Favourite works

[Ennis]

Everything! Whatever I am reading at the time, but if I had to pick an all-time favourite, I would choose "Ode To a Nightingale." I believe it to be the most beautiful piece of literature written in any language, at any time -- ever!!

[Saturn]

I still keep returning to the Ode To Autumn.

There is not one line that seems false, or overdone. The images it conjures up are full of the winding up of Summer's lease and the preparation for Winter's bane.
The Autumn, harvesting, feels like one of Homer's Goddesses, aloof, but treading amongst us, weaving her spell.

[Raphael]

It is totally perfect.

[Cybele]

Yup, Saturn and Raphael, I totally agree.
On more than one occasion I've called "To Autumn" the most perfect poem in our language. I love the personification of Autumn, I love the very sound of the words as they move through your mouth, and I especially love the last line , "And gathering swallows twitter in the skies." This simple line, IMO, sums up the poem, speaking of fulfillment, ripeness and something whole and profound.

[Raphael]

I think a few poetry critics have also called this poem the most perfect too!

[Ennis]

"I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit tree wild;
White hawthorne, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast fading violets covered up in leaves;
And mid-May's eldest child,
The coming musk rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves."

Enough said . . .!

[Raphael]

Perfection.

[keithwq]

For me, the favourite poem is "Ode to a Nightingale".

[BrokenLyre]

Ennis, I fully agree with you (at least on the particular point of my favorite poem): Ode to a Nightingale. The sheer range of emotion and ideas, the visceral sense it evokes and the flow of its words, the depth and range of its confessional reflections always amazes me to no end. I feel this poem in a way that nothing compares to it.

But having said that, I also think that To Autumn is as perfect a poem as one could find, in any language. It carries the reader along with a beautiful serenity all the while hiding its intricacies. As a piece of artwork, I see no equal. But Nightingale hits me more viscerally. So I like them both for different reasons. That's why I suggest memorizing both.

[CasaMagni]

I also think that To Autumn is as perfect a poem as one could find, in any language.

Composed on this day 194 years ago, to be followed by Shelley's 'West Wind' in October; two of the finest lyrics in the language created within five weeks, now that's special.

[BrokenLyre]

A very good point you make. A special 5 weeks, indeed.