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This topic has been on our list of possible episode for a while. In this episode Carmen and Rachel are talking about poetry. Let us know what your experiences are with poetry, and recommend some of your favorites to us. And remember, Jean-Paul Sartre said, “Poetry creates the myth, the prose writer draws its portrait.”
A friend of mine ended up living across the continent, bringing up two girls. I sent Jan some book recommendations, and some physical books. Many too old for the girls at the time. But they eventually made good reading-to-them material. Until they got old enough to read the books for their selves.
When the older one was a teenager, she asked her mother, “Where’s my kick-ass poetry book?” Jan asked, “You have a kick-ass poetry book?” She said, “The one that Raymond sent me.”
The one that Raymond sent her was, A Treasury of Great Poems, collected by Louis Untermeyer. He starts with the Bible, and the Song of Songs. Then some Middle English poems, by guys like Chaucer. Followed the poetic development of the language. Gave a brief biography of each poet, then a fair sampling of his works. All the way in the mid twentieth century.
If you want a good feel for the life and works of English poetry, it really is a kick-ass book.