[OrigCoolKid]

Hi, so basically next week for a level English everyone has to bring in their favourite poem to read to the class and tell everyone why it's their favourite.

I know nothing about poetry and was wondering if anyone has ever read a really good poem they'd share with me?

I'd really appreciate the help, so yeah, thanks everybody!

[Teddybleads]

Well my favourite poem is The May Queen by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. See if you like that.

If not have a look at some Betjeman, that always goes down well

[Conall Cearnach]

T.S. Eliot's The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock is sublime. It deals with aging, regret, social awkwardness and lots of other big stuff. It is also a very important poem as it was published in 1915 and heralded an era of modern poetry.

I guarantee if you whip this bad boy out your teacher will think you are some sort of genius. Hopefully he/she sees themselves like Robin Williams' character in Dead Poets Society and you'll really be onto a winner.

[Mrstimmy]

What about William Blakes Jerusalem? It's quite relevant at the moment because it regularly tops polls about what would people like to be the English National Anthem. And a lot of people are feeling particularly patriotic right now.

You could talk about how many song adaptations there are, including the Fat Les version for whatever football tournament it was released for.

The imagery in the poem, images of fantastic English countryside. There are many different interpretations of the poem but one common analysis is that Blake was reacting against the Industrial Revolution, when he writes of those 'dark satanic mills' in contrast to the 'green and pleasant land,' The Industrial Revolution was destroying nature, and mans relationship with nature.

You could talk on a personal level about the spirit captured in the lines, 'bring me bow of burning gold, bring me my arrows of desirre, bring me my spear Oh! clouds unfold, bring me my chariot of fire. I will not cease from mental fight, nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, till we have built Jerusalem, in Englands green and pleasant land.' It's argued this was about workers rising up and not backing down to the ruling elite. But those lines are relevant to anyone whose had to overcome something or keep mentally strong for something, be it just a sporting occassion, or trouble at home etc.

There is so many things you could go into or explore with this poem. Blakes poetry is fascinating and when you really get into it there's so many things to explore and analyse, and so many interpretations. If you don't like this poem, or you're uninterested in talking about patriotism etc, then you could maybe have a look at the Tyger? Another hugely famous Blake poem with lots of information on the web about it.

Jerusalem is a favourite of mine. I love 'Fern Hill' by Dylan Thomas. The imagery is amazing and I can easily picture pretty English countrysides and cottages with flowers outside when I read it.

Or you could go down the Rudyard Kipling 'If' route. I believe it was voted number one poem by the British public a few years ago.

[OrigCoolKid]

Thanks so much guys, will defiantly look up all of these poems on the internet!

You've made my life so much easier, thanks again!

[Elanor]

I think if you're going to successfully talk about why you like a poem, you do need to pick the poem yourself. Can't you sit and leaf through an anthology, read several, and choose one that does something for you? It's so hard to recommend a poem for someone else when we don't know anything about you or your tastes. Do you want bleak? Funny? Sweet? Romantic? Philosophical? Political? Classical? Modern? Rhyming? Free verse?

I love Prufrock too, but it's very long, and if you don't understand it and love it, it'll be obvious, in my opinion.

If I were you, I would go to the library and grab an anthology (although if you're doing A Level English, don't you have one? Don't you do unseen poetry prac crits these days in A Levels?) and have a good leaf through, and pick one that you like and that appeals to you.

Some of my favourites:
Prufrock, as above, also The Waste Land - both TS Eliot, but both likely too long and complex to discuss in a brief class discussion.

Philip Larkin - loads of good depressing stuff there, I remember lots of long discussions about his stuff at A Level. I especially like Whitsun Weddings, Love Songs in Age, As Bad as a Mile, Sunny Prestatyn, Dockery and Son... (wow, I just dug out my copy, and apparently I have something to say about every poem in the Whitsun Weddings collection! Don't think I've looked in there since A level days, but it's FULL of notes!)

Christina Rosetti - Song
Marvell - To His Coy Mistress.
Tennson - Crossing the Bar
Kipling - The Way Through the Woods
John Masefield - Cargoes
Edward Thomas - Adlestrop
DH Lawrence - Snake
Henry Reed - Naming of Parts

And yes, I did just sit and flick through my anthology to remind myself what I liked!

