I've been working on my list for a while now, but choosing 10 favorites is sort of hard. Plus, a lot of my favorite poems are more recent and still under copyright, and probably aren't old enough to be considered "classic". Then there's ranking them, and I always struggle with things like that. Figuring out number one isn't too hard, but ranking all ten? It might take me a while--I could agonize over something like that for weeks. Still, it's a fun project, and a nice break from the routine.
Here's one poem I know will be on the list:
God's Grandeur, by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
How about you? Any favorites to share?
