Bishop |
W.B. Yeats |
Sing-songy. It took me a re-read. But I like the philosophy of Crazy Jane.
|
January 12, 2018 |
Lapis Lazuli |
W.B. Yeats |
I needed help again but good poem for bad times. |
January 13, 2018 |
Channel Firing |
Thomas Hardy |
I liked this a lot. Poems with characters |
January 14, 2018 |
In the Time of the Breaking of Nations |
Thomas Hardy |
“Time marches on….” Not sure I agree with this poem. |
January 15, 2018 |
I Looked Up from My Writing |
Thomas Hardy |
Hardy scolding himself….your life can’t/shouldn’t stop because another’s does.
|
January 16, 2018 |
Adlestrop |
Edward Thomas |
A dialogue..Kind of reminds me of a Hemingway short story. I think I’d like to read more of him.
|
January 17, 2018 |
Blighters |
Siegfried Sassoon |
Angry much?! at the home front. Good image. |
January 18, 2018 |
Louse Hunting |
Isaac Rosenberg |
A different WWI horror. Free verse, hard to get at for me. |
January 19, 2018 |
Strange Meeting |
Wilfred Owen |
Going to Hell…Wonderful. I like poems with narrative, honestly. Old habits.
|
January 20, 2018 |
Garden |
Hilda Doolittle |
I like the idea of imagism…I need to get comfortable with the execution.
|
January 21, 2018 |
Sea Rose |
Hilda Doolittle |
I don’t find the repetition of words intensifiying, just limited. |
January 22, 2018 |
Oread |
Hilda Doolittle |
Seems older, Romantic era? Again with the word repetition. |
January 23, 2018 |
In a Station of the Metro |
Ezra Pound |
1st thought- WTF? Second thought: It was only my expectations that gave me the first thought, not the poem.
|
January 24, 2018 |
Jewel Stairs Grievance |
Ezra Pound/Li Po |
Repeat words again. No lover in the poem just the notes. A scene, an image.
|
January 25, 2018 |
River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter |
Ezra Pound/Li Po |
The heart-hurt of 15. A way to access the fading memory of that, poetry.
|
January 26, 2018 |
The Seafarer |
Ezra Pound |
Showing off over clarity? This made me colder….funny thought: he’s a whiner? If the sailing life is cold and lonely, get off the boat.
|
January 27, 2018 |
Canto I |
Ezra Pound |
Homer again. He’s at the root of it all, no? |
January 28, 2018 |
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock |
T.S. Elliot |
How’s a 22 year old write like this? Cut’s too close to the bone for a man of my age and history.
|
January 29, 2018 |
The Waste Land: Burial of the Dead |
T.S. Elliot |
This poem is going to be a long, symbolic, allusive slog. |
January 30, 2018 |
The Waste Land: A Game of Chess |
T.S. Elliot |
I read a Christopher Hitchens Atlantic review calling this poem over rated….yeah. Agreeing right now.
|
January 31, 2018 |
The Waste Land: Parts 3,4, & 5 |
T.S. Elliot |
Exhaustive and exhausting poem. It’s what people like me hate and what I need to learn.
|
February 1, 2018 |
Legend |
Hart Crane |
It doesn’t ring with me. Or touch me. Because it’s dense or oblique?
|
February 2, 2018 |
Voyages |
Hart Crane |
Better than Legend but a bit sloopy and over the top. |
February 3, 2018 |
The Bridge |
Hart Crane |
Reading this my mind turned to those early American Film actors who spoke like Brits.
|
February 4, 2018 |
The Negro Speaks of Rivers |
Langston Hughes |
Thank GOODNESS…in ‘the vernacular’. Now THIS is a poem. 🙂 |
February 5, 2018 |
Song for a Dark Girl |
Langston Hughes |
“Gnarled and naked tree” hits me hard for some reason. |
February 6, 2018 |
Life is Fine |
Langston Hughes |
Fun but ok, I’m never satisfied, maybe I want a little more challenging.
|
February 7, 2018 |
The Red Wheelbarrow |
William Carlos Williams |
A word painting, you can project onto it. I like it more the more I read it.
|
February 8, 2018 |
The Great Figure |
William Carlos Williams |
Imagiste?!? I’m not sure why I’m enjoying WCW’s as much as I do.
