Franglais:
UKtramp:
Under Milk Wood is indeed a poem. It was made into a stage performance and I believe a film too.How would YOU define a poem? And differentiate a poem in free form, from badly written prose? Beng told what it is by the author I would consider a cop out!
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
Women love poetry
Well without googling it I couldn’t answer your question, we did do some poetry at school, our English teacher was a fan of the First World War poets, although he didn’t cover Baldrick and his seminal work “The German Guns” though. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8ye1iPjxFY 
More Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke, who wrote the famous line in one of his poems
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.
Although I think our English teacher used the poets lives as a study of World War 1 more than their poetry.
I always remember one their deaths seemed even more tragic as it was just before the Armistice, checking google Wilfred Owen died on the 4th of November 1918. Rupert Brooke died of an infected mosquito bite while on duty in the Mediterranean in 1915.
I did know a famous poet, well in poetry and arty circles apparently, when I was a growing up, his name was George Barker, I remember having a copy of the Alphabetical Zoo, but I can’t remember reading it. I have heard his daughter Raffaella Barker on Radio 4 now and then. Not sure how he had time for poetry as according to Wikipedia he had 15 children, I don’t remember that many when we used to go round the house though.
The title of the poem you know is “The Soldier” a very famous poem and one of the very few modern style poem’s that I like. Interesting that you knew a poet and have to say this, and didn’t know it, if you still have his book of poems it may well be worth a read. Nice post btw.
I am a bit over my head with all this poetry. You are talking to a bloke who instead of reading “far from the madding crowd” (utter crap) me and my mates pinched the school video and watched it the week before the summer exams . Cobbled together some waffle about the name Gabriel Oak being an allegorical mechanism of strength yadda yadda. I figured success by firestorm and wrote 20 pages of this guff in the exam. Throw enough darts and score a bullseye. Got two As
I like books but not poetry (apart from under milk wood). I think school sucked the life out of it. But one man’s poison and all that. I get it.
My Cousin is going out with a young poet. He’s just been published.
UKtramp:
The title of the poem you know is “The Soldier” a very famous poem and one of the very few modern style poem’s that I like. Interesting that you knew a poet and have to say this, and didn’t know it,
I don’t think I still have the book, but the works of George Barker might be something I’ll lookout for, probably appreciate it more now than I did when I was a child, probably wasn’t even 10 years old when I was given the book.
I met many interesting people from the art set when I was a child, we lived in an old rectory with 2 other families, it was a bit of a commune, the father of the one of the other families was a photographer in London and knew a lot of the artistic types of the day. They also liked hosting big parties where all the arty London types would descend on our small Norfolk village and although we were children we were allowed to mingle with these interesting people. There also seemed to be plenty of other interesting people, including George Barker, who escaped London for the peace and isolation that was North Norfolk in the 60’s and 70’s.
Although I haven’t actually answered your question, these threads have got me researching people like the War Poets and George Barker, as a child he was really just somebody who we used to go and see, I seem to remember he had sons of my age, but they’re not mentioned in the stuff about him on the internet.
Freight Dog:
I think school sucked the life out of it.
That was the attitude of my English teacher about Shakespeare,
He refused to cover any of his works in class, not because he didn’t like him, but because he did like him and said too many people have been put off Shakespeare by having it forced on them at school and he thought it was better we discovered him by ourselves.
I have watched some of the Shakespeare’s plays when they’ve been on telly and I have enjoyed some of it, especially Henry V, I prefer factual stuff really but Henry V did get me interested in the campaign and the etiquette of war of the time, even though Shakespeare’s Henry V has more to do with politics of the Tudor period than a factual historical record.
I’ll come clean, I have an ‘O’ level in English Literature 
, but there are mitigating circumstances, I only took the course because I fancied the young teacher something rotten, I was 16 and she was in her 20s.
We had to review a book and give our opinions and thoughts on it.
I blagged it by reading a ‘Commando’ war comic called ‘Desert Duel’ (still remember the title 
) I made an authors name up, and done a 10 page dissertation on it…the bloody comic did not have many more pages than that 
.
Anyway, I blagged it and passed the exam. 
Never got anywhere with Miss though. 
so what a wate of my cunning initiative. 
What is poetry? (This is mildly drunk me talking btw). Poetry is lots of different things to lots of different people. For example, right now for me poetry is watching a Yamaha M1 slide gracefully out of the last turn at Sepang to take the chequered flag.
Many moons ago poetry would be that quick unaimed shot that as soon as the trigger was squeezed you knew with absolute certainty that it was going to end the bombmaker/ childkiller/ soldier murderer.
The most overwhelming poetry however for me has to be the moment that my infant in my arms smiled his first genuine smile of recognition at Daddy.
Jesus, that was deep, should’ve left the pub two pints ago!
Regardless of whether or not anyone has so far answered any of my questions, the point is that there are some very interesting posts. some going as far as researching topics they probably otherwise wouldn’t even consider. I fell in love with the Royal Ballet this way. Wasn’t intended but I was dating a ballet dancer at the time although I had no interest at first. It shows that even a rough arsed lorry driver can enjoy or have an interest in some of the things people perceive as either feminine or boring. Well done to all posters.
What a patronising thread. You never look good trying to make someone else look bad.
Janos:
What a patronising thread. You never look good trying to make someone else look bad.
Could you explain what you mean? How on earth is this in the very slightest one bit patronising?
Poetry isn’t something that really interests me so for that reason “I’m oot” sorry.