Poetry Roundup: April 2011

[nanila]

Today is the last day of the American National Poetry Month. (As an American expat living in Britain, I claim the right to celebrate either in April or October.) I tried to cover a range of time periods and as much of the world as I could with my nine poetry posts (though my knowledge of African poets is sadly deficient), which forced me to abandon the male-female-male-female scheme I had originally intended. My commentary is mostly personal, as I am no literary expert and these are simply the favourites I’ve gleaned from dilettante study over my lifetime. I hope at least a few people found this series entertaining.

1. The Golden Palominos “Ride” with lyrics by Nicole Blackman (female, American)
   
2. Philip Larkin “Next, Please” (male, English)
   
3. Wisława Szymborska “Theatre Impressions” (female, Polish)
   
4. Li Po “Along the Stream” (male, Chinese)
   
5. Sandra Cisneros “I the Woman” (female, Mexican-American)
   
6. William Blake “The Sick Rose” (male, English)
   
7. Tachibana Hokushi “untitled haiku” (male, Japanese)
   
8. Alexander Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” excerpt (male, Russian)
   
9. Pablo Neruda “Oda al Gato/Ode to the Cat” excerpt (male, Chilean)
   

Comments

[surpassingly]

Thank you for this series. I truly enjoyed reading both the poems and your commentary, and the selection was very good. <3

[nanila]

Oh, thank you so much for saying so. ♥

[miss_haitch]

Fabulous collection! I enjoyed reading them. :D

[nanila]

Hurrah! I'm very glad. Thank you.

(PS Am loving your original fic snippets. Would not mind reading a longer-form piece at all.)

[miss_haitch]

Thank you! That's very nice to hear, I'm planning to post more stuff now I've got more into the swing of it. ♥