Does anyone really like Wordsworth's poems? I got turned off by some had to read in HS

[bobbieinok]

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. I loved his poems when I was in high school, but haven't read any in a lonnnng time so

don't know if I'd still have the same reaction.

I still quote "My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky" whenever I see a rainbow!

[Wolf Frankula]

2. I rather like Byron's term for him

Wordswords.

Wolf

[ProudLib72]

3. No!

And Yeats is HORRIBLE!!!

Arthur Rimbaud for me!

As I was going down impassive Rivers,
I no longer felt myself guided by haulers:
Yelping redskins had taken them as targets
And had nailed them naked to colored stakes.

I was indifferent to all crews,
The bearer of Flemish wheat or English cottons
When with my haulers this uproar stopped
The Rivers let me go where I wanted.

Into the furious lashing of the tides
More heedless than children's brains the other winter
I ran! And loosened Peninsulas
Have not undergone a more triumphant hubbub

The storm blessed my sea vigils
Lighter than a cork I danced on the waves
That are called eternal rollers of victims,
Ten nights, without missing the stupid eye of the lighthouses!

More of The Drunken Boat: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55036/the-drunken-boat

[TrogL]

5. Yeats "The Second Coming" is terrifying

[ProudLib72]

6. Yeats' monkey gland operations were terrifying

Last edited Mon Apr 22, 2019, 12:47 AM - Edit history (1)

Getting testosterone injections so he could boink a woman less than half his age...meh, not my cup of tea. Neither is the fact that he was from a wealthy Protestant family and could afford to take trips to the countryside and enjoy himself writing doggerel like:

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

Now if you want to read real Irish poetry, read Patrick Kavanagh: https://www.poemhunter.com/patrick-kavanagh/

Edit: Sorry about the diatribe. I have a master's in Irish Studies with a concentration on literature. I get worked up over Yeats.

[Kaleva]

4. I first read the OP title as "Does anyone really like Wordsworth's penis?"

I have to tilt my head back a bit when reading in able to use the lower part of my bifocals. When I look straight at something close up, things get blurry but more interesting.

[ailsagirl]

7. Love Wordsworth!

Therefore let the moon
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
And let the misty mountain-winds be free
To blow against thee: and, in after years,
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations!

[Harker]

8. It's always a very personal question...

what are a poet's words worth?