Learning Poetry

[Pursuivant]

Well, this thread is not much longer than the title itself.

I know poetry is a great way to melt a girl. But as the engineer wannabe that i am, i know nothing about poetry.

So DJ's, what poetry books can you recommend?

 

[IDMeansNothing]

I dunno about this one. What do you want to do, recite the shyt?

I think to be well read is more impressive. Having said that, my favorite poet is EE Cummings.

Read too. Classics, Shakespeare, Crime and Punishment, Ayn Rand, Bulgakov (Master and Margarita!), Ludlum, Follet.

Do art too...study various styles. Decide what you like..cubist (Picasso), whateverthehell Salvador Dali is, impressionist (Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, vanGogh, etc). You will then at least be able to distinguish between styles, know what you like and have a good topic for discussion. If she is clueless, you can introduce her to art. Regardless of what she discovers she likes, she will NEVER forget you!

Thought i would expand you mind a little beyond poetry....

 

[hardwork]

Mercuri!--nam te docilis magistro movit Amphion lapides canendo...

Meh, poetry recitation I've steered directly away from because it feels so cheap and cliché. One thing I know for damn sure is that, in my experience, trying to buy your way into a relationship with anything--and certainly poetry!--is folly.

As for becoming more well-read, I recommend Horace and Shakespearean sonnets as classics, and, while Cummings is okay, I'm more of an Eliot fan

In regards to Horace, though, I've always found that learning to read the original-original (Horace wrote in Latin) is far more rewarding that just reading prose or verse translations. I'm becoming a professional polyglot, though, so my opinion is pretty worthless. Sappho is also worth a look, as is the Marquis de Sade, but don't let your mom catch you with either of them.

quae velut latis equa trima campis
ludit exsultim metuitque tangi,
nuptiarum expers at adhuc protervo
cruda marito
- Horace, Carminum Liber III, XI

 

[ulsterman]

Scots poet, Robert Burns, wrote some really soppy stuff, albeit a lot of it in a kind of Lallans (Lowland Scots - a nearly defunct dialect of English). Check out this anglicized version of one of his poems for wussiness:

But to see her was to love her,
Love but her and love forever.

Had we never loved so kindly,
Had we never loved so blindly,
Never met or never parted,
We had ne'er been brokenhearted.

...etc.

or, from another poem about a oneitis called Mary Morrison, also anglicized so you'll understand it:

Last night, when to the trembling string,
The dance went through the lighted hall,
To thee my fancy took its wing,
I sat, but neither heard nor saw;
Though this (i.e. this girl) was "great", and that was "grand",
And th' other the toast of all the town,
I sighed, and said, Among them all,
You are no Mary Morrison.

The beauty about Burns - if you see it as an advantage, that is - is that every year the Scots have a "Burns Night" (25th January, I think), wherein Scots the world over get together to hear recitals of this drivel. Mind you, it only works if you can do the Lowland Scots accent during the recital. I just think it would be a daft way to impress a chick. Sadly, I learned some of his poems a while ago with that in mind...

 

[Quick]

The girl that I went out with last night i met at a poetry reading where I read a piece. It was great social proof when people kept coming up saying they liked my poem while I was talking to her.

I sometimes let girls see some of my writing after we've been dating for a little while. When they ask about my passions, that's one of them, and they eventually want to see. By that time, i've already got the girl though. It helps to progress the relationship because they see another side of my personality and feel like I'm letting them in because they've earned it.

But I have been, and will be writing poetry irregardless of girls or if anyone ever saw or heard it. I write it because it's one of the many ways I express myself.

Learning poetry simply to impress girls is a waste of your time. First of all, you probably won't be much good. If you're not feeling it, it'll show. Second, they'll be impressed if you're good at anything, so why not work on something that you're passionate about. Third, don't waste your time on hobbies that you wouldn't take up if you didn't think it would impress girls. That's giving them way too much control over your life.

 

[Crotch Sniffer]

yeah

what quick said!

 

[Dee-Zy]

Fack poetry - seriously.

Unless u are 4-6 months deep in a relationship. Forget it that's just corny and laughable.

 

[Pecker]

Everyone read Bukowski! Novels AND Poems.