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bookgazing) wrote2009-08-31 06:59 am
bookgazing) wrote2009-08-31 06:59 am
The Twelve Step Poetry Challenge - Challenge List
My poetry challenge is due to start on Tuesday and you may have noticed I haven’t posted a list of the collections I’m going to read. I have a pretty casual attitude to poetry. If I pick up a poetry collection and don’t like it I don’t lose hours and hours of precious time reading it, the way I would if I picked up a novel and didn’t like it. I also don’t have a heap of favourite poets, many poets you might think a well read person should have tried will be a completely new experience for me. I have no real dislikes when it comes to poetry and I’m ready to give anything a go, it’s hard to compose a list when you would be happy putting literally every poetry book in the world on it.
But I think I’ve randomly decided on my challenge picks now:
Women poets: ‘Averno’ – Louise Gluck, ‘Men and their Boring Arguments’ – Wendy Cope
Dead white males: ‘Collected Poems’ – Philip Larkin, ‘New Hampshire’ – Robert Frost
Official poets: ‘Feminine Gospels’ – Carol Ann Duffy, ‘Birthday Letters’ – Ted Hughes
Translated: ‘The Russian Version’ – Elena Fanailova, ‘The Dream We Carry’ – Olav H Hauge
Hispanic, black, asian etc: ‘Blood Dazzler’ – Patricia Smith, ‘Gingko Light’ – Arthur Sze
GLBT: ‘Counter Attack and Other Poems’ – Seigfriend Sassoon, ‘Collected Poems’ – Wilfred Owen
I think I’ve got a nice mix of old favourites (Wendy Cope, Larkin and Sassoon), some I’ve read a little of but would like to read a whole book by (Patricia Smith) and some who are completely new to me (translated poetry is something I’ve never tried before).
There are also the two big hitters, the official poets with whom I have an uneasy relationship. Both Ted Hughes and Carol Ann Duffy turned up several times while I was at school and honestly I hated all of the poems we read by these poets. In case you think it’s a case of school sucking the life out of poetry, I loved the Simon Armitage poems we read (sigh Armitage isn’t he dreamy...).
After reading a few other poems by Hughes and Duffy, as an adult, I think it was probably my schools choice of poems, not their choice of poets that provoked such a negative reaction. We must have read that dreary ‘Swallow of Summer’ poem at three separate stages in my school life and in my opinion once is too many times to hear about that damn swallow. Not a hint of the Plath Hughes relationship entered our classrooms and kids today were so fortunate to have Duffy’s provocative ‘Education for Leisure’ poem as a GCSE selection for a short time.
I was determined not to read collected works editions, except for the Larkin as I already own it, but I struggled a bit with finding books for the GLBT category. There seem to be plenty of anthologies but less references to well known poets publishing their own works. Can anyone help me replace the Wilfred Owen collection?
Those are my choices and I’ll keep you updated about the poems I’m reading every day from the ‘Poetry Daily’ anthology (although I won’t post about each every day - that would be insane).
If you’re playing along at home and you’re planning to post reviews, write posts about your favourite lines or write about your challenge progress please bookmark this post and leave any links to such things here. I’ll pop them up in a big collected post as we go along.
But I think I’ve randomly decided on my challenge picks now:
Women poets: ‘Averno’ – Louise Gluck, ‘Men and their Boring Arguments’ – Wendy Cope
Dead white males: ‘Collected Poems’ – Philip Larkin, ‘New Hampshire’ – Robert Frost
Official poets: ‘Feminine Gospels’ – Carol Ann Duffy, ‘Birthday Letters’ – Ted Hughes
Translated: ‘The Russian Version’ – Elena Fanailova, ‘The Dream We Carry’ – Olav H Hauge
Hispanic, black, asian etc: ‘Blood Dazzler’ – Patricia Smith, ‘Gingko Light’ – Arthur Sze
GLBT: ‘Counter Attack and Other Poems’ – Seigfriend Sassoon, ‘Collected Poems’ – Wilfred Owen
I think I’ve got a nice mix of old favourites (Wendy Cope, Larkin and Sassoon), some I’ve read a little of but would like to read a whole book by (Patricia Smith) and some who are completely new to me (translated poetry is something I’ve never tried before).
There are also the two big hitters, the official poets with whom I have an uneasy relationship. Both Ted Hughes and Carol Ann Duffy turned up several times while I was at school and honestly I hated all of the poems we read by these poets. In case you think it’s a case of school sucking the life out of poetry, I loved the Simon Armitage poems we read (sigh Armitage isn’t he dreamy...).
After reading a few other poems by Hughes and Duffy, as an adult, I think it was probably my schools choice of poems, not their choice of poets that provoked such a negative reaction. We must have read that dreary ‘Swallow of Summer’ poem at three separate stages in my school life and in my opinion once is too many times to hear about that damn swallow. Not a hint of the Plath Hughes relationship entered our classrooms and kids today were so fortunate to have Duffy’s provocative ‘Education for Leisure’ poem as a GCSE selection for a short time.
I was determined not to read collected works editions, except for the Larkin as I already own it, but I struggled a bit with finding books for the GLBT category. There seem to be plenty of anthologies but less references to well known poets publishing their own works. Can anyone help me replace the Wilfred Owen collection?
Those are my choices and I’ll keep you updated about the poems I’m reading every day from the ‘Poetry Daily’ anthology (although I won’t post about each every day - that would be insane).
If you’re playing along at home and you’re planning to post reviews, write posts about your favourite lines or write about your challenge progress please bookmark this post and leave any links to such things here. I’ll pop them up in a big collected post as we go along.