|
February 9, 2018 |
Spring and All |
William Carlos Williams |
Took a couple reads to get the rhythem. Is he the hemingway of poetry?
|
February 10, 2018 |
If |
Rudyard Kipling |
Poetry as advice column. Reminds me of Polonius. |
February 11, 2018 |
This Is Just To Say |
William Carlos Williams |
I love these. True. Real. Peaceful. |
February 12, 2018 |
Ozymandias |
Shelley |
I needed this today-feeling self-important in a negative way. |
February 13, 2018 |
My Last Duchess |
Robert Browning |
Spooky. Creepy. I wish more poems told stories. Even incomplete-good imaginative stepping off points.
|
February 14, 2018 |
Love’s Philosophy |
Shelley |
Simple love poem? In trying to read deeper, I annoy myself. |
February 15, 2018 |
A Grave |
Marianne Moore |
No good video. No charm to it. Cold. |
February 16, 2018 |
England |
Marianne Moore |
I guess if you call it what it is – an essay, Ezra won’t read it? |
February 17, 2018 |
An Octopus |
Marianne Moore |
Another essay. OK. I get it but just not for me. Qouting brochures?
|
February 18, 2018 |
Neutral Tones |
Thomas Hardy |
Cinematic, post-break up bitterness. Anger drips from it. |
February 19, 2018 |
Silence |
Marianne Moore |
Readable, short, one long quote. Whatever. |
February 20, 2018 |
The Fish |
Marianne Moore |
I mean, I’m trying. I really am. Must be open. At least they’re rhyms
|
February 21, 2018 |
To a Snail |
Marianne Moore |
Again, I feel I’m reading an essay. |
February 22, 2018 |
Sonnet 29 |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
Kind of hot. 🙂 She really likes the guy. Very nice. |
February 23, 2018 |
To My Coy Mistress |
Andrew Marvell |
Fun. Beautiful. Cheeky….understandable. relatable. |
February 24, 2018 |
Do Not Go Gentle In to that Good Night |
Dylan Thomas |
Pleading, plaintive. |
February 25, 2018 |
Westminister Bridge |
William Wordsworth |
Very nice word picture. |
February 26, 2018 |
London |
William Blake |
It’s a Monday. Not sure I’m up for 18th c. London’s misery. |
February 27, 2018 |
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] |
e.e. cummings |
Sweet, not saccarine. Approachable. |
February 28, 2018 |
When We Two Parted |
Lord Byron |
Breaking up is hard to do. |
March 1, 2018 |
No Second Troy |
W.B. Yeats |
Like Neutral Tones or yesterday’s, I enjoy these harsh heart-aches
|
March 2, 2018 |
When I Buy Pictures |
Marianne Moore |
Requires re-reading. First impression is “Uh?” |
March 3, 2018 |
The Paper Nautilus |
Marianne Moore |
Understood more once I figured out what a paper nautilius was. |
March 4, 2018 |
The Farmer’s Bride |
Charlotte Mew |
Tragic story nicely told. |
March 5, 2018 |
Sunday Morning |
Wallace Stevens |
I like the old image of reading the paper on Sunday morning. |
March 6, 2018 |
The Poems of Our Climate |
Wallace Stevens |
A nice description of Buddhist unsatisfactoriness/Hedonic adaptation
|
March 7, 2018 |
The Man on the Dump |
Wallace Stevens |
This feels self-indulgenty for some reason. What’s wrong with clarity?
|
March 8, 2018 |
The Auroras of Autumn |
Wallace Stevens |
I sense (or impose?) touches of a Buddhist outlook/perspective. |
March 9, 2018 |
Large Red Man Reading |
Wallace Stevens |
Buddhism again? Embrace the now. The future is not reality. Now is.
|
March 10, 2018 |
Gubbinal |
Wallace Stevens |
Good to say to myself when I go all negative. |
March 11, 2018 |
Mid-term Break |
Seamus Heaney |
Again, love poems with narrative. Then art and grace are a plus. |
March 12, 2018 |
Digging |
Seamus Heaney |
I’ve found a favorite poet possibly. |
March 13, 2018 |
The Soldier |
Rupert Brooke |
Boo! Pro-war. I just can’t enjoy it really. Second stanza seems…muddled somehow.
|
March 14, 2018 |
The Good Morrow |
John Donne |
Ambivalent about this one. I like the intent, not the execution fully. Maybe the language.
