DA Poets

Honestly, any poetry is DA poetry if you can recite it from memory or sound intelligent while speaking of it.

• T. S. Elliot 

          Didn’t write much poetry, but what he did write is dense with meaning

• Wisława Szymborska

          Any of her poems are instant winners, for a great collection I would recommend Map: Collected and Last Poems

• William Shakespeare

          Classic, cannot go wrong with any of his works

• Anne Sexton

          For bonus points, listen to the song “Mercy Street” by Peter Gabriel based on the poem “45 Mercy Street”

• John Milton

          Paradise Lost is always recognizable by name

• Homer

          Both The IliadandThe Odyssey are the best known works, bonus points if you are able to read them in their original Greek for the full effect

• Edgar Allen Poe

          Although The Raven is his most notable work of poetry, his short stories are also enjoyable

• Robert Frost

          An acquired taste compared to my other favourite poets, but my top four are definitely “The Road Not Taken”, “Mending Wall”, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, and “Acquainted With the Night”

• Mark Twain

          Recognizable in name and work

• Lord Byron

          An older poet, much of his language is obsolete in the modern era yet conveys meanings we could not hope to comprehend without it

• Sappho

          An excellent romantic, “Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl” Bonus points if you read it in the original Greek for the full effect

• Walt Whitman

          The modern-day version of a classical poet: free verse is his specialty!  

• Edgar Allan Poe

          The O.G. dark academic, the literature teacher’s favourite Halloween lesson.  Nothing can beat the simple and unsettling Poetry of Poe!

• Oscar Wilde

          Nothing will ever be as iconic as The Picture of Dorian Gray has become in the DA aesthetic! a definite must-read.