The assignment is to memorize 100 lines of poetry by a British poet. The poet can also be from a former colony of Britain (India, Jamaica, Nigeria, etc.) and I can memorize the works of more than one poet (i.e. ten lines from one, forty from another, etc.). Besides the obvious problem of memorizing 100 lines (of which I have no doubt I will fail miserably at), I'm also at a loss for finding British poets. Oh sure, I could Google them. And I intend to. But I would love to receive recommendations from people who love poetry and have favorite poets. I would prefer humorous poems since I have a hard time delivering emotional poems, but I would be up for the challenge of attempting an intense poem. I would prefer British poets of color, but honestly, I'm willing to settle for a female, humorous poet. Above all, I would love some funny poets.
In sum: BRITISH POET RECOMMENDATIONS NEEDED
You can leave them in the comments or email me. It would be especially awesome if you included the name of the poet and your favorite poem by them. I look forward to reading some great poetry (and shudder at the idea of memorizing it) :)
Personally I think Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling would be perfect! I think it has a kind of sing-songy quality that would help with memorization, too.
ReplyDeleteI know he's white AND male, BUT if you're a fan, Roald Dahl has a collection of fractured fairy tale poems called Revolting Rhymes. They're quite funny. Here's a link to Cinderella: http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/55895-Roald-Dahl-Cinderella
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this is cheating, but you MUST try Grace Nichols if you haven't already. She wasn't born in Britain, but she became a Brit citizen about 40 years ago (I think - must check that). I highly recommend you read THE FAT BLACK WOMAN'S POEMS. Even if it's not right for you reading aloud (she has a very Caribbean voice and cadence to her work), they are cool! Love this one:
ReplyDeleteThe Fat Black Woman Goes Shopping
Shopping in London winter
is a real drag for the fat black woman
going from store to store
in search of accommodating clothes
and de weather so cold
Look at the frozen thin mannequins
fixing her with grin
and de pretty face salegals
exchanging slimming glances
thinking she don't notice
Lord is aggravating
Nothing soft and bright and billowing
to flow like breezy sunlight
when she walking
The fat black woman curses in Swahili / Yoruba
and nation language under her breathing
all this journeying and journeying
The fat black woman could only conclude
that when it come to fashion
the choice is lean
Nothing much
beyond size 14
Ooh, I'm so useless with poetry. I love Ben Okri, though (his prose is indistinguishable from poetry at times)so I found one of his poems online:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.writespirit.net/blog/archive/2006/12/03/poems_ben_okri
I'll think & try to e-mail you more ideas.
Some more online ones from Ben Okri.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kalimunro.com/Turnonyourlight.html
http://www.rhgdigital.co.uk/blogs/ebury/?p=349
http://www.rhgdigital.co.uk/blogs/ebury/?p=349
I'm not great at poetry, so this answer is a bit not-quite-what-you-asked-for...Robert Service (Canadian) wrote wonderful WWI poetry. My favorite is Victory Stuff (it's all about the soldiers coming home and feeling awkward at the armistice celebrations since they are reminders of the bad side of the war). Here's a link: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/victory-stuff/
ReplyDeleteOops, sorry one of those links was a duplicate. Meant to put this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=555
Living is a Fire
Living is a cross
That any one of the rock-faces
Comprehends.
We are drawn
To many seas.
We drown wholesomely
In the failures of confrontation.
The rain
Drenching
Our doorsteps
Has nothing to do
With the simplest desires
And lacerations
We bring
To the smallest acts
Of living.
The child
On the broken catwalk
Hearing the sounds of our hunger
Without understanding
Throws echoes back
To the earliest abandonments
Of love.
Minor devastations preceding
Horror
Resonate the ineffable.
The mothers that wake
At the slightest sound
And the fathers that
Smoke all night
And the rest of us who are
Vigilantes from the demons
Of oppressed sleep
Find at dawn the clearest
Images of bewilderment.
