Poetry can be intimidating. When I was in high school, Shakespeare’s sonnets were like reading another language, with no interpretation of mine reaching a nuance that I now see they deserved. I loved how the words sounded, how they rolled off my tongue and resonated in the air, but they were empty. I didn’t know what they meant and because of that, I didn’t feel like I could read poetry for fun.
Why would I read something I had to work at to understand? That was until I realized that poetry lived outside of the classroom, with verses that still sound beautiful to say but require a little less effort to decipher.
So, I’ve compiled a list of 5 poems that broke the boundary between me and poetry and made the world of verse much easier to learn to appreciate. Take a few minutes and give these a read. You never know, they might ignite a passion you never knew you had.
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman
Invictus
William Ernest Henly
Requiescat
Oscar Wilde
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Next steps
Did you like any of those? Now you can try checking out some collections: my favourites include Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman and The Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Or you can browse poetry websites like Poetry Foundation and perhaps stumble upon a favourite poet or poem that you can't get out of your head.
If you truly get the poetry itch, you can check out all the Creative Writing classes that Dal has to offer. They even have two poetry classes you can take if you want to turn your newfound passion for reading poetry into writing it.