3 ms·

It's tricky. So for me the first poem that i clicked with was Gray's Eligy Written in a Country Churchyard[1] Just enjoy the writing and don't go looking for h

It's tricky. So for me the first poem that i clicked with was Gray's Eligy Written in a Country Churchyard[1] Just enjoy the writing and don't go looking for hidden meanings etc. Now in terms of a different approach, I seriously can't recommend this book enough: The Ode Less Travelled, Fry.[2] It in effect teaches you in a more classical sense how poetry is constructed and very much increased my ability to enjoy poetry again after a long hiatus. I would also steer almost completely clear of any modern poetry or academic analysis of it. It's mostly boring rubbish. Also note longer form poems that tell stories are a good way to enjoy it. John Milton's masterpiece, Paradise Lost, for example.[3] [1] https://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc https://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ode_Less_Travelled https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ode_Less_Travelled [3] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20/20-h/20-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20/20-h/20-h.htm

2Gkashmiri 6y ago
I would most definitely be trying this out today. Thanks.
- approxim8ion 6y ago
  If you are into prose told as poetry, as in long stories written as poems, Vikram Seth's "The Golden Gate" is a very approachable work.
antiterra 6y ago
I would steer clear of any commentary that modern poetry is boring rubbish. Look for hidden meanings if you feel like it, what you find is what you find, regardless of what the author intends or how others read it. Or don't. The Ode Less Travelled is a good entry into appreciating form and meter, but Fry, as you, oddly dismisses non-rhyming poetry with a clever but unsupported metaphor: tennis without a net. No one's perfect, I suppose. I can think of a great deal of 'modern' poems that I enjoy reading, that I get something out of or are at the very least, not boring (re: Lara Glenum.) I think of Sarajevo Blues by Semezdin Mehmedinović, and how he writes about the emerging normalcy of the need to dodge sniper fire or get emergency rations from the UN while living in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. CORPSE We slowed down at the bridge to watch some dogs tear a corpse apart by the river and then we went on nothing in me has changed I heard the crunch of snow under tires like teeth biting into an apple and felt the wild desire to laugh at you because you call this place hell and you flee from here convinced that death outside Sarajevo does not exist - Semezdin Mehmedinović trans. Ammiel Alcalay To those considering writing poetry, I'd suggest: Crossing Unmarked Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation by William Stafford. To those who enjoy picking things apart and the technical 'why' of poetry, there's John Hollander's "Rhyme's Reason." He's not a post-modernist by any means, but much of what he writes applies to contemporary poems. For the record, Paradise Lost is amazing, and I memorized a good chunk of it. It's boisterously dramatic to recite, and vocalizing its elisions feels like playing grace notes in a piano piece.
- easytiger 6y ago
  It's entirely my opinion, but certainly I consider the example you used to be not at all to my taste; indeed actively bad to read. I completely agree with Fry on that point. I stand by my assertion that most modern poetry is to be avoided, especially for someone introducing themselves to the form. I've never actually fully read all of paradise lost, but this discussion certainly shall see me revisit. I just had a read of the work you recommended. Genuinely terrible I'm afraid.

2Gkashmiri 6y ago

I would most definitely be trying this out today. Thanks.

approxim8ion 6y ago
If you are into prose told as poetry, as in long stories written as poems, Vikram Seth's "The Golden Gate" is a very approachable work.

antiterra 6y ago

I would steer clear of any commentary that modern poetry is boring rubbish. Look for hidden meanings if you feel like it, what you find is what you find, regardless of what the author intends or how others read it. Or don't. The Ode Less Travelled is a good entry into appreciating form and meter, but Fry, as you, oddly dismisses non-rhyming poetry with a clever but unsupported metaphor: tennis without a net. No one's perfect, I suppose. I can think of a great deal of 'modern' poems that I enjoy reading, that I get something out of or are at the very least, not boring (re: Lara Glenum.) I think of Sarajevo Blues by Semezdin Mehmedinović, and how he writes about the emerging normalcy of the need to dodge sniper fire or get emergency rations from the UN while living in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. CORPSE We slowed down at the bridge to watch some dogs tear a corpse apart by the river and then we went on nothing in me has changed I heard the crunch of snow under tires like teeth biting into an apple and felt the wild desire to laugh at you because you call this place hell and you flee from here convinced that death outside Sarajevo does not exist - Semezdin Mehmedinović trans. Ammiel Alcalay To those considering writing poetry, I'd suggest: Crossing Unmarked Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation by William Stafford. To those who enjoy picking things apart and the technical 'why' of poetry, there's John Hollander's "Rhyme's Reason." He's not a post-modernist by any means, but much of what he writes applies to contemporary poems. For the record, Paradise Lost is amazing, and I memorized a good chunk of it. It's boisterously dramatic to recite, and vocalizing its elisions feels like playing grace notes in a piano piece.

easytiger 6y ago
It's entirely my opinion, but certainly I consider the example you used to be not at all to my taste; indeed actively bad to read. I completely agree with Fry on that point. I stand by my assertion that most modern poetry is to be avoided, especially for someone introducing themselves to the form. I've never actually fully read all of paradise lost, but this discussion certainly shall see me revisit. I just had a read of the work you recommended. Genuinely terrible I'm afraid.