When you're sick or you've hurt yourself, you normally take yourself off to the Doctor (or worst case, the hospital) and they given you antibiotics, or a plaster, or whatever and it makes you feel better. But sadly, sometimes, they can't do anything much for what I slightly melodramatically call, malaise of the soul. Some of you might know this better as the black dog, or even more commonly, depression. I know there is medication out there, and counselling, but sometimes, the best medicine can simply be words - in this case poetry. It may sound clichéd but when you're feeling worn down by the daily grind and it's just all gotten too much chances are, there's a poem out there that will make you feel better - and that will remind you that "this too, shall pass."
Here are my most very favourite poems, that I've read many times and they make my soul ache (and my eyes leak). I hope you like them - and please feel free to share your favourites in the comments section.
To His Coy Mistress - Andrew Marvell
A wonderful, romantic poem in which Mr Marvell tries to persuade his lover to allow him to sleep with her. It's funny, endearing, grandiloquent and never fails to make me smile. It also contains a couple of my most favourite lines "Thus, though we cannot make our sun/ Stand still, yet we will make him run".
The Lake Isle of Innisfree - WB Yeats
The first of four Yeats poems to feature in this list, I first read this poem when I was doing my A-levels at a school in the City of London. I had serious teenage blues - and being surrounded by dull, dark, dingy grey buildings didn't help. When I read this poem, I held its lines close in my heart and whenever the city got too much for me I thought of "I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore/While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey/I hear it in the deep heart's core."
Death Is Nothing At All - Henry Scott Holland
Technically not a poem at all, in fact it's from a sermon by Holland, Canon of St Paul's Cathedral in 1884. I had this read at my grandmother's funeral in 2006. It was a fairly religious Jewish funeral but I wanted this said over her grave as a personal message from me to her. I cried when I started reading it so my Dad had to do it instead :( I love this poem though because it's such a lovely sentiment about death and provided me with a lot of comfort when I was very sad. It's got a slightly "don't be silly, no tears for me" tone - and that's exactly what my grandmother would have been like if she'd seen me cry.
Siren Song - Margaret Atwood
As a Classics student, this poem really made me laugh the first time I read it. It's not actually that funny - but the words "feathery maniacs" as a description of Homer's Sirens is priceless. Clearly the poem also says something about the enduring idea of women luring men to their deaths - or simply just luring them to some unidentifiable end. I've not really articulated why I like this poem so much, you'll just have to read it and make your own personal interpretation of it - but it's definitely worth a read!
He Wishes For The Clothes of Heaven - WB Yeats
This was one of three readings at my wedding. I love this poem so incredibly much. In some ways perhaps it's not the most original choice for a reading but it completely sums up, for me, my marriage vows and making a commitment together. I choke up whenever I read it, and really had to hold it together on the day when my friend read it aloud. (In case you're interested, we also had
this and
this)
i carry your heart with me - E. E Cummings
Following on with the love poems theme, this is such a beautiful, quirkily worded poem. Simple and wonderful - like all E.E.Cummings poems, this was a reading at a friend of mine's wedding. The line "i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)" just really gets me every time I hear it - I'm such a softy!
Warming Her Pearls - Carol Ann Duffy
This poem is almost a whole book in itself - the story hidden between the lines is differently interpreted by every reader, but the images conjured up for me - the intimacy between a lady and her maid, and the subtle erotic spice that runs through this whole poem really makes my skin flame a little.
Love's Philosophy - Percy Bysshe Shelley
This wouldn't be a poetry collection without a dash of Shelley now! I always think of this as the poem equivalent of a big, fat, heavily scented, overblown english country rose. Shelley waxing lyrical about how "Nothing in the world is single" and so "why am I not with thine?". All the dramatic natural images almost kill the poem but for it's beautiful and plaintive last lines "What are all these kissings worth/If thou kiss not me?"
Remember - Christina Rossetti
I had to study Rossetti and Emily Dickinson for A-Level English Literature - two more different sisters of poetry would be impossible to find. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Dickinson, her poems were sometimes so impenetrable to me that Rosetti's came as quite a relief. Remember is quite a famous poem - obviously it's often read at funerals - but what I like about it is that I think it is one of her most honest poems. I really feel it shows Christina in a strong positive light, particularly the lines "Better by far you should forget and smile/Than that you should remember and be sad". After the melodrama of some of her other works, I loved Rossetti for this poem alone.
Desiderata - Max Ehrmann
Rather unfortunately, the use of this poem on tons of greetings cards and posters across the world has somewhat dimmed its lovely, enduring message "with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams/it is still a beautiful world". And to me, that's so important to remember - there's lots of good advice and common sense in this poem - it's rather like a 1927 version of Baz Lurhmann's Everyone Should Wear Sunscreen - so it is definitely worth a read, particularly if you're feeling in need of a little comfort.
When You Are Old - WB Yeats
The second Yeats on this list, this poem is so beautiful and touching that I don't think I can really do it justice in a glib little paragraph. I love the sentiment, I love the idea of a man still finding a woman beautiful and loving her after all those years - and wanting her to know that and finally, I love the slow, slightly melancholy lilt of it all. So beautiful and touching.
Twelve Songs - WH Auden
I know, you all know this one - thank you Four Weddings and A Funeral but, it is such a classic poem and my heart wrenches everytime I hear the lines "My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song/I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong." John Hannah's Scottish accent haunts every word of this poem for me, I don't think there has been a better poem written about losing a partner. I know there are plenty who would disagree but for me, this says everything.
Do Not Stand At My Grave & Weep - Mary Elizabeth Frye
A simple, well known poem. It provides me with lots of comfort for some reason, whenever I read it, even if I am not thinking of someone I have lost. It just has such a lovely delicate tone, encouraging the reader to take solace from the simple, still, calm moments of life. In all the rush and hurry of work and bills and friends and family, hurrying to and fro, it's easy to lose sight of what really matters. This poem always helps to me move with just a little more kindness and grace and to find some calm inside me.
The Song of Wandering Aengus - WB Yeats
The last Yeats poem - and the last on my list. I didn't realise how much I loved Yeats until I wrote this list! This poem - like his others above, is so soothing and romantic. I think we've probably all had "a fire" in our heads from time to time - and when we do, I expect we'd love to "go out to the hazel woods" - particularly Yeat's beautifully magic woods, with "moth like stars" and a "glimmering girl". Again, I'm not really entirely sure what this poem is about. For me it touches on love, fairytales and loneliness in just a few simple lines. The end is what always sticks in my head "the silver apples of the moon/the golden apples of the sun". It just conjures such beautiful pictures in my head of enchanted forests and woodland sprites - even though I'm sure that's not what he meant at all; still, I love it.
So that's my list - a touch over 10 this time! I know that most of these poems are very popular and probably familiar to all of you. I never claimed to be overly original in my choices and these poems are what I return to for comfort over and over again. I won't lie, it was bloody hard work to narrow it down to these few poems, there were so many other front runners - I could have put at least another ten poems up there, but perhaps I'll do that another time (Top 10 second-favourite poems?!)
Thanks for reading - and, I hope, commenting. Stay tuned this week for
WoTW - Vocation, an
interview with a wedding photographer and not 1 but TWO
photo essays - one around a day in my life and another that will be Valentine themed. Finally, next Sunday's
top 10 will be my favourite alternative love songs (well, it is almost valentine's day!).
Thank you and good night,
Stupidgirl has left the building
PS Thanks again to all the tweeties who told me about their favourite poems, I hope you enjoyed re-reading them - and my list!
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