Least Favorite Poet?

[anti-NAFTA]

I don't know about you guys, but I just can't stand William Blake. His almost cutesy style of writing as though he was a child is sickening. And his poem written through the eyes of a black child is repulsive. (parody: "i wish i was white because white people are so pure and i'm evil).

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. I don't get Ezra Pound... never did... I tried

but.... bzzzzzzzuppppt.
forgedaboudit.

[MAlibdem]

3. Ich, Ich, Ich. (n/t)

[anti-NAFTA]

4. Same here.

Pretentious.

[stromboli]

30. pound

it took me a long time to "get" pound. he's definately an elitist and trying to read a lot of his stuff, especially some of the cantos, is like sawing through frozen butter with a plastic knife. i was forced to go through his poems in a lot more detail and actually found some brilliant pieces. i'm not wuite to the point of "liking" him, but he's definately got some good stuff.

[MAlibdem]

2. Robert Frost

Just because I like most poetry. Some of his stuff is too Luddite for me.

Ironic because I was given a book of his poetry when I won the Dartmouth Book Award.

[FreeperSlayer]

5. Shelly was crap

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Ode to Joyce Kilmer's "Trees"

I think that I shall never hear
A poem as bad as "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer.
To learn it has been for many a dreaded fate
Reading it is like hearing nails scratching slate
It has a classic rhythm, just think of Pope
(For centuries, monotonous beyond all hope).
It's true, it's true, you see
That only God can make a tree
But man makes paper, pen and ink
And also poems that really stink.

[Whitacre D_WI]

7. Frost.

Horrible.

[SOteric]

8. It's between Wm. Stafford and

that kid in my Creative Writing class who writes the most sloppy, tortured, self-pitying, inelegant phrases about his little yuppie life.

[aquart]

9. Wordsworth is a solemn bleat.

[madrchsod]

10. any poet who

gets on tv to hawk their poetry... other than that i`ll read just about anyone

[Rooktoven]

11. Emily Dickinson

keep your poetry in your room, too.

[Diogenes2]

12. Poetry

Let's see: the greatest English visionary poet is cutesy & sickening. Shelly (sic) is crap. Dickinson should've just stayed in her room-- a total disgrace, no doubt. What a mindless load of pretentious poet bashing. Go back to your marbles. You don't deserve to even mention the names of these brilliant, mystical writers. You sicken me with your trivial assertions, & I hope you will acquire a more mature perspective some day.

[tishaLA]

13. Any of the "Fireside Poets"

they are all horrible.

I hate Longfellow. Anne Bradtreet makes me crazy. Edward Taylor is tortured--and somehow he manages to be even worse than John Donne. (I know more about American poetry than British.) Emerson's poetry is some of the worst crap ever put to paper.

I could go on, but it's hard to find good insults in sentence after sentence.

[mitchum]

14. no argument here

[Diogenes2]

15. Donne

Yeah, John Donne really sucks. Not.
What is this thread, the revenge of 7th grade remedial English class?

[tishaLA]

16. Actually, no

I'm ABD in one of the top English programs in the country.

You'll remember that virtually everyone thought the metaphysical poets sucked until Eliot revisited them 80 years ago.

I didn't know that just because poets are canonized means they cannot be among our "least favorite" poets.

[Diogenes2]

17. Donne

I'm not talking about credentials, I'm talking about poetry. I can understand someone not having a personal preference for one author or another, but this "bathroom wall" method of slamming great poets like Donne or Blake or Shelley (canonical or not) & their entire life's work with some epithet like "crap" would be laughable if it didn't betray such a distressingly narrow, impoverished thinking process at work.

[tishaLA]

21. Well, the thread's title says

"least favorite poet"--not "worst poet." Frankly, one who seems to admire poetic works should be pleased to see that poetry can still invoke strong reactions in readers, whether positive or negative.

You are the only one who seems to be saying that a "least favorite" poet is synonymous with "worst." And yes, those I have listed are among my LEAST FAVORITE poets. You are welcome to disagree, but I am welcome to my (very well informed) opinions about whom I like and dislike. But it's good to know that Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, Pope, and Dryden agree with my assessment of Donne, even if you do not.

[Diogenes2]

22. Metaphysical poetry

The writers you mention disliked Donne for the most part because of his irregular meter, learned vocabulary, & elaborate, convoluted "conceits" or extended metaphors. I hope you realize that your citation of conservative, canonical critics in defense of you antipathy to the Metaphysicals is placing you on the "wrong" side, the "retro" side of poetic history. Donne broke all the rules if you ask the advocates of smooth, placid, carefully-measured versification. Bad Donne! :)

[tishaLA]

24. Oh I'd prefer to be on the side

of Eliot, a misogynist, anti-semitic, crypto-fascist instead. He's the reason we rediscovered the metaphysical poets, after all. (You don't have to define "conceits" for me, by the way; I happen to know what they are almost as well as I know chiasmus and metonymy.) I guess an evil bit of conservatism lurks beneath both sides of the Donne debate, does it not?

I'm gald you like Donne and I won't badger you over your subjective opinion. He is among my least favorite poets, however.

[Diogenes2]

27. Eliot

Hey, you're a real firebreather when it comes to Eliot! I admire that. He WAS a rather stuffy old prig, & definitely a kind of moral midget in the ways you cite. But please don't blame poor old Donne for the shortcomings of Eliot!

[tishaLA]

28. You

criticize those who criticized Donne and I can't make comments about the person responsible for us now reading him? That's an odd double standard. Anyhow, he was significantly MORE than a stuffy old prig, as a wealth of scholarship demonstrates. I guess we can sweep that under the carpet, though, when someone else's "least favorite poet" is being discussed.

I will continue to enjoy avoiding Donne. I hope you continue to enjoy reading him.

Edit: spellig erros. Alway.

[anti-NAFTA]

31. You tell 'im.

There's a reason why a genius like Alexander Pope that Donne was garbage.

[greatauntoftriplets]

18. e. e. cummings.

I LOVE CAPITAL LETTERS, TOO!!!!!

[Diogenes2]

19. e.e. cummings

Finally, a sensible critique! If you LOVE CAPITAL LETTERS, cummings is definitely NOT the poet for you. :)

[solinvictus]

20. Emily Dickinson

My God! Whine, whine , whine...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Diogenes2]

23. Emily Dickinson

LOL! Yeah, Emily's a bitch, ain't she? :)

[solinvictus]

25. "Yellow Rose of Texas"

You can take any Emily Dickinson poem and set it to the tune of "Yellow Rose of Texas".

[tishaLA]

26. Or the Gilligan's Island theme

[Diogenes2]

29. Gilligan's Island theme

Are you saying you don't LIKE the Gilligan's Island theme? That's the last straw! :)

[nemo137]

32. most of the romantics

and whoever wrote that plums poem.