Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Poetic Inspiration - Lorca, Yevtushenko and Other Great Poets


It's funny just this morning I was thinking that I might write a post about my favourite poets. Later on I was looking at The Provocative Cynic's Blog and realised that she had just done one on the same subject. Great minds obviously think alike.

While I was waiting for my poetry tutorial this morning I was rereading "Poem of the Deep Song" by Fedeico Garcia Lorca. I can only dream that one day I will be able to write in such a powerful and fresh way as Lorca. I love the sparsity and simplicty of his poems yet in their spareness they are more alive and evocative of time/place and the senses than almost any other poet I have read.

Another poet that I have been revisiting this week is Yevgeny Yevtushenko, I have an extremely ancient copy of his collection "Stolen Apples". Yevtushenko is not a poet that I have seen in British bookshops recently, which is a great shame as I believe him to be one of the greatest international poets of the last century and he was certainly an important voice in the former Soviet Union.

I suppose if I was pushed my other favourites would be Louis MacNeice, Pablo Neruda, Alfred Lord Tenyson, W.H. Auden, Selima Hill, Thomas Hardy, Bob Dylan and Louise Erdrich (not forgetting George Szirtes of course!).

2 comments:

theprovocativecynic said...

You have done this so much better than me in that you have given people a reason to read what you suggest. I may even give Lorca another try - and how could I forget Neruda, or indeed, Bukowski?

I didn't list G Sz as I never feel sure that I have fully understood his highly-erudite and referential work and am worried about making an idiot of myself.

Very inspirational, anyway, and your blog always looks great - the visuals help so much.

Julia said...

thanks very much! Yes I know what you mean abou George Sz, he can make you feel a bit illiterate! I like the ones I can understand though!