July 5, 2004 - Essentials

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Essential Summer Poetry
By David Bunch
July 5, 2004

In a society saturated with choices, sometimes it’s nice to receive some knowledgeable recommendations.

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Looking for something to satisfy that poetry “jones” that’s been hounding you this summer? From serious to cryptic to down-right singable, here are (portions of) 10 works that are a must for the hot summer day.

1. The Red Wheel Barrow by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

How does he cram so much imagery into so few lines? Memorize this one, then dazzle your friends by pretending to know what it’s about.

2. maggie and milly by e.e. cummings

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles, and

One by the master. This is pure sand and beach and childhood in the summer. Plus, it’s one of the few poems by cummings that actually follows some sort of meter. He even sticks with the samemeterfortheduration of the poem (gen-e-rally). (sic)

3. Psalm 139 by King David (inspired by God)

Oh Lord you have searched me
And you know me
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar….
Before a word is on my tongue
You know it completely O Lord.

Man, I wish I knew enough Hebrew to read this one in the original. This has got to be one of the greatest poems of all time. His Majesty speaks of how incredibly big God is (extremely), where this incredible God is (everywhere), and who this incredible God chooses to hang out with (everybody). Check it out in the New International Version. It just doesn’t get any better than this, my friends.

4. The Listeners by Walter de la Mare

“Is there anybody there?” said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forest’s ferny floor

An old and mysterious one, to be sure. This is a good one if you are one of those readers who requires your poetry to rhyme. As an added bonus, you get to decide: a) what this guy is talking about, and; b) how the story ends.

5. Album by Ron Padgett

The mental pictures I have of my parents and grandparents and my childhood are beginning to break up into small fragments and get blown away from me into empty space, and the same wind is sucking me ever so gently….

A modern poet here, and one I only recently discovered. Padgett’s “prose/poem” on the elusiveness of life is one we can all relate to (that is, if you have ever had the distinct pleasure of waking up the day after graduating college and uttering to yourself the erudite profundity “uh-oh”, and realizing that life is vaporizing faster than you care to admit.)

Plus, just to go ahead and destroy all interest you may have had in reading the poem, Padgett’s ending, “they (the molecules) treat us like dirt,” is nothing short of brilliant. Okay, go ahead and read it and you’ll see what I mean.

6. Acquainted With the Night by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain-and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

This one is included here not only because no list of poetry is complete without something from Frost, but also because this is the quintessential muse to the core. The tortured mind walking about a dark, rainy night, perplexed by the enigma of life and its meaning. Read it, then go for a little thinking stroll yourself (preferably in the middle of a thunderstorm, down a deserted street in some big city, tripping over…okay, sorry).

7. The Boston Evening Transcript by T. S. Eliot

When evening quickens faintly in the street,
Wakening the appetites of life in some
An to others bringing The Boston Evening Transcript

Here’s another one that brings imagery of a warm summer’s night in a big city. Although, come to think of it, Eliot never says anything about “summer” or “warm” in the poem. The work just gives off this vibe of what it’s like to go home late on a summer evening and sit down to the evening newspaper. Okay, it goes a lot deeper than that.

8. Where Have All the Flowers Gone? by Pete Seeger

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

Yep, it’s anti-war. Nope, I’m not telling you my sentiments. That is beyond the scope of this class. This little ditty is brilliant in stating, in pure poetic terms, the full circle of life and the human plight. Be warned: if you are familiar with the song, reading the lyrics will cause it to be firmly ensconced in your head for the rest of the day.

9. Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

For those of you who find yourself face to face with amore this summer, look no further for the ultimate expression of love to your dearest. This one is a classic.

10. The Sidewalks of New York by Chas Lawlor and James Blake

East side, West side,
All around the town,
The tots sing “Ring-a-Rosy”
“London Bridge is Falling Down”.
Boys and girls together,
Me and Mamie O’Rourke,
Tripped the light fantastic,
On the sidewalks of New York.

Let’s end with a lighthearted one. This is a traditional children’s song, but it’s fun to read as poetry, too. The lyrics and setting (which happens to be the sidewalks of New York—if this is too deep, please begin again at the beginning) invoke those typical all-American, childhood summer days of baseball in the street, clubhouses, and ice cream. This one actually made the cut and shows up in Carolyn Kennedy’s anthology of great American literature. Note: I have no idea what “tripped the light fantastic” means.

ninetyandnine.com

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David Bunch wrote a poem about ice cream while walking down a deserted street at night in New York City, but it is not included here because he realized Shakespeare had already done something with the idea.