|
March 15, 2018 |
Toads |
Philip Larkin |
This one made me smile broadly. And grimace grimly. |
March 16, 2018 |
Toads Revisited |
Philip Larkin |
I could hear what my voice could become if I let it. |
March 17, 2018 |
Refugee Mother and Child |
Chinua Achebe |
Tragic but didn’t hit me as hard as it should. |
March 18, 2018 |
The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain |
Wallace Stevens |
A writer’s poem. I like it. Something to read, re-read when I write again.
|
March 19, 2018 |
The Plain Sense of Things |
Wallace Stevens |
I’m not sure I understand fully but feel the need to revisist this poem often in the years to come.
|
March 20, 2018 |
The Casualty |
Seamus Heaney |
While good, the topical, political just doesn’t appeal to me. |
March 21, 2018 |
Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself |
Wallace Stevens |
A simple, beautiful picture of spring. |
March 22, 2018 |
Porphyria’s Lover |
Robert Browning |
A good one…Bobby B sure was dark. Again, I like narrative. |
March 23, 2018 |
Prelude: Boat Stealing Episode |
William Wordsworth |
I love this. Fits with my viewpoint. We know nothing. Don’t fear it, however.
|
March 24, 2018 |
The Garden by Moonlight |
Amy Lowell |
Is this about yearning for a kid? I liked “Moon spikes shafting….” |
March 25, 2018 |
A Primitive Like an Orb |
Wallace Stevens |
Not for me. I like “The lover writes, the believer hears….” bits |
March 26, 2018 |
She Walks in Beauty |
Lord Byron |
My first thought seems condescening: sweet. But I don’t mean cheaply saccarhine
|
March 27, 2018 |
The Lady of Shalott |
Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
Narrative, characters, Up my alley. AND many perspectives can be taken.
|
March 28, 2018 |
Lady Lazarus |
Sylvia Plath |
The Nazi stuff is a bit rough on me. Too much for her? |
March 29, 2018 |
Because I could not stop Death |
Emily Dickinson |
I like the image this creates for me. |
March 30, 2018 |
Casey at the Bat |
Ernest Lawrence Thayer |
It’s Opening Day. I don’t appreciate baseball but I do enjoy stories
|
March 31, 2018 |
The Raven |
Edgar Allan Poe |
Again, I like narrative. Crowd pleaser, me pleaser. |
April 1, 2018 |
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud |
William Wordsworth |
Just simply pretty. |
April 2, 2018 |
I Died for Beauty |
Emily Dickinson |
How do you die for beauty? Something to think about. |
April 3, 2018 |
The Loner |
Charles Bukowski |
I like. Future me? Who’s the loner? The old guy or the speaker? |
April 4, 2018 |
Still I Rise |
Maya Angelou |
I like the rythym. Some of the symbols seem….awkward. |
April 5, 2018 |
Annabell Lee |
Edgar Allan Poe |
Poe sure could rock his morbid love. |
April 6, 2018 |
Sonnet 1 |
William Shakespeare |
I find it harder to read than in the past for some reason. |
April 7, 2018 |
There’s a Certain Slant of Light |
Emily Dickinson |
I don’t know what light but will look out for it. |
April 8, 2018 |
Mutability |
Percy Blythe Shelley |
Good to write on a wall somewhere. |
April 9, 2018 |
Bayonet Charge |
Ted Hughes |
This one leaves me shrugging my shoulders. |
April 10, 2018 |
Sonnet 42 |
William Shakespeare |
A sonnet for cuckolds? Making the best of a bad situation, I guess.
|
April 11, 2018 |
If you were coming in the fall |
Emily Dickinson |
Two versions, I like the less Dickinson. Conventional, nice. |
April 12, 2018 |
Sonnet 55 |
William Shakespeare |
I like how it praises the subject and the poetry. Cheeky Will. |
April 13, 2018 |
As if the Sea Should Part |
Emily Dickinson |
Not my fav from Em. Disjointed, almost a sketch, not complete |
April 14, 2018 |
Sonnet 18 |
William Shakespeare |
I like to read it as a eulogy. |
April 15, 2018 |
The Whitsun Weddings |
Philip Larkin |
Wonderful. Almost perfect for me. |
April 16, 2018 |
An Arundel Tomb |
Philip Larkin |
The last line, of course. |
April 17, 2018 |
Walking Away |
C. Day Lewis |
“selfhood begins with a walking away. And Love is proved in the letting go.”
