What are your favorite poems?

[āruscio]

I have two: one by Poe, one by Hughes. Both very famous poems.

First, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe:

Spoiler

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the side of the sea.

And now Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes:

Spoiler

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

 

[evoVIIeevee]

My favourite poem is Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
I'm not posting it though, as its massive.

 

[KronosClownz]

This may sound vain but, the one I made at Robin hood's bay.

 

[Buizelfan!]

The road not taken by Robert Frost
Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen

 

[InsomniaticSpriter]

My fav two poems are both by Charles Baudelaire (Parfum Exotique and La Mort des Amants) and they are in french but here's a translated version (of both) that I found on a site dedicated to him.

Spoiler

Exotic Perfume

When, both eyes closed, on a hot autumn night,
I breathe in the fragrance of your welcoming heart,
I see happy shores spread out before me,
Blazing in the fire or a monotonous sun;
A lazy isle to which nature has given
Lonely trees, savory fruits,
You whose bodies is slender and vigorous,
And in your eyes shines a surprising candor.
Guided by your fragrance to these charming moods,
I see a port filled with sails and masts
Still tired by the waves of the sea,
While the perfume of the green tamarinds,
That flows through the air, and fills my nose,
Mingles in my soul to the sailors' song.

The Death of Lovers

We will have beds filled with light scent,
and couches deep as a tomb,
and strange flowers in the room,
blooming for us under skies so pleasant.
Vying to exhaust their last fires
our hearts will be two vast flares,
reflecting their double glares
in our two spirits, twin mirrors.
One evening of mystic blue and rose
we’ll exchange a single brief glow
like a long sob, heavy with goodbye,
and later, opening the doors, the angel who came
faithful and joyful,
will revive the lustreless mirrors,
and the lifeless flame.

There's another one by Victor Hugo (Demain dès l'aube [Tomorrow At Dawn]) but it's not as good and makes little sense so I'm not going to post it.

 

[Poltergeist]

The ones that I write.