Thursday, December 2, 2010

Literary Blog Hop: My favorite poem

Time again for the Literary Blog Hop hosted by The Blue Bookcase.  The question for this week is what is your favorite poem and why?

When given the choice between poetry and prose, I tend to go for a novel.  Having said that, I'm still too fickle to pick one poem I like most of all, so here are a few I love. 

Ulysses by Tennyson.  I was instantly taken by this poem the first time I read it in a high school English class.   Ulysses is tired of being in Ithaca and wants another adventure and I love the voice Tennyson gives Ulysses: "How dull it is to pause, to make an end,/ To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!"  Wonderful call to action.

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll. From high school through times in college I had this poem up on my wall.  I just love the nonsense verse and I can't help but hear the opening and closing lines in the Cheshire Cat's voice.

Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare.  I love Shakespeare and this is my favorite of all of his sonnets.  It's the opening lines that get me: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds/ Admit impediments. Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds;" If I were to get a tattoo, it would most likely be from this poem.  So I suppose that means this is my favorite poem.

What's your favorite poem?