Ooh, or you could go for something silly and funny, like John Hegley (I'm going through my poetry shelf now) - just looking through and they're pretty much all funny, with a bit of a punny joke or a thought provoking twist at the end.

Also, thinking about it, and reading the post above about Jerusalem (fabulous lyrics) made me think - why limit it to 'poems'? Can you pick a song lyric that you really like and can talk about?

[Conall Cearnach]

Yes, Prufrock may bit a bit long for an English class so heres a few other suggestions:

Slough by John Betjemen. the first verse alone should be enough to capture attention and it's easy enough to understand.

"Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!"


She Walks in Beauty by Byron. Byron was probably the best of the Romantic Poets and was quite the character to say the least. The phrase "mad, bad and dangerous to know" was coined about him.
1.
"She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies. "

Siegfried Sassoon's, On Passing The New Menin Gate should resonate at a time when young men are still being sent off to war almost 100 years after the "War to end all wars". It's short too. Here's the text in full.

"Who will remember, passing through this Gate,
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,—
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?

Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.
Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.

Here was the world’s worst wound. And here with pride
‘Their name liveth for ever,’ the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime."

It's a vociferous anti war poem about the Menin Gate in the Belgian town of Ypres (or Ieper) which is huge memorial to all those killed at the various battles of Ypres there during WW1.

[Granny McSmith]

How do you get to 'A' Level English (I presume that's what you meant?) and know "nothing" about poetry? Surely you have studied poetry before in your school career? If you tell me you haven't, I may shoot myself.

There are so many different sorts of poets and poems I can't see how you could possibly just pick one at random. Get an anthology and read through it. There must be one in your local library.

You have to love English to do an 'A' Level in it. You should read poetry for the love of it, not because you have to. If you don't love it, you are doing the wrong subject.

[Elanor]

Originally Posted by Granny McSmith

How do you get to 'A' Level English (I presume that's what you meant?) and know "nothing" about poetry? Surely you have studied poetry before in your school career? If you tell me you haven't, I may shoot myself.

There are so many different sorts of poets and poems I can't see how you could possibly just pick one at random. Get an anthology and read through it. There must be one in your local library.

You have to love English to do an 'A' Level in it. You should read poetry for the love of it, not because you have to. If you don't love it, you are doing the wrong subject.

I believe that it is now possible to do A Level English without doing any literature at all, not just without any poetry!

[GiraffeGirl]

Originally Posted by Elanor

I believe that it is now possible to do A Level English without doing any literature at all, not just without any poetry!

Maybe English Language but quite how you'd do a Lit A Level course with any literature is beyond me.

[Elanor]

Originally Posted by GiraffeGirl

Maybe English Language but quite how you'd do a Lit A Level course with any literature is beyond me.

I think some boards split Language and Literature (although I would have hoped that even 'Language' should include some literature) but some boards only offer A Level "English" and it doesn't have to include any lit.

[GiraffeGirl]

Originally Posted by Elanor

I think some boards split Language and Literature (although I would have hoped that even 'Language' should include some literature) but some boards only offer A Level "English" and it doesn't have to include any lit.

As far as I know, that concept applies to GCSE not A Level. And even GCSE English involves poetry, Shakespeare and a novel.

[GiraffeGirl]

To the OP, my choices if I had to read a poem which appealed to me emotionally, it would be one from:
Dylan Thomas - Do not go gentle into that good night
Christina Rossetti - Remember
Brian Pattern - Portrait of a Young Girl Raped at a Surburban Party

But when I do this for my classes, I always do Gavin Ewart's 'A 14 year old convalescent cat in the winter time' - because it does resonate with me and it involves a lot less explanation!

Oh, or I'd do Seamus Heaney's Mid Term Break, or something by Wilfred Owen (not Dulce, I've overstudied/taught that one) - but if you'd studied war poetry before you'd probably want to avoid that to avoid becoming predictable;

[OrigCoolKid]

I'm doing AQA English Language & Literature A2. I have done poetry before at GCSE but I didn't really engage with the poems at all.

I'm studying Phillip Larkin, Sylvia Plath and Carol Ann Duffy and this is sort of an introduction to poetry, I guess.

Thank you all for the suggestions, I'm really enjoying going through all of them online!