Even the best things
Collapse beneath the weight
Of ignorance.
Living is a fire
That any one of the wave-lashes
Comprehends.
Oh I loved the poem about the Fat Black Woman shopping for winter clothes!
ReplyDeleteI know one Russian poet descended from an African grandfather (no joking!) and his name is Pushkin. Maybe you would like one of his poems (translated into English of course)? One of them, entitled "Winter evening" I quote below:
The storm wind covers the sky
Whirling the fleecy snow drifts,
Now it howls like a wolf,
Now it is crying, like a lost child,
Now rustling the decayed thatch
On our tumbledown roof,
Now, like a delayed traveller,
Knocking on our window pane.
Our wretched little cottage
Is gloomy and dark.
Why do you sit all silent
Hugging the window, old gran?
Has the howling of the storm
Wearied you, at last, dear friend?
Or are you dozing fitfully
Under the spinning wheel's humming?
Let us drink, dearest friend
To my poor wasted youth.
Let us drink from grief - Where's the glass?
Our hearts at least will be lightened.
Sing me a song of how the bluetit
Quietly lives across the sea.
Sing me a song of how the young girl
Went to fetch water in the morning.
The storm wind covers the sky
Whirling the fleecy snow drifts
Now it howls like a wolf,
Now it is crying, like a lost child.
Let us drink, dearest friend
To my poor wasted youth.
Let us drink from grief - Where's the glass?
Our hearts at least will be lightened.
Jackie Kay and Benjamin Zephaniah are two poets of colour born in Britain that I would recommend.
ReplyDeleteI love Wendy Cope. Funny, female, British, and in that order, I think. Here's a sample.
ReplyDeleteBloody Men
Bloody men are like bloody buses -
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear.
Here's my blog post on her that has two other poems of hers: http://niranjana.wordpress.com/2007/02/25/booker-prize-judges-includes-wendy-cope/
There are some great Indian Poets. Top of my head: Nissim Ezekiel, Dom Moraes,A.K. Ramanujam. Kamala Das's feminist poetry. And don't forget Vikram Seth's very funny Beastly Tales.
if you want to memorize english poetry from an indian poet,i`ii refer to ravindranath tagore,whose 150th birth annivesary is being celebrated this year.there are thosands of lovely poems in hindi,the official language of india. once you learn hindi,you will love to recite hindi poetry from vidyapati to buddhinath mishra
ReplyDeleteWell I'm a bit of a poetry geek and I love memorizing poetry, so this assignment actually sounds fun... Two I'd recommend: Philip Larkin (white and British) has the most AMAZING dry wit in his poems. I love them. One of my all-time favorites is his "Aubade" (http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/philip-larkin/aubade/) although he's got other great ones that are somewhat less depressing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, have you looked at Dereck Walcott? His poetry is GORGEOUS; he's from (I think) St. Lucia, one of the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean- not sure if it's a former British colony, but from the themes he often writes about I am guessing it might be. His poem "Love after love" is one of my very favorites too.
Good luck, Ari!
I mentioned Srikanth Reddy a while ago. If you google you should be able to find most of his poems online. Benjamin Zephania is one of the most well known poet for teenagers and younger children. And I'll second the nomination for Wendy Cope because she's so funny.
ReplyDeleteOh sorry, it had to bee a BRITISH poet...
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for the recommendations! I'm slowly going through all of them.
ReplyDeleteI'm leaning toward Roald Dahl, Jackie Kay and looking forward to reading the rest of these recommendations :)
James Leigh Hunt. Several of his poems are short and sweet, have a clear and clean rhyme scheme to aid in memorization, and have a certain amount of meaning, to give them weight in your mind.
ReplyDeleteRondeau, by James Leigh Hunt:
Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in.
Time, you thief who love get
Sweets in your list, put that in.
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me.
Say I'm growing old but add:
Jenny kissed me!
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ReplyDeleteUK Assignment Help