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My Favourite Poems

When I was young I didn’t like poetry much because I thought it was a thing, which only girls liked. Besides I often couldn’t understand what the poems were all about. But, only other hand, I liked singing very much. And then, when I realized songs were just poems put to music, I started to appreciate poems very much indeed. Finally I bought a book called “Everyman’s Book of Evergreen Verse”. And I now read quite a few of these poems once a week. Most of these poems I include here come originally from this book. I then illustrate these poems a little with pictures taken from the Internet. The order is mostly in the order of our current age to past periods.

This is a list of the poems, which I will describe on later pages (the author followed by the poem).

Edwin Arlington Robinson – Richard CoryAlfred Edward Housman – Is My Team Ploughing?

T. S. Eliot – Journey of the MagiT..S. Eliot - The A-Dressing of CatsAlfred Noyes – The Highwayman

Elizabeth Coatsworth – Country CatHilaire Belloc - Matilda

John Keats – La Belle Dame Sans MerciGwen Harwood – A Simple Story

Alfred, Lord Tennyson – The Lady of ShalottWilliam Schwenck Gilbert – The Yarn of the Nancy Bell

Emily Dickinson – Because I could not stop for deathChristina Rossetti – Up-Hill

Robert Herrick – To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

This the book from which I get most of my poems from.

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Edwin Arlington Robinson – Richard Cory

I think that this poem reminds us that we all have our own very different types of problems. This poem express this idea in a very dramatic manner.

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Alfred Edward Housman – Is My Team Ploughing?

If two people are very good friends then it natural that they should want to marry the same women. This poem demonstrates this idea in a rather beautiful manner, when one of these people happens to die.

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T. S. Eliot – Journey of the Magi

The great thing about this poem is that practical problems of the journey are described in such a beautiful manner.

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T.S, Eliot - The A-Dressing of Cats

The poem mostly describes the very different natures and cats and dogs. And I, like most people, naturally prefer a dog because he “is much inclined to play the clown” (I’m sorry - but it is hard to fit it all in).

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Alfred Noyes – The Highwayman

Again this poem is too long to include in full. But the picture fortunately includes the most dramatic verses. It is a wonderful poem. It is easy to read the full poem on the Internet.

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Elizabeth Coatsworth – Country Cat

This is not a well-known poem at all. I like it because it reminds me of the true nature of life on Earth. The illustration is also very well done.

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Hilaire Belloc - Matilda

Again it is hard to get the whole poem just on one page. But you can easily read it on the Internet.

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John Keats – La Belle Dame Sans Merci

This is a very famous poem indeed and it is often quoted. The poem reminds us that we should not fall in love with a phantasy rather a real person.

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Gwen Harwood – A Simple Story

This poem is so real to life that one feels this incident happened to the author herself. So I like the poem very much indeed.

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Alfred, Lord Tennyson – The Lady of Shalott

This, of course is a very famous poem indeed. The physical beautiful description of medieval life bring the poem alive to us of a later age.The poem is far too long for me to show it all.

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William Schwenck Gilbert – The Yarn of the Nancy Bell

Gilbert has the brilliant ability to take very dire subject and turn it a very humorous situation. Again the poem is too long to show it all.

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Emily Dickinson – Because I could not stop for death

This poem gives us a beautiful picture of the coming of death as a personal journey for the author. So I like the poem very much.

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Christina Rossetti – Up-Hill

This another poem about death. I like the idea of death being a journey up to heaven with places to rest on the way. This would be a very pleasant way to die.

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Robert Herrick – To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

I, personally, am highly in favour of young women of “being not coy”. This means us men will have a better chance of having children at age, when the men are still very active themselves. But I don’t think current women feel this way at all. Because I like this poem so much, I have made up a simple tune so that it can be sung. I sung it once at a folk-venue and it was very well received by the audience.

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