[GiraffeGirl]

Originally Posted by OrigCoolKid

I'm doing AQA English Language & Literature A2. I have done poetry before at GCSE but I didn't really engage with the poems at all.

I'm studying Phillip Larkin, Sylvia Plath and Carol Ann Duffy and this is sort of an introduction to poetry, I guess.

Thank you all for the suggestions, I'm really enjoying going through all of them online!

Two of my faves. In that case, do This Be the Verse or Daddy

[Granny McSmith]

Originally Posted by OrigCoolKid

I'm doing AQA English Language & Literature A2. I have done poetry before at GCSE but I didn't really engage with the poems at all.

I'm studying Phillip Larkin, Sylvia Plath and Carol Ann Duffy and this is sort of an introduction to poetry, I guess.

Thank you all for the suggestions, I'm really enjoying going through all of them online!

So which poets are you studying?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Buy an anthology of poetry spanning several centuries.(You know, a book) It might even contain a sonnet or two by Shakespeare. He did write poetry. (A sonnet is a sort of poem) and turn your computer off and read it. (Not all at once, obviously).

Of course, A levels aren't dumbed down at all, are they?

[Mrstimmy]

Originally Posted by Granny McSmith

So which poets are you studying?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Buy an anthology of poetry spanning several centuries.(You know, a book) It might even contain a sonnet or two by Shakespeare. He did write poetry. (A sonnet is a sort of poem) and turn your computer off and read it. (Not all at once, obviously).

Of course, A levels aren't dumbed down at all, are they?

It's terrible, you really do need a good teacher to show you how to read poetry and how good it can be. I found in my final years in education the focus shifted from poetry, to 'cultural poetry' i,e, an obsession with learning about poets from other countries and appreciating their culture. I found it offensive, and vulgar. I chose English at University, which I started in 2005, and I wanted to read the classics, and learn about the development of our poetry and culture, not be swamped with literature and poetry from other countries. We had a debate in our first lesson for a poetry module, 'should English be about studying English literature and authors, or should it include works from all round the world?' I argued, it should be English only, or it should be renamed cultural studies. I was purely interested in the evolution of our literature and poets in relation to our own history and great historical events. But screw that, it was more important to shove multicultural nonsense down my throat and show how open minded we all could be. Totally ruined it for me.

Originally Posted by Elanor

I believe that it is now possible to do A Level English without doing any literature at all, not just without any poetry!

I have a degree without bothering to read any texts or books at University. I worked full time instead, popped in occassionally, and wrote all essays just about context not content, and the internet was my friend for that. I even handed in one of my GCSE essays in University and it passed.

[spiney2]

an anthology wd give you a collection.

the norton anthology of english poetry is huge.

or:

read chaucer. the old wives tale.

a few shakespeare sonets. nice. was his dark lady african perhaps ?

milton's Comus (virgin on the ridiculous.)

tennyson charge of the light brigade. victoian public guilt.

browning the pied piper. paedophile.

ts eliot. very high church. smells and bells.

a bit of w h auden. i like his peom about mangers.

larkin. they **** you up your mum and dad .........

silva plath. sonething by. nobody understood her including her husband ted hughes.

ted hughes. Crow.

go back a bit. something by w b yates about irish faeries ......
andrew marvell to his coy mistress. a peom about dogging.

bit of george herbert. religious nutter.

wordsworth tintern abbey. (touch of the mystics)

[spiney2]

... u could add louis mc neice. an autum journey. superb masterwork. recently fashionable again so maybe extra brownie points ........

all above probaby free online cept hughes ad mcneice.

[spiney2]

women come and go in the ladies toilet
speaking happily of t s eliot ......

madame sosostris in the wasteland is blavatsky. elliot was into eastern mysticsm and occultism before he converted to smells and bells .....

[spiney2]

mcneice was into casting horoscopes when he wasnt running radio 3 ......

[spiney2]

did ted hughes kill his wife sylvia pllath ? yes say feminists. see recent argument about carole ann duffey ....

[spiney2]

ogden nash is huge fun to read but not academically respectable.

[spiney2]

thomas chatterton. went on and on and on about luv and womance. then killed himself. twagic.

[sarahcs]

John Hegley is a good modern poet, and pretty accessible.