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The Essential Poetry Page for the Web

Well, I don't think that poetry works well on the web, frankly. It's hard to concentrate on it enough to really understand it.

Anyway, a lot of net poetry is pretty damned awful.

So, I don't have any of my poetry here.

Don't want to add to it.

Not that I don't like poetry, I love it.

I think maybe that's the point.

So, if you want poetry, try these people and places:

Pablo Neruda:
Three Poems by Neruda, all incredibly well-crafted, and incredibly poignant
A poem about fleas that is as much of a masterpiece as the rest of his poems
Biographical information on the revolutionary Chilean poet. An incredible life to go with incredible poetry.

(I take no credit or blame whatsoever for what you might find on the other pages of the sites I send you to, only the specific pages I have linked to.)

Walt Whitman
Song of Myself, from his first book, Leaves of Grass. .
Beat! Beat! Drums, my favorite of his poems, incredibly moving when set to music.
O! Captain: the classic Walt
The Whitman Hypertext Archive: it's big.
Wood Odors, a beautiful description of the forest

Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Lady of Shallot: probably the best known of Tennyson's works
Gareth and Lynette from Tennyson's Idylls of the King. This is Arthurian legend, folks.
Get to know Tennyson better

(and thanks, Iseult, for introducing us)

This is only the beginning of some of the best poetry on the web. Go explore!

You can also go

Written and designed by Kat, Sinister Produce Ink 1998. As always, no guarantees on what you find on those links.