04/26/2016
This April is the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month. The 30-day span has become the largest literary celebration in the world, according to the Academy of American Poets. To mark the occasion, we checked in with some of our campus literature lovers and asked them about their favorite poems.
""At the Fishhouses" leaves me breathless with admiration. I’m amazed at the subtle, masterful way Bishop balances an acute attention to minute atmospheric detail with a larger purpose of expression: to describe knowledge."
"William Carlos Williams was my first poetry hero. I 'discovered' him when I started college in the early 1970s and was beginning to think about writing short stories – not poems. "The Term" made me stop in my tracks. It is so ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. I had not read poetry made of words and images like this one and others that he wrote. Williams' example has stayed with me for more than 40 years."
"This poem marks Brooks’ coming into (black) political consciousness and her use of art to poignantly articulate the exclusion of African Americans from the American Dream and the self-righteousness of so-called progressive-minded Americans in their dealings with the poor. The line, “Their League is allotting largesse to the Lost,” is exquisite. The running sound of the L’s is almost musical and sharply contrasts with the brutal images of black poverty throughout "The Lovers of the Poor"."
"This poem communicates something to me, even though I don't really understand it. It captures a certain poignancy about how we live in our current age of media saturation, consumerism and mediated experiences. "Soonest Mended" sees a sort of luminousness and beauty even in the mundane and ordinary state of day-to-day confusion in which we live our lives. I like the confusing shift in voices (we, I, you) and the way the poem moves from ordinary speech to wonderfully lyrical moments."
"This poem really spoke out to me when we were going over it in Professor Dietz's class. The author of "Hornworm: Autumn Lamentation" wrote about a sad ending to something that was alive and wanted to live so badly. He gave the worm only two choices in life, both ending horribly. It made me think of my life and how I have so many more choices – and how I shouldn't waste it away."