OK, here are the poets and their first lines – or just lines I like – that we’ve had so far:
Wallace Stevens: Nomad Exquisite
As the immense dew of Florida/ brings forth/ the big-finned palm/ and green vine angering for life
Edna St. Vincent Millay: Recuerdo
We were very tired, we were very merry/ we had gone back and forth all night on the ferry
Dylan Thomas: And Death Shall Have No Dominion
Though lovers be lost love shall not; and death shall have no dominion.
Emily Dickinson: The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky
The Brain - is wider than the Sky - For - put them side by side -
Robert Louis Stevenson: Where Go the Boats?
Dark brown is the river/golden is the sand.
Elizabeth Bishop: Florida
The state with the prettiest name/ the state that floats in brackish water
William Butler Yeats: The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree […] and live alone in the bee-loud glade.
I’ll put up the full versions of these poems if it’s legal because they’re no longer under copyright, but even if not, I’ll tell a little bit about the poet. Still, the poet really doesn’t matter. It’s not about him or her, but about the image, that is, the poem. And that’s what any poet, any creator of our language, would have wanted.
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