Poetry [View All]

I dislike a lot of poetry. I'm sure I'm in the majority, because a lot of people I know don't like most of it, either. I think that stems from our HS days when we were forced to "analyze" a poem as to its meaning, why it was written, yada, yada. Seriously--how in the name of the FSM does one "analyze" this:

Candy is dandy,
But liquor is quicker ?


I have some respect for a few poets, though, but only because they are largely "story" poems (aka "epic") like Longfellow's work, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, William Wolrdsworth, and a few others of that time. T.S. Eliot has won me over with some of his work, but not all, and Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and a few poems themselves are all right. If it helps, I have three favorite poems: How Do I Love Thee? (Elizabeth Barrett Browning), Ulysses (Alfred, Lord Tennyson) and She Walks in Beauty (William Blake).

I hate to say it, but neither Emily Dickinson nor e.e. cummings do anything for me, and too many current poets seem to be too oblique or too self-important in their writing.

I don't care one way or another if a poem "rhymes" or not, but if it seems like it's being done in blank verse just for the purpose of being in blank verse, it's not enjoyable.

Your thoughts?