Dear reader,
After a long hiatus (and a lot of missed committee meetings), I'm back with the literature review! Why haven't I posted more, you ask? Well, I’m tired. I’m sure you are too. I run entirely on cheap tea and the futile high of finally submitting assignments on D2L. We are counting down to finals, and I, for one, am ready to transfer to the University of Hawaii and at least be stressed in paradise to get some rest!
With that said, I’m being a bit lazy today: I don’t have a theme for this post. Instead, dear reader, you are getting a collection of some of my favorite assorted poems for you to view at your leisure (and hopefully pleasure). I hate pretentious poems as much as the next person, so fear not! These poems will hopefully (re)kindle your respect for the medium, which is so often relegated as boring or homework.
And behold, the coveted list of poems!!
- “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats. Arguably my favorite poem, at the very least my favorite sonnet, Yeats’ poem is not for lighthearted reading, but it does match up pretty well with the fear and dread of our modern era. Fun stuff!
- “Upon Hearing the News You Buried Our Dog” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. All my hopeless romantics, I got you. If there was an Honors college for success in love, I would not be accepted, which is why I love this poem. It’s full of hushed reassurances and mourning at what could’ve been, and that is just *chef’s kiss*. I also reviewed the book this poem comes from a while back, so click here if you want to read that post.
- "Reading Dostoyevsky at Seventeen" by Dante Di Stefano. Quick confession: I've never read Dostoyevsky (e.g. Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov), let alone at seventeen, but this poem is gorgeous. I love the way it describes how a good poem can transport you to a completely different space and time. My words can't adequately rate this poem; I love it so much. Just go read it.
- "The moon rose over the bay, I had a lot of feelings" by Donika Kelly. Another hopeless romantic poem, but this time with some actual hope! This poem is filled with blooming, with the expansiveness and whirlwind-ness of new love. It's just gorgeous; it's too good for any old Valentine's Day card.
- "The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On" by Franny Choi. This is a very political poem, so if you're not into that, feel free to skip. Personally, I don't agree with everything Choi writes in here, but I do think that she offers some great insight into the everyday "apocalypses" we witness only in the news, all the while moving on with our lives. How do we confront the tragedies that only the modern, globalized world can produce while retaining some sense of sanity? Should we retain some sense of sanity in the face of these situations? These are the questions that Choi asks, with some uncertain answers and a lot of fury.
- "Solitude Study" by Jenny Xie (my apologies...this link goes to a cursed place called tumblr.com). Xie mostly writes in a very Chinese style, with lots of silence, blank space, and sparse, yet succinct, imagery. "Solitude Study" is a prime example of this. Her restrained couplets, her subtle epiphanies, her quiet wisdom is on full display here. This is also just a great poem about being introverted. This is for all y'all sitting in the back of the classroom praying you don't get called on. You know who you are.
- "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802" by William Wordsworth. One last sonnet to finish the list off! Sometimes the Romantic poets (capital R, as in Romanticism) are a bit over the top and melodramatic. At their best, though, their works are just plain beautiful and exultant, and Wordsworth, in my opinion, definitely belongs in the latter category. Westminster Bridge is the famous bridge that you see in all the tourist pictures with Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, and this poem enshrines the bridge in a moment of silence. The poem is short, it's sweet, it's full of breath and stillness; definitely another one of my favorite sonnets.
Well, that's all folks! I have plenty of other poems I could recommend you, but I'm sure you don't want to read poems for three hours like the poor unfortunate souls in the English major do (haha...). Let me know in the comments which one was your favorites and if I should do another post like this next time!
Adieu and zaijian,
Ash
Have any underrated poems you'd like to share with the world? Tell your literary reviewer, Ashleigh, in the comments!
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