April 30, 2012 • Category: Blog
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In honor of this 30th day of National Poetry Month, we’ve listed 30 of our favorite poems of all time. This is by no means an exhaustive list of the best poems out there, but it is a list of poems that have moved us, stuck with us, and kept us going.
Do you have a favorite poem that isn’t listed? Tell us about it and link to it in the comments for a chance to win a copy of Julia Alvarez’s poetry collection The Woman I Kept to Myself. Please also check out Alvarez’s beautiful memoir A Wedding in Haiti, which just came out last week.
Lauren’s Picks:
“Musée des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden
“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson
“Needs” by Stuart Dischell
“fire” by Nick Flynn
“Chosen by the Lion” by Linda Gregg
“A Story About the Body” by Robert Hass
“Piss Christ” by Andrew Hudgins
“Nude Interrogation” by Yusef Komunyakaa
“My Story in a Late Style of Fire” by Larry Levis
“Archaic Torso of Apollo” by Rainer Maria Rilke
“Old Joke” by Alan Shapiro
“Duende” by Tracy K. Smith
“Door in the Mountain” by Jean Valentine
“Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright
“Adam’s Curse” by W. B. Yeats
Megan’s Picks:
“The Distances” by Jim Carroll
“love is more thicker than forget” by e. e. cummings
“All This and More” by Mary Karr
“A Fable” by Robert Kelly
“Happiness” by Jane Kenyon
“Food of Love” by Carolyn Kizer
“Love Song”by Carol Muske-Dukes
“One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII” by Pablo Neruda
“Steps” by Frank O’Hara
“Know-Nothing” by Sharon Olds
“Beggar’s Song” by Gregory Orr
“Love Song” by Dorothy Parker
“Thin” by Kay Ryan
“All My Pretty Ones” by Anne Sexton
“Eating Poetry” by Mark Strand
Tags: A Wedding in Haiti, Alan Shapiro, Andrew Hudgins, Anne Sexton, Carol Muske-Dukes, Carolyn Kizer, Dorothy Parker, e. e. cummings, Emily Dickenson, Frank O'Hara, Gregory Orr, James Wright, Jane Kenyon, Jean Valentine, Jim Carroll, Julia Alvarez, Kay Ryan, Larry Levis, Linda Gregg, Mark Strand, Mary Karr, National Poetry Month, Nick Flynn, Pablo Neruda, Rainer Maria Rilke, Robert Hass, Robert Kelly, Sharon Olds, Stuart Dischell, The Woman I k, Tracy K Smith, W. B. yeats, W. H. Auden, Yusef Komunyakaa
Emily Shearer says...
Where is Walt Whitman? I never knew how much I appreciated his poetry until this April. We read a poem every night at the dinner table, and time and again, I found myself choosing his words. They are accessible to my children, ages 5, 9, and 12, and I think it’s important that we teach our kids that there is poetry out there for them beyond Shel Silverstein. (Who is WONDERFUL.)
April 30, 2012@ 2:56 PMNorma Wilson says...
Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay. Willows in early spring and bumpy changes in life always call it to mind. So few words saying so much about ends/renewals.
April 30, 2012@ 2:41 PMGary Boyer says...
Picking a favorite poem is, of course, impossible. But just at this moment, I’m thinking of “Sunday Morning” by Wallace Stevens.
April 30, 2012@ 2:04 PMrhonda says...
Anything. By Emily Dickinson
April 30, 2012@ 1:30 PMJennifer Higgins says...
Excellent lists. My all time favourite poem in “Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden.
April 30, 2012@ 1:23 PMEdward Schuldt says...
W.H. Auden, Funeral Blues. http://www.wussu.com/poems/whafb.htm
April 30, 2012@ 12:56 PMT.S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi. http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/tseliot/6602
Hilaire Belloc, Rebecca: Who Slammed Doors for Fun and Perished Miserably. http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/6193/
merry cooper says...
I am a a crazy fan of Emily Dickinson. So happy her poem “I felt a Funeral in my brain” will be one of the special poems in the collection.
April 30, 2012@ 12:52 PMCindy Amrhein says...
Oops! Forgot to post the link to my poem choice, “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout.”. Here is one http://mste.illinois.edu/courses/ci407su01/students/north/kristy/Project/K-Poem-Net.html
April 30, 2012@ 10:46 AMCindy Amrhein says...
My favorite poem is “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout” by Shel Silverstein. In 5th grade we had to memorize a story, speech, etc as part of a school assembly on public speaking. The above is what I picked. Let’s just say I woke up the audience and made them laugh. It is still my favorite and I still remember all of it, and I’m 50something.
In Perry. NY where I live we do an event every year called “Poetry in Motion.” All the local writers print out their poems (and we do use some from famous poets)and they are taped to the windows of the businesses along Main Street for the last weekend in April. It’s amazing how many people stop to read them, or pull one off to take home.
April 30, 2012@ 10:42 AMAlena Murguia says...
I’ve never read Mary Karr’s poetry so I’ll have to consider that. I would add to your list the work of Billy Collins. Of course I can’t think of a title off the top of my head, but I read a lot of his work in April.
April 30, 2012@ 10:40 AM