Your weekly slice of Poetry

Welcome to the first edition of Poetry Pie! This is my attempt at providing a selection of a few curated poems for your enjoyment. These poems may be linked by a general theme, style, or simply by my love for them. I hope this resource will be useful to you, helping to cultivate a greater love for poetry by bringing more of it before your eyes.

The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

It's fitting to start Poetry Pie with one of my favorite poets: Tennyson. This short poem is an excerpt taken from a longer narrative poem that he wrote, called "The Princess." Many anthologies contain multiple excerpts from this narrative - examples include "Sweet and Low" and "O Swallow." As is characteristic of his style, this poem is wonderfully musical. The second line is one of my favorite lines in poetry:

And snowy summits old in story

This is such a simple, yet perfectly crafted line! Hear the repeated "s" and the variations on the "o" vowel sounds. None of this is accidental. Later, read the "Blow, bugle, blow" and hear the echoes of this bugle bouncing off the distant mountains, "dying, dying, dying."

Ulalume: A Ballad

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

It is also fitting that I include one of Poe's poems in my first selection. I owe a lot of my interest in poetry to him. It's hard to find another poet who really demonstrates what can be done with poetry than Poe. He has a very unique, "lyrical" style, meaning that his poetry (like Tennyson's) is quite musical. You can't read one of his poems without the music being heard. However, his poetry, unlike Tennyson's, has a much more somber and melancholic feel. You could perhaps summarize a lot of his work as being centered on "Beautiful Sorrow."

"Ulalume" is a great example of this. It was apparently written as an exercise in elocution, which is quite believable when considering its entrancing sound and musicality. In terms of meter, it is written in a mixture of iambs (short-long: "beSTOW") and anapests (short-short-long: "interRUPT"). I quite enjoy anapestic poems; you'll find that they have a rolling flow that easily carries you along. Coincidentally, it is the same foot often used by the great Dr. Seuss.

One characteristic feature of a Poe poem is phrases that are repeated with very slight variation, such as the following from this poem:

The leaves they were crispéd and sere—
The leaves they were withering and sere;

This creates a very rhythmic and almost hypnotizing flow to the poem. Note how he repeats phrases like this throughout the poem, applying slight modifications to them along the way. Near the end of the poem, there is a dramatic turn with "Then my heart it grew ashen and sober." This heart-breaking turn would be less effective if he had not developed "ashen and sober" as a recurring motif.

Don't be afraid to read this poem and not know what it means. That hasn't stopped me from enjoying it. Sometimes you are just left with an "impression" of what the poem means. Repeated reading may bring more clarity, along with some guides. Don't be afraid to "look up the answers!" Just make sure you give it a fair try first.

Thanksgiving

Edgar Albert Guest (1881—1959)

It is unlikely to find a poem more different from "Ulalume" than this Thanksgiving poem by Edgar Guest. Light, unassuming, and gentle, this poem captures the pleasantness of the holiday soon approaching. Poetry doesn't always need to be brooding and serious; it can be simple and cheerful.

Notice how he has much more of a colloquial style, using informal contractions ("Gettin") and other things that we were taught not to do. This fits the homey feel of the picture being painted: a family gathered to enjoy each other's company.

Like Ulalume, you may have noted that this poem is also written with anapests ("as we CROWD through the DOOR"). Again, feel how the rhythm carries you through to a comfortable end.

Pour Me Life

Abram Newcomer

Each edition of Poetry Pie will end with a selection of one of my own poems that have been published to my site. I wrote this poem in my last semester of college for a poetry class. I had aspirations to develop a series of "Abba" sonnets, each having a recurring ABBA rhyme scheme and each focused on some aspect of Christian living. My "Holy War" sonