Poetry

Poetry's really growing on me. If you asked me about it a year ago, I probably would say that I didn't understand it too much. The past year, I've become friends with several people who really enjoy poetry, and a lot of the people I follow on tumblr are very much interested in poetry. Basically, it was inevitable that I would become interested in poetry when I'm surrounded by so many passionate poetry-lovers.


Last week, however, my history professor said something in lecture that really inspired me: "all of you should start learning poems by heart. Memorizing your favorite poems is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself". That really struck me. I automatically thought of Hazel from The Fault in Our Stars, and how she frequently recites poems in the book. It's such a beautiful thing, knowing your favorite poems. It's like carrying your favorite books with you all of the time, but it's even better because they're in your head to comfort you whenever you need it.

One poem that I've recently enjoyed very much is T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". Here's my favorite passage:

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window panes;	25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;	30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

Beautiful, huh? I've been reading that passage a lot. What's even more amazing is that if you go on Youtube, there are videos of a lot of the poets from the early 20th century and onward reading their poems aloud. You can hear the actual writer read it! Super exciting.

Do any of you read poetry? What are your favorite poems, or your favorite poets?