National Poetry Month

It’s here—April is National Poetry Month, and there are events going on all over the place. Sherry at Semicolon is starting her Classic Poetry Survey on Monday, April 5th. Today’s post explains how it has changed a little from the initial concept, and how things will play out starting Monday. Join her for some classics!

You can find more events and resources at the Academy of American Poets website.  Thursday, April 29th is Poem in Your Pocket Day.  Carry a favorite poem in your pocket and share it with family, friends, etc. I like that idea—simple, personal, a good project for kids that you can elaborate on (or not) if you want to.

As for me, I’m planning to keep my posts poetry-related, especially where music and poetry meet. We’ll probably join in for Poem in Your Pocket Day, and maybe some other things, too.

For now, I’ve got a question for you: What poem or poems do you remember from your childhood? What made them memorable? I can’t think about swings without hearing my grandmother recite “The Swing”, by Robert Louis Stevenson and being transported to the porch swing behind my grandparents’ house, looking out on fields and the skyline of Lincoln, Nebraska. She’s still swinging and reciting at 97, by the way.

Top 100 Classic Poems Poll--My Picks

I’ve finally picked my ten favorite poems in the public domain for Semicolon’s  Top 100 Classic Poems Project. The thing is, I'm supposed to rank them, and I hate ranking things. Hate it! I could probably pick out my favorite, but ordering them from least to most favorite? I could agonize over that for years and still not have a satisfactory order. So for now, my list is still in no particular order—they’re all favorites:

Sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, William Shakespeare
"Pied Beauty", Gerard Manley Hopkins
“He ate and drank the precious words”, Emily Dickinson
"The Tyger", William Blake
"Delight in Disorder", Robert Herrick
"The Lake Isle of Innisfree", William Butler Yeats
Sonnet 22, “When our two souls stand up erect and strong” Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"Nothing Gold Can Stay", Robert Frost
"God’s Grandeur", Gerard Manley Hopkins
Sonnet 64, “When I have seen by Time’s fell hand defaced”, William Shakespeare

How about you?  Any favorites you want to share?

Top 100 Classic Poems Poll

As I was saying in my previous post, I love how words and music are blended together in opera.  I also love how words and music intersect in poetry.  So when I saw that Sherry at Semicolon is conducting a Top 100 Classic Poems poll, I couldn't resist taking part.  She's asking people to make a list of their top ten classic poems, choosing works that are no longer under copyright (pre-1910/1923), and listing them in order of preference from most favorite (#1) to least favorite (#10).  The deadline for submitting your list to her is midnight, March 26, 2010.  She will tally the totals and count down to the number one poem, starting in April (which is National Poetry Month).  Learn more about the project here.

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?