|
April 18, 2018 |
Ode on a Grecian Urn |
John Keats |
It would be nice to get this excited at the museum. |
April 19, 2018 |
Exposure |
Wilfred Owen |
The oppressiveness of terrifying boredom. |
April 20, 2018 |
I started Early – Took my Dog |
Emily Dickinson |
A bit dreamy, trippy. |
April 21, 2018 |
Before You Were Mine |
Carol Ann Duffy |
Nice except for poet feeling bad about being born. |
April 22, 2018 |
To My Dear and Loving Husband |
Anne Bradstreet |
Wow. This guy rings her puritan bell. |
April 23, 2018 |
War Photographer |
Carol Ann Duffy |
This ticks so many good buttons for me. Read more Duffy. |
April 24, 2018 |
The New Colossus |
Emma Lazarus |
The welcome is nice but the rebuf is cool too. |
April 25, 2018 |
Checking Out Me History |
John Agard |
So go learn that history. No one is stopping you,. |
April 26, 2018 |
Fra Lippi Lippo |
Robert Browning |
I like Mr. B’s stuff performed much better than just reading it. |
April 27, 2018 |
Kamakaze |
Beatrice Garland |
Well told heartbreaking story. From war to a grandson. |
April 28, 2018 |
Frost at Midnight |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
Beautiful, after reading some analysis & three times. |
April 29, 2018 |
Follower |
Seamus Heaney |
Bitingly good. Sad. |
April 30, 2018 |
kitchenette building |
Gwendolyn Brooks |
Reality Sucks. “Dream” in this context and time is hard to read. |
May 1, 2018 |
Storm on the Island |
Seamus Heaney |
Well told poem about strong people. |
May 2, 2018 |
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
Epic! |
May 3, 2018 |
Mother, Any Distance |
Simon Armitage |
Touching without sweetness. |
May 4, 2018 |
Tonight |
Agha Shahid Ali |
It doesn’t click with me. |
May 5, 2018 |
Eden Rock |
Charles Causley |
Seems nice but chilling the more I re-read. |
May 6, 2018 |
The Truth the Dead Know |
Anne Sexton |
Something too posturing about this. Empty, maybe. |
May 7, 2018 |
Letters from Yorkshire |
Maura Dooley |
I like this one, a lot. Seems pure and honest and true. |
May 8, 2018 |
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot |
Alexander Pope |
Interesting…historically. Some things to say but won’t read again.
|
May 9, 2018 |
Winter Swans |
Owen Sheers |
A nice positive moment. More common in life, less in poetry. |
May 10, 2018 |
The Answer |
Anne Finch |
Like coming in half way through a conversation, a good one. |
May 11, 2018 |
The Emigree |
Carol Rumens |
Complex language, intriguing, interesting. |
May 12, 2018 |
Ballad in A |
Cathy Park Hong |
This seemed like a gimmick or an exercise. Dumb. |
May 13, 2018 |
Climbing My Grandfather |
Andrew Waterhouse |
I liked this. The metaphor really worked for me. |
May 14, 2018 |
Singh Song |
Daljit Nagra |
Nice day in the life of an indian shop keeper. |
May 15, 2018 |
Under the Poplars |
Cesar Vallejo |
Too oblique for me. Maybe lost in translation. |
May 16, 2018 |
Poppies |
Jane Weir |
A war poem? I guess. A son poem more so. Endless war poem |
May 17, 2018 |
The Trees are Down |
Charlotte Mew |
Powerful gut punch. |
May 18, 2018 |
Tissue |
Imitiaz Dharker |
Musical but free verse. Something I really like in the pace, word choice, topic.
|
May 19, 2018 |
Death |
Donald Revell |
This went right over my head. Modernist wihtout the cool allusions
|
May 20, 2018 |
Remains |
Simon Armitage |
This left me cold. Third person experience. Made to order. |
May 21, 2018 |
Fern Hill |
Dylan Thomas |
I found the language inpenatrable to what it’s supposed to convey.
