Thursday Thirteen 414: Poetry

One of the criteria on the 2016 Ultimate Challenge list this year is a book of poetry. During the library's December monthly book sale, I happened across an edition of The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis in like new condition . . . for only a dollar. Naturally, I snapped it up. The book is divided into different sections, beginning with easy "childhood" poems, and ending with a few Jacqueline Kennedy wrote herself. I had encountered at least half of the poems previously, in one class or another, and had read some poets, though perhaps not the poem(s) contained in this volume. I would recommend it as a good place to start for those not very familiar with poetic works.

As April is National Poetry Month, I thought I would share a few of the poems from the book -- click on any link to read the full text of a poem.



01. The Gift Outright by Robert Frost

02. Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(I think most children in the US used to read this long poem in elementary school, but I don't know if that is still true.)

03. Fog by Carl Sandburg
(We learned this short one in 4th grade, at a school named for the poet. It has been likened to a haiku.)

04. The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson
(A favorite, and one of the earliest poems I remember reading.)

05. The Crocodile by Lewis Carroll

06. Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe
(Probably his most popular poem, after The Raven -- though my personal favorite, not included in the book, is The Bells.)

07. Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
(Another I remember from high school, 9th grade to be exact)

08. One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
(I especially like the first stanza of this one)

09. Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(I had to do a high school report on this poet/poem -- he wrote this upon waking from a drug-induced nap.)

10. The Passionate Shepherd by Christopher Marlowe

11. Her Reply by Sir Walter Raleigh
(I mention number 10 and 11 as we not only read them in a college poetry course, but then had to break into groups of three and write a response to a poem assigned by the professor. There was another occasion we broke into groups to write a parody of a poem assigned by the professor. Two of the funnest exercises ever!)

12. The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes
(I don't recall if I first saw this one in high school or in college, When I read it this time around, I could hear Morgan Freeman speaking the words in my head -- he has the perfect voice for it. Another I liked from the book that I don't recall seeing before is Merry-Go-Round.)

13. Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(Another read in high school and college)




Are any of these familiar to you? Do you have a favorite poet or poem?



LINKING TO: Thursday Thirteen