English Department Members

Jim Alexander, after reading Nancy's article on students' poetry anthologies, suggested that members of the English Department offer lists of their 20 "favorite poems." Your list may be more about what you love and less about what you consider "the best." What a great activity for an English Department, particularly one so geographically dispersed and thus challenged with building a sense of community! After all, the department's website doesn't have to be all business; it should also illustrate our love of literature. If you’re game, make your list (annotated, if you have the time and desire), and email it to Nancy.Chick@uwc.edu.

Jim Alexander's "Between the Bookends: 25 Favorite Poems" (w. some annotations)

These are not in ranked order—that would take me YEARS. My comments afterwards are not rationales—more like impressionistic responses. My list of “Twenty Most Important Poems” or “Twenty Aesthetically Superior Poems” or “Twenty Poems Undergraduates Should Read” or “Twenty Poems That Reflect the Demographics of My Actual World” would overlap with this list some, but they would not be identical lists. These are just my favorites—the ones I reread to remind myself why I love poetry. It’s an interesting exercise—I see a distinct bias in favor of postWWIIwhiteAmericanmale poets. Oh well. Have to work on my equity badge some other way.

Billy Collins, “Another Reason Why I Don't Keep A Gun In The House”

Dennis Cooper, “The Faint”

Amiri Baraka, “Black Art”

Constantine Cavafy, “The City”

A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad

Hart Crane, “Episode of Hands”

Diana DiPrima, “Poetics”

Helen Adam, “Apartment on Twin Peaks”

Elise Cowen, “Did I Go Mad…”
Hettie Jones, “Sonnet”

Etheridge Knight, “For Black Poets Who Think of Suicide”

Sonia Sanchez, “homecoming”

Seamus Heaney, “Digging”

Paul Muldoon, “Cows”

Michael Hartnett, “Death of an Irishwoman”

Thom Gunn, “The Man with Night Sweats”

Edward Prime-Stevenson, “Fate’s Remedy”

Frank O’Hara, “Personal Poem”

Jim Carroll, “8 Fragments for Kurt Cobain”

David Groff, “We Boys Pull Down Our Pants”

Peggy Rozga's annotated list (arranged somewhat in order of their composition and/or publication)

Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales for the sheer pleasure of saying the words aloud.
Shakespeare, "That Time of Year Thou Mayst in Me Behold," a masterpiece of a sonnet, the masterpiece of sonnets (?)
Pope, An Essay on Criticism, especially for the line "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,"
Wordsworth, "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge," for the catalogue of images
Blake, "The Tyger," the momentum, the theme
Adrienne Rich, "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers," out of chronological sequence, but fun to pair with Blake
Hopkins, "Spring and Fall," especially for those heavy middle lines, not to mention it's addressed to me
Yeats, "Sailing to Byzantium," the poem I think of myself as reciting on my deathbed
Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," quiet dignity
Frost, "Mending Wall," for the fun of analyzing the neighbor
Auden, "Musee des Beaux Arts." Can't single out any one aspect of this poem. Auden makes it all look so easy.
Elizabeth Bishop, "One Art." Once I saw rough drafts for this poem. In them there was not a hint of the wonderful poem that finally grew out of the effort.
Gwendolyn Brooks, "First Fight, Then Fiddle." The last line gets me every time.
Simon Ortiz, "My Father's Song. The image of the mice is so precisely and so simply rendered.
A Gerald Vizenor haiku about a fly on a grapefruit. It ends with the line, "Honor your partner." For the longest time, I could see only how that line applied to the fly not how it applied to the grapefruit.
All of Rita Dove's book Thomas and Beulah. Individual poems in this book are good, like "Daystar," but the way the collection tells a story by telling key moments is wonderful.
Seamus Heaney's Beowulf. Maybe the original Beowulf as well, though that would belong at the beginning of the list.
Lois Roma Deeley's "Sun, Table, Chair." These items in the title are never mentioned in the poem, but there's an electricity that zings among the elements in the poem. How does she do it?
Sam Hamill's, "Black Marsh Eclogue," for its description of a great blue heron who "holds darkest winter in his hunched shoulders."
J.D. Whitney's "Grandmother /lets/ some birds wear/ duck suits/because/ they/ like to /look like/ducks/even/if they are."

“So much depends upon…: Some Favorite Poems at This Moment In Time” by Peter Whalen

“The Red Wheelbarrow” & “Asphodel, that Greeny Flower”—William Carlos Williams
“In a Station at the Metro”—Ezra Pound
An End to Torment—H.D. (not a poem but a memoir rich with the poet’s imagistic tendencies)
Many haiku from Jack Kerouac to Basho
“Song of Myself”—Walt Whitman
“Skunk Hour”—Robert Lowell
“The Fisherman”—W.B. Yeats
“Kaddish” & “Howl”—Ginsberg
“Gerontion”—T.S. Eliot
“l(a”—e.e. cummings
“My Life By Water”—Lorine Neidecker
“April” & “The One”—Patrick Kavanagh
“Those Winter Sundays” – Robert Hayden
“My Papa’s Waltz”—Theodore Roethke
“Listening”—William Stafford
The Branch Will Not Break—James Wright
“So This Is Nebraska”—Ted Kooser
“The Colonel”—Carolyn Forche
“Ka’Ba”—Amiri Baraka
“The Kingfishers”—Charles Olson
“A Man and a Woman Sit Near Each Other”—Robert Bly
“Out, Out—“—Robert Frost
“Chicago”—Carl Sandburg
“I, Too”—Langston Hughes

and finally—

“Up There” – This poem was written by Captain Peter Paul Griffo of Freeport, IL, who served as the regimental dental surgeon for the 88^th “Blue Devil” Division of the 350^th Infantry that fought in Italy during WWII. In 1944, the poet was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic action during combat. In 1941, at age 28, he voluntarily enlisted in the service, leaving his high school sweetheart and wife, Virginia, my grandmother, and their first-born child, a 2-month-old daughter, Susan, my mother, at home in order to serve his country. He would not see his daughter again until she was nearly 4 years old. When grandpa arrived at the family’s apartment door after the war, my mom would not let him into the home, thinking he was a stranger. My grandfather, my hero, the war poet, Peter Griffo, wrote the poem in his aid station prior to the first American attack on Mount Cianelli during the grim winter of 1944, and the poem is featured in the book, Combat Soldier, written by the poet’s regimental commander, Major General James C. Fry, who details the “Blue Devil” campaign in Italy. In honor of my grandfather, who inspired me in many ways, I include this poem in his honor. “Doc” Griffo passed away on September 14, 2007. His poem will always be my favorite.

UP THERE

As zero hour approaches,
     We hang our heads in prayer,
For over that ridge the enemy lurks,
     And waits for us, up there.

Our plans, of course, are man made.
     And for that reason, we know them to err,
So please, O God, be with us
     When we cross that ridge up there.

The enemy is strong at every point,
     And his true position, we know not where,
For that reason, O Lord, we ask you,
     To lead us in fight, up there.

Over the top we’ve set our goal,
     The orders state plainly where,
But without you, O Lord, to lead us,
     We can never hope to get, up there.

When all the ridge is taken,
     And the enemy no longer there,
We want you, Dear God, to join us,
                                         In a prayer for the boys, up there.

Jim Alexander	Marnie Dresser	Ken Grant	Jen Heinert
John Pruitt	James Reitter	Peggy Rozga	Peter Whalen

UWC English Department Members' Favorite Poems

Jim Alexander's "Between the Bookends: 25 Favorite Poems" (w. some annotations)

UWC English Department Members'
Favorite Poems