Poems

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These are some poems that I enjoy...

To Earthward, by Robert Frost

Robert Frost (1874-1963) is the archetypal New England poet.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens

I enjoy Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)' poems sometimes because they are so weird.

O ignis spiritus, by Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen was a 13th-century abbess and mystic. She wrote beautiful plainchant, and this is a text from one of her songs.

The Waking, by Theodore Roethke

I don't know a lot about Theodore Roethke (1908-1963) but I do like this poem.

Dreaming of Hair, by Li-Young Lee

Li-Young Lee (1957 - ) is a lovely poet.

After great pain, by Emily Dickinson

Much madness is divinest sense, by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is another New England poet, who spent her life in seclusion in a house in Amherst.

One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) wrote some lovely poems, in particular a lot using established forms like this one (which is a villanelle).

Buffalo Bill's, by e.e. cummings

e.e. cummings (1894-1962) did all sorts of innovative things with grammar and punctuation.

First Night, by Sharon Olds

The Solution, by Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds (1942- ) writes powerful, sensual poems.

I Am Waiting, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-) is a beat poet and publisher. I saw an excerpt from this poem at the Walker Museum in Minneapolis, and I fell in love with it.

Sonnet XVIII, by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) is famous for her bohemian lifestyle in Greenwich Village in the 1920's and 30's, including being openly bisexual, and for her witty, feminist poems. This is one of my favorites.

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