My Favourite Poems
These are the poems that have inspired my work but, more importantly, these are the poems that move me
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All Is Vanity, Saith the Preacher — Lord Byron
Material possessions are not a cure for a melancholy heart. One for those who are given everything they want but are still unhappy. Quite possibly my favourite poem of all time.
Love And Death — Lord Byron
A poem about unrequited love, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about loving and giving love and to have someone not receive that love graciously. And then strongly, wrongly, vainly loving them still.
Prometheus — Lord Byron
“Thy Godlike crime was to be kind.”
The First Kiss Of Love — Lord Byron
A monument to the first flutter of butterflies in one’s stomach — the first sigh — the first heave of a bosom. This is why Byron is the best; he understands human emotion and passion better than anyone else. He even dedicates a stanza to dragging other poets.
Legend.
It is The Hour — Lord Byron
Another banger.
“And in the Heaven that clear obscure
So softly dark, and darkly pure,
That follows the decline of day
As twilight melts beneath the moon away.”
Sudden Light — Dante Gabriel Rossetti
One of the best articulations about finding one’s soulmate. I love the way he sticks the fourth line of every stanza with a short, sharp sentence. A poem that says join me in this life and have the love that you and I had before again.
A Thunderstorm In Town — Thomas Hardy
A short poem that accomplishes so much so quickly. I can see exactly where he is and what he is feeling in the moment contained in this two stanza poem. I can hear the rain. I can sense the warmth and coziness of the carriage.
I can feel the regret of not having taken a longed-for kiss.
Bright Star — John Keats
Swoon, indeed!
Sonnet 43 — William Shakespeare
“And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.”
The Raven — Edgar Allen Poe
There are many poems dedicated to the dark night of the soul, but this is arguably the best. A lyrical story of a man who doubts the afterlife he used to comfort himself exists and then has to face his pain.
The Clod And The Pebble — William Blake
Be yielding or be stubborn.
Pied Beauty — Gerard Manley Hopkins
An unusually observant and joyful poem praising the glory of God’s dappled creations. I love this charming, sprightly poem about multicoloured anythings.
Slough — Sir John Betjeman
Have you ever hated a place so much that you wrote a poem or a song about how you wanted to blow it to smithereens? I think this poem is laugh-out-loud funny, though I appreciate that’s not what the author intended.
The Patent — Simon Armitage
This is an ingenious little poem and I’ve loved it since I first read it. It is little wonder the themes of light and dark also make their way into my work. A beautiful expression of ‘tall poppy syndrome’ articulated succinctly.
Kubla Khan — Samuel Taylor Coleridge
As someone who does not use drugs — I genuinely hope that one does not have to be this high to write so well.
The Lady Of Shalott — Lord Tennyson
Just a superb piece of lyrical story-telling.
Any Soldier To His Son — Anonymous
A humanising, funny, creative, and devastating poem all in one. I read this poem first as a teenager and I return to it every now and again. It breaks my heart every single time.
The Flea — John Donne
A cheeky, lustful, playful poem. How could any woman resist?
To A Mouse — Robert Burns
In a moment of creative destruction, a ploughman considers the animals he has disturbed with his farming and he says to the mouse — don’t worry, life is the same for me too.
Gunga Din — Rudyard Kipling
A poem special to me because it was my grandfather’s favourite poem. He was stationed in Asia during WWII.
No Enemies — Charles Mackay
Are you a coward?
The Ballad Of Reading Gaol — Oscar Wilde
“The Chaplain would not kneel to pray
By his dishonoured grave:
Nor mark it with that blessed Cross
That Christ for sinners gave,
Because the man was one of those
Whom Christ came down to save.”
Thank you for reading — I hope you found my thoughts interesting. You can find links to my other work here: https://linktr.ee/sayde.scarlett
