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Learn from the poetic wisdom of the ages at Oldpoetry. Join the discussion or apply to be an editor today. Enjoy, Emulate, Admire.→ Learn more
Popular Old Poets
Charles Bukowski•Robert Burns•Lord George Gordon Byron•Carlos Drummond de Andrade•Khalil Gibran•John Keats•Jack Kerouac•Rudyard Kipling•Henry Lawson•Dorothea Mackellar•Jose Marti•A.A. Milne•Pablo Neruda•Oodgeroo Noonuccal•Oldpoetry•A B Banjo Paterson•Nizar Qabbani•Taigu Ryokan•Anne Sexton•Cicely Fox Smith•James Stephens•Rabindranath Tagore→ Browse all authors, → Browse popular poetry
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Childrens, Eastern, Erotica, Humour, Love, Lyrics, Mythology, Nature, Other, Philosophy, Sad, Society, Sonnet, Spiritual, Tribute, WarPoems of the day
- The Naming Of Cats by T S Eliot 30 lines, 6 comments
- To A Teacher Retiring by Wilhelmina Stitch 24 lines, 3 comments
- Which Shall It Be by Ethel Lynn Eliot Beers 78 lines, 2 comments
- Colonel Fazackerley Butterworth-Toast by Charles Causley 44 lines, 3 comments
Essays
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Cargoes, and the poetry of romantic and economic Man by KevinDunn, from I-Like-RhymesJohn Masefield’s “Cargoes” is a very fine poem, packing an enormous amount of imagery and atmosphere into just 87 words. It is clear, vivid and immediate, and has been deservedly enshrined as a classic and repeatedly anthologized:
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Site Activity
This week 67 members visited, read
746 poems, and made
68
comments.
Oldpoetry has 84878 poems total by 5695 authors. 27575 comments.
Oldpoetry has 84878 poems total by 5695 authors. 27575 comments.
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on Residue by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, 2 hours agoThis is a poem as big or great as the reader's imagination or understanding; the author leaves no doubt of the reach, it is to all things but the messages are broken into ideas too: good and bad things, happy and sad things; big,useful and inportant things useless perhaps only small or sentimantal things all leave a trace of themselves in the world as memories as physical remnants...physical things and abstract things...all..and then the questions what of us? what of the unworthy things that seem to persist beyond the worthy things?... I think this is a great poem, and when i've read it again i think i will have learned or understood a few more residues...PK
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on To A Teacher Retiring by Wilhelmina Stitch, 5 hours agoBittersweet, a pleasant reflection on a teacher's life It's very idealistic but I would like to read more of Stitch's work. I am not familiar with it and her books sounds interesting.
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on Residue by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, 7 hours agoI can only apply my own thoughts here. No idea what the author may have actually intended.
Everything leaves some residue, some reminder, something that changed or effected something else. Some slight thing that makes up who we are...experience.
And so it's not just good things, but horrible ones too.
I do get the feeling that it is somehow bigger than that however, possibly stretching out to humanity, and that last part (which I really like) with its headlong, heedless rush toward the rat...it's almost like self-destruction...but a clarity reached before he does....
or maybe not.
But it's an exceptional poem, from a readers standpoint anyway.
Peteskid
2 hours ago
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