Wang Wei, one wishes they could watch him fishing on some great big rock, forever, on and on.

WH Auden because The More Loving One keeps a gun out of my mouth after every breakup

Peter Reading, a late twentieth century British poet who used an enormous range of forms, including unenglish ones like elegiac distich, haiku and other syllabic verse, and in his later work, collage/cutup techniques, to cover themes like social and environmental decline and "unsatisfactory people" (or "shitheads" as one of his collections is titled). Generally sardonic and pessimistic and often outspokenly antipoetic, he also wrote about personal subjects like relationships, his love of birds and wine, mortality, etc.

Gerard Manley-Hopkins if only for his unparalleled grasp and manipulation of structure, phrasing, and meter. Otherwise, Ezra Pound for his depthless erudition and ability to successfully appraise anything and everything aesthetically. Ted Hughes will always be dear to me for exposing me to poetry at large to begin with.

I don't read enough poetry to properly articulate why I like him or compare him to others, but I do know there's nothing as nice as reading Walt Whitman under a shady tree on a sunny day

I don't read much poetry, but T. S. Eliot is my favourite - his use of anti-aesthetic imagery, the perversion of the cityscapes he crafts, this sordid urban world that perfectly reflects a post-industrial revolution society. I also appreciate his more spiritual work - both Hollow Men and Journey of the Magi speak to me personally in terms of how I feel about my relationship to Christianity. Plath is very dear, but I enjoy her diaries and prose more than her poetry, so I'd rate her a little lower.

Mary Oliver. life-affirming work. inspired me to actually pay attention to my natural environment too

John Ashbery. The reward of dissection and interrogation, the careful control of tone, the aphorisms erupting out of confusion, the brilliance.

yarb

3 months ago

I've read Ashberry unsystematically over the years and can see that he's good, but never quite connected with him. I mean there's such a lot of him. What collection(s) or period would you recommend to start with?

1Reply

literati

3 months ago

Self-portrait is his most popular book due, at least in part, to its relatively low difficulty and probably the best place to start. If you enjoy that, I'd read The Mooring of Starting Out, a collection of his earliest books. This article's good as an introduction on how to read him: https://lithub.com/how-to-begin-to-understand-john-ashbery/

1Reply

yarb

3 months ago

Thanks, I will read both of those

1Reply