General Chat

I just spent all afternoon doing it(double English). I find it really hard analysing poetry. My head hurts! lol Lucia :-)

I love poetry. It's my favourite form of literature. Gwynne

I don't mind reading it. I quite enjoy that part! lol I don't really like modern poetry. There is so many themes running through it and different things I have to spot and it all confuses me. Today I was looking at a poem by Liz Lochhead. Lucia :-)

Hi Lucia, Poets try to get the maximum mesage using the minimum words that's why you are encouraged to read between the lines. I agree it can give you a headache, though. Gwynne

Lucia, In my day it was all Keats, Wordsworth, Longfellow and Shakespeare. I do like poetry but I agree with you it is more enjoyable if you can just readit without having to analyse it. One poet I used to enjoy was Rod Mckuen (and I bet not many people have ehard of him). I used to love the old poets pot thread we had on her a year or so ago, there were/are some very talented people on here. Ann glos

I know that I could never poetry with a hidden message - it's very clever. Lucia :-)

Jackie, As I read that i could hhear him singing it!! One of my favourites is Listen to the warm.. We saw him in concert years ago and he was great. Ann Glos

Well Lucia, there are all kinds of poetry. I loved doing the metaphysical poets at school. BUT when we did A-level, we did TS Eliot - obscure or what? Ted Hughes very bleak, all about death & entrails RS Thomas - all dead sheep and dying-out peasants Jon Silkin - only did one poem 'Death of a son' no wonder it was depressing! For light relief I recommend Wendy Cope. She's very funny and very observant. nell

Hi Lucia, I did English Lit A level and it was Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, all a bit flowery. But I loved WB Yeats and everyone is right, it's what's between the lines that means the most. Incidentally, I did French Lit, too, and just love Jacques Prevert. I read some to my 13 yr old the other week and he got the meaning spot on. PS we are not boffs! Stick at it, poetry gets better as you get older. At least now you know how to analyse it!

Like peotry but wouldn't like to anylise it, poetry is to be enjoyed that sounds hard work. Germaine x

I like poetry that flows or is funny others don't seem quite right, and how do you define what is or isn't poetry. I had a go myself a while ago, thought some of you may enjoy.... HUNTING THE ANCESTORS. I feel like Monsieur Poirot, researching for a case. I’m hunting in the attic with Cobwebs in my face. There’s nothing here for me to find, No starting thread I can unwind, Just lots and lots of dust and grime. So now I’ll ask some questions of people that I know. This ancestor hunting is very, very slow. The people that I’m asking just blankly stare in space, “I’m sorry but your ancestors have disappeared without a trace”. I know that cousin Eric was a farmer down in Hoe, And that little Auntie Margaret married Mr Graham Lowe. But I never knew that uncle Fred, Whose real name was really George Left his last profession, as he just got really bored. Now that I’ve got going there are things I really dread, Like my favourite Aunty Phillipa was really Uncle Ted! This family thing's confusing the list of names goes on, I’m sure that something here is very, very wrong. There are skeletons in the Cupboards! That they thought I would not find. Oh dear! That’s Auntie Ethel, I do hope she doesn’t mind. Author: S.J.Goodwin

lol Lucia - I enjoy analysing poetry and especially some American Modernist poets:)