Sundae with Nuts

. . . fudge and a cherry on top

I sauntered a little earlier into Poetic Parfait to look at what Christy Birmingham is doing over there.  As it turns out she is doing well and a lot.  I hopped into a post and offered a comment where I listed a few of my favorite poets.  You ought to wander over there yourselves.  I linked her above and she now has a spot in my Blogroll in the right sidebar.  You’ll be glad you made the trip.

So thinking about it a little while later, I decided to make a list of poets by and with whom I have been influenced and/or impressed.  This should be a more comprehensive list than I gave over in  . . . Parfait, but i am still bound to miss one or two or three.  Forgive me.  I’ll blame age, if you don’t mind.  If you do mind, I’ll still blame it on age anyway!  🙂

Here it is.  It is a list of English language poets (American and English).  It is listed alphabetically by last name.  don’t worry, it’s not every poet of whom I’ve heard.  It is a list of poets that I have had occasion to read some of their work and have liked and/or been influenced by it.

I will provide links for some, most or all of them as I find time, so this article in Cor Novus will be updated occasionally and as frequety as possible.  Stay Tuned.

Favorite Poets

(English Language)

Maya Angelou

Elizabeth Browning

Robert Browning

George Byron

Lewis Carroll

Stephen Crane

ee cummings

Emily Dickinson

John Donne

George Eliot

Robert Frost

Allen Ginsberg

Robert Herrick

Joyce Kilmer

John Keats

Rudyard Kipling

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Rod Mckuen

Ogden Nash

Shelly Percy

Edgar Allen Poe

Alexander Pope

Carl Sandburg

William Shakespeare

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Walt Whitman

William Wordsworth

Quite a list eh?

I am a very amateur poetry buff, so I am sure you can find others with much longer and comprehensive lists.  The lists that I found researching this article ran into the hundreds.

Let’s discuss some of these now and showcase some of their work(s).  This list is in alphabetical order by last name and is in no way meant to give a ranking of my most favorite to least.  Each poet that I have enjoyed in my life is unique to an age in my life or a particular taste in sentiment.  There is no way I could, even if I wanted to provide a ranking.

MAYA ANGELOU

I was first introduced to Maya Angelou when she performed at President Bill Clinton’s 1993 Presidential Inauguration.  She read her work,

Maya Angelou

On the Pulse of Morning.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no hiding place down here.

Caged Bird, is perhaps the one for which she is best known.

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

TO BE CONTINUED