Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday - Top 10 Poets Who Deserve More Recognition




This week I decided to devote some page space to some of the most undervalued writers out there: poets! Here are 10 of my favorites who I think deserve more recognition, along with some beautiful lines they’ve written. (As always, Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.)

1.  Edna St. Vincent Millay, from Sonnet II:
Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide





2.  Robinson Jeffers, from “Hurt Hawks”:
            I’d sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk;
                        but the great redtail
            Had nothing left but unable misery
            From the bone too shattered for mending, the wing that
                        trailed under his talons when he moved.



3. Garcilaso de la Vega, from Soneto V
               Whatever I own I confess I owe to you;
            for you I was born, for you I have life,
            for you I must die and for you I am dying.



4. Adrienne Rich, from “Transcendental Etude
            No one who survives to speak
            new language, has avoided this:
            the cutting-away of an old force that held her
            rooted to an old ground
            the pitch of utter loneliness



5. W.H. Auden, from “Lullaby
            Lay your sleeping head, my love
            Human on my faithless arm



6. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from Sonnet XXVIII
 My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering



7. W.B. Yeats, from “The Lake Isle of Inisfree
            I will arise and go now, for always night and day
            I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
            While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
            I hear it in the deep heart’s core.




8. Ovid, from The Metamorphoses
            They said, while they still might, in mutual words
            “Goodbye, dear love” together, and together
            The hiding bark covered their lips.



9. Rumi, from “The Breeze at Dawn
            The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
            Don’t go back to sleep.

10. Skye Shirley (okay, full disclosure, she is my real life friend, but she also is a crazy talented, soon-to-be-famous poet), from “In the winter when I didn’t leave”
my parents walked on Walden
Pond, certain it froze solid.


What underappreciated poets speak to you? Hope you enjoyed some beauty on your Tuesday. :)

-Meg

9 comments:

  1. Awesome list! I've always wanted to read more poetry because I really don't read much poetry at all. Thanks for sharing. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Krystianna! I just checked out your blog and it is SO creative - I love all your original features. Very inspirational! -Meg

      Delete
  2. What a great idea to a theme of poets! I love it :)

    My TTT!

    Jess @ Such A Novel Idea

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jess! I loved your TTT - the problem with being a reader is that there are ALWAYS more good books to read!

      Delete
  3. I absolutely LOVE that you did poets - very creative! I have read a couple of these poets, but other than Shakespeare and Donne I've never done much voluntary reading of poetry, which is a shame since I actually like it most of the time.

    How do you guys divide up who does what TTT post? It just occurred to me there probably has to be a bit of planning involved in when and what you guys post haha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, I won't knock Shakespeare and Donne. Although if I can live the rest of my life without reading "The Flea" again, that would be totally fine... ;-)

      And we DO have a system! We try to do 3 posts a week, and there are 3 of us, so we rotate. I'm super impressed when people (like yourself) have time to run a blog on their lonesome!

      Delete
  4. I feel like pretty much NO poets get the recognition they deserve. I love Edna and Browning and Yeats. I was an English major in college and spent so much time reading poetry for my classes. I really should try to inject some more poetry into my life. Great list! I love that you did poetry. Thanks for stopping by mine!
    -Natalie @Natflix&Books

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Natalie! We English majors have to stick together. :)

      Delete
  5. I haven't heard of about four of these guys, but I know the rest are awesome! :) I love that you chose poets for your unrecognized authors. It's so true unfortunately! Maybe someday soon that'll change. I'll definitely keep watch for Skye Shirley. Following you on Facebook and Twitter now.

    My TTT:

    http://diamondinroughcoal.blogspot.com/2013/07/top-ten-tuesday-1.html

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...