The main character (Balram) in "The White Tiger" quite authoritatively stated who the four best poets in the world are: Rumi, Mirza Ghalib, Iqbal and one whose name he couldn't remember. I blogged about it here changing the question and asking who people's four favorite poets are. I love, as I've said, Wordsworth and Frost, and with tongue in cheek I added Bob Hale to that, though I do very much love his poetry. But then Bob here wrote a very nice analysis of his four favorite poets. Therefore, I thought this might be a good topic for the board.

Of course both questions are only based on opinions, but who are your four favorite poets? And do you have an opinion about the four best poets in the world? What about Balram's choices?

[P.S. Even though Bob and I have the same blog design...and Bob had his blog before mine...I did not copy from him...honest! I just happened to pick that same blog design that he has, mostly because I love blue.]

[Edited for accuracy; I had posted Mirza and Ghalib as separate poets. I need to study poetry more comprehensively!]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

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the four best poets in the world

William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash, and Emily Dickinson. How's that for a combo?

I was curious about this list, but with the power of Google, I find:

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But he has clear cut theories based on eavesdropping, observation, experience and a deep understanding of poets Rumi, Iqbal, Mirza Ghalib and a fourth fellow whose name he can't recall (link, warning spoilers in the review).

A bit of irony, eh, what?

Thank you, z. I have corrected my post, which showed my ignorance.

I have corrected my post, which showed my ignorance.

It was a easy mistake to make, K. We all of us make them. Well, almost all of us.

Confessing that I don't read a lot of poetry, but did, years ago, when I was an English major, I can't pick four best poets. But the poets that I have enjoyed the most are Shakespeare, W.D. Snodgrass, e.e. cummings, and the contemporary American poet, Victoria Hallerman, who is also a close friend.

Wordmatic

I agree with e.e. cummings, Shakespeare and proof's Nash. I even love A.A. Milne. While I realize Nash and Milne are light-weights, I surely enjoy them. My grandmother taught me to love Robert Burns, and Jerry taught me to love Edgar Allen Poe.

However, I think I may be missing several generations and cultures of work! Mine are all so English or American.

Very tough to pick only four favorites! I can't do it. After Shakespeare and Dickinson I add Keats and Yeats, and Frost, and Plath, and Theodore Roethke.

Hi, Kalleh! Nice blog. Please tell the name/ painter of your illustration (the man on the ladder in the library)? Our local town book store has that picture on its bookmarks. I love it.

I find this exercise like unto counting the words in a language, fairly meaningless. But, who am I to be a spoilsport: the four best poets are: Homer, Dante, Blake, and Anonymous. (I had to drop Shakespeare from consideration because most of his output is in iambic pentameter blank verse (i.e., it does not rhyme and is therefore not considered poetry by the vulgus mobile). We are left then with his youthful sonnets and the bit of doggerel on his gravestone.)

I like Anonymous but I've always found his work a bit inconsistent.

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Homer, Dante, Blake, and Anonymous

I'd like to put a plug in here for Ian McKellan's reading of Robert Fagle's translation of the Odyssey. I once drove four kids four hours to Tahoe listening to that 3000-year-old story and they were riveted for the entire drive.

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I once drove four kids four hours to Tahoe listening to that 3000-year-old story and they were riveted for the entire drive.

Prescription meds work the same effect without the noise.

But, Shirley, Prescription Medz are a band, not a poet, and I meant Good Anon, and not her evil sib triplets, Bad Anon and Nark Anon.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

Shirley, Homer can't be counted as he also wrote stuff that didn't rhyme? Not only that, he wrote it in Foreign. Unless Homer Simpson is being referred to? I know he's a famous philosopher, but I don't know any of his poems.

Shirley, Homer can't be counted as he also wrote stuff that didn't rhyme?

There's no pulling the wool over your eyes, Leslie. I was thinking that the people who think only rhyming poetry is, don't know either Homer the Blind Bard or Homer Simpson, and wouldn't call me it. And a lot of Good Anon's works (e.g., Gilgamesh, Job, Beowulf) don't rhyme either.

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Originally posted by arnie:
Unless Homer Simpson is being referred to? I know he's a famous philosopher, but I don't know any of his poems.

Maybe not, but Lisa Simpson did

Meditations on Turning Eight
by Lisa Simpson

I had a cat named Snowball
She died! She died!
Mom said she was sleeping
She lied! She lied!
Why oh why is my cat dead?
Couldn't that Chrysler hit me instead?
I had a hamster named Snuffy
He died...

Unfortunately, the rest of this verse may never be revealed as at that point Homer interrupted her.

(I haven't been a great fan of the Simpsons but I'd be willing to bet that somewhere in the program Homer has written some too.)

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Gilgamesh don't rhyme either.

Gilga doesn't mesh? I understand there's a new translation. Maybe it meshes: http://www.amazon.com/Gilgames...tchell/dp/074326164X

Asa the Edgar Guest fan
"I'd rather flunk my Wasserman test/ Than read the poetry of Edgar Guest." Dorothy Parker

Gilga doesn't mesh?

In the earlier, funnier, Sumerian versions, the hero's name is Bilgamesh, or William Gaemish.

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Please tell the name/ painter of your illustration

Hmmm, I can't find it now, Bethree. It's a famous painting, I think, but not so famous that I know it, unfortunately.

Please tell the name/ painter of your illustration

Carl Spitzweg [1808-85] is the artist (link). He painted Der Bücherwurm (The Bookworm) in 1850 (link). It is in the Museum Georg Schäfer (link), Schweinfurt, Germany.

Ah, yes. Thanks so much, z.

Yes, thank you z! I shall try to acquire a print.

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Originally posted by zmježd:
I find this exercise like unto counting the words in a language, fairly meaningless. But, who am I to be a spoilsport: the four best poets are: Homer, Dante, Blake, and Anonymous. (I had to drop Shakespeare from consideration because most of his output is in iambic pentameter blank verse (i.e., it does not rhyme and is therefore not considered poetry by the vulgus mobile). We are left then with his youthful sonnets and the bit of doggerel on his gravestone.)

Oh, I'm all for that, z! Now I can replace Shakespeare (bad boy, Willie!) with Blake! (good boy, Willie!)

oops but I still have 5. Sorry, bob [frost], you're out.

I've dropped Shakespeare as well. I think I chose him because others influenced me. I do think there should be two levels, though. One can hardly compare Poe or Frost, for example, with Ogden Nash, and yet good old Ogden's cleverness gives me the giggles!

Yes, z, this is a lot like counting words or listing the 4 best books in the world (what would those be?!), but it's kind of fun.

Bethree, I agree; that illustration is wonderful.

While we discuss poems, and most of us love them, others think nobody reads poetry. See my Blog entry. A reader wonders why we "fund" poet laureates when nobody reads poetry. Oy vey.