|
May 22, 2018 |
Sonnet 43: How Do I Love Thee |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
One of the hits. Always good. For a reason. |
May 23, 2018 |
The Darlkling Thrush |
Thomas Hardy |
Take joy wherever you are. Nice. |
May 24, 2018 |
Dover Beach |
Matthew Arnold |
Gothic-feeling beauty and desolation and despair. |
May 25, 2018 |
Sonnet 116 |
William Shakespeare |
Perfection. |
May 26, 2018 |
Remember |
Christina Rossetti |
Lovely. |
May 27, 2018 |
The Listeners |
Walter De La Mare |
Spooky in a great way. I want to read more of him. |
May 28, 2018 |
Song of Myself |
Walt Whitman |
Got half way through it. It deserves more than a day. |
May 29, 2018 |
O Captain! My Captain |
Walt Whitman |
Walt knocks it out of the park. |
May 30, 2018 |
The Idea of Order at Key West |
Wallace Stevens |
I wrestle with him and he always wins. |
May 31, 2018 |
Middle Passage |
Robert Hayden |
I like the mix of cold fact entries and the horror of it. |
June 1, 2018 |
One Art |
Elizabeth Bishop |
I really like this one. Light love poem, ironical. |
June 2, 2018 |
Memories of West Street and Lepke |
Robert Lowell |
I like these snapshot poems. |
June 3, 2018 |
And Ut Pictura Poesis Is her name |
Ashbery |
I read a bit about him. At least it doesn’t make me angry. |
June 4, 2018 |
The Dry Salvages |
T.S. Elliot |
Again with the modernist. It was made new. |
June 5, 2018 |
Ulysses |
Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
I can see coming back to this one again and again. |
June 6, 2018 |
Sonnet 29 |
William Shakespeare |
Perfection to me in this place and this time. |
June 7, 2018 |
Invictus |
William Ernest Henley |
Something to live up to. Read more of him. |
June 8, 2018 |
Pioneers! O Pioneers! |
Walt Whitman |
A cousin to Frost’s The Gift Outright? |
June 9, 2018 |
On the Stork Tower |
Zhihuan |
I love the ‘imagist’ simplicity of the the thought. |
June 10, 2018 |
Horatius at the Bridge |
Thomas Babington |
Manly Poem!! |
June 11, 2018 |
The Builders |
Longfellow |
Good advice….rhymed. |
June 12, 2018 |
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning |
John Donne |
A Ron Swanson-y Love Poem. |
June 13, 2018 |
Poem From Iron Heel |
Jack London |
I can’t decide if I like this or not. I’m leaning toward not. |
June 14, 2018 |
Opportunity |
John James Ingalls |
Nice in a way, but end bit not really true. It knocks more than once
|
June 15, 2018 |
Character of the Happy Warrior |
William Wordsworth |
Tiring of these “earnest” poems. Line breaks would be nice. 🙂 |
June 16, 2018 |
Ode 1.11 |
Horace |
Good for my stoic sensibilities |
June 17, 2018 |
The Tiger |
William Blake |
Classic one that I had trouble with in junior high. Nice now. |
June 18, 2018 |
On His Blindness |
John Milton |
Life was hard then yet he still found solice and then produced. |
June 19, 2018 |
A Psalm of Life |
Longfellow |
So far my favorite ‘earnest’ poem. |
June 20, 2018 |
Death Be Not Proud |
Donne |
I like the thought of teasing death. |
June 21, 2018 |
Church Going |
Philip Larkin |
Wonderfully Larkin. And rings true to me. |
June 22, 2018 |
Fog |
Carl Sandburg |
Perfection. Been with me a long time. |
June 23, 2018 |
Chicago |
Carl Sandburg |
As Bravado as the city. |
June 24, 2018 |
The Emporer of Ice Cream |
Wallace Stevens |
Let be be finale of seem sticks with me. |
June 25, 2018 |
Poetry |
Marianne Moore |
A good lesson. |
June 26, 2018 |
Jabberwocky |
Lewis Carroll |
Silliness can be good. |
June 27, 2018 |
Kubla Khan |
Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
Ethereal poem and a light touch on my mind. |
June 28, 2018 |
Gunga Din |
Rudyard Kipling |
I like story poems. |
June 29, 2018 |
Anthem for Doomed Youth |
Wilfried Owen |
I know it’s his most popular but doesn’t affect me as deeply. |
June 30, 2018 |
Recessional |
Rudyard Kipling |
What a downers dude. |