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Amanda Gorman has a new poetry book coming out named after her poem, The Hill We Climb. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0593465067/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1611172894&refinements=p_27%3AAmanda+Gorman&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Amanda+Gorman
Its from this book. somebody posted something similar the last time someone decided to post this blotter.
https://www.amazon.com/Lesbian-Sex-Haiku-Book-Cats/dp/1250072646
I'd recommend The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks. I don't speak Persian and haven't read other translations, but I think this collection is great. I particularly like “The Reed Flute's Song” and “I Have Five Things to Say.”
First off, look up the podcast Sweetbitter, because if you're interested in a book of her poetry you'd definitely be interested in a fantastic Sappho podcast.
Second, this is the copy I've had my eyes on for months. I love Anne Carson's translations, and I think there's just something significant about reading a translation done by a woman.
I really like the A. R. George edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh, although there's a recent edition by Benjamin Foster that I haven't read yet. Foster's anthologies Before the Muses and From Distant Days are some of my favorites and I reference them all the time for Akkadian mythology and poetry.
I envy anyone who was introduced to Mesopotamia in primary or second school. The curriculum at my school focused, ad nauseum, on Greece and Rome, with a little bit of Ancient Egypt thrown in for good measure. I didn't discover Mesopotamia until my brief time at college.
If there's anything about Mesopotamia that you're interested in or curious about, ask away. The community has been more active lately and we've got some good people who browse now!
> Derek Attridge's The Rhythms of English Poetry
Thanks for the review! On this subject, looking for something more academic I have been. Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Traveled is a lighthearted and composition-driven introduction to metered verse, for those interested.
The Epic of Gilgamesh. This has probably been mentioned by now in the thread, but as the oldest surviving piece of human literature, you could argue that this is where it all started. I'm a fan of the Penguin Classics edition, and the epic is also obviously in public domain; here is the Project Gutenberg link.
Is it the most riveting read? Maybe not, compared to mainstream and modern novels. The Epic is still worth reading because even back when people lived in mud brick homes and the ancient equivalent of New York City was anywhere with a population of 40,000+, exploration of the human condition was still something that intrigued people.
It's a story about justice, seeking glory, friendship, mortality, and whether or not immortality is something as literal as "never dying".
Everyone should read it at least once in their lives, if not only to experience where our literary tradition as a species first began.
My favorite book is If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho which is a collection of Sappho poems translated by Anne Carson! For anyone who is interested, Anne Carson translates Sappho beautifully Amazon Link Goodreads Link.
I posted my tattoo that includes Taylor Swift lyrics on here a few weeks back. My other tattoo, which you can't see in that photo, is a fragment of a Sappho poem! You can imagine how excited I am to see this post - two of of my favorite things colliding!!! lol
Thank you for the thoughtful comparison!
The poet/Classicist Anne Carson did a translation with facing Greek text:
https://www.amazon.com/If-Not-Winter-Fragments-Sappho/dp/0375724516
If I recall correctly, it's not a scholarly text (i.e., there's no app crit, and it's cleaned up a bit). I don't know if that matters to you.
This doesn't have the "Brothers Poem" from P.Obbink (but that may be a forgery anyhow).
The Ode less traveled is such a book and it will give you exposure to lots of forms and detail examples with the humor and wit of Mr. Fry. Obviously, there are old english textbooks on the subject too. You could try Norton .
Let’s say you want to compose dactylic hexameter and compose an epic in the Homeric manner. I’m not sure that can be done. The more you learn about the epics the more increasingly complicated they become. To think you could do it would be like saying I’m going to build a rocket ship and fly to mars with spare parts in my garage while simultaneously digging to the center of the earth and visiting parallel universes. First learn Ancient Greek or Latin, Latin is less complicated fyi, not only to fluency but with formal poetic style because English is completely unsuited for such a venture because Epic requires, to my mind , highly inflected language. Is there a chance, yeah but ignore it it’s so small.
It was an objectively bad poem, filled with clichés and neoliberal clap-trap about American exceptionalism, unity, etc. I've spoken to a few friends about this. They all agree, but are too afraid to say anything on social media for fear of backlash.
But Gorman has a pretty sweet grift going on. She just started a preorder for a forthcoming book of poetry that's gonna come out in September 2021. Gotta strike while the iron is hot...
Dick Davis’s translation of Shahnameh is fine. The copy I have is purely written in English though. I haven’t read any Hafiz so I can’t help you with that. Dick Davis Shahnameh
I love an anthology of poems called Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart.
From the back cover- Robert Bly, James Hillman, and Michael Meade challenge the assumptions of our poetry-deprived society in this powerful collection of more than 400 deeply moving poems from renowned artists including Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Theodore Roethke, Rainer Maria Rilke, Marianne Moore, Thomas Wolfe, Czeslaw Milosz, and Henry David Thoreau.
The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060924209/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_OhMFFb8HP6P9Y
There is quite a big market for it actually.
Have you seen this?
It's sold over 1,000,000 copies....
I'm not sure if it has 100+, but my favorite collected anthology, by far, is The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart. The subtitle can go fuck itself, but the collection itself is unbeatable. So, so good. Really, this book showed me so much of what poetry can be. I really enjoy that it doesn't focus on one era so much over others, contemporary poetry is well-represented, and this all shows in the organization of poems. Pound right next to Olds right next to Li Po. Brilliant.
If I can get over the subtitle, I feel like anyone should be able to. Check it out!
Congrats!
My wife and I used selections from Rumi, e.g.:
May this marriage be blessed. May this marriage be as sweet as milk and honey. May this marriage be as intoxicating as old wine. May this marriage be fruitful like a date tree. May this marriage be full of laughter and everyday a paradise. May this marriage be a seal of compassion for here and hereafter. May this marriage be as welcome as the full moon in the night sky. Listen lovers, now you go on, as I become silent and kiss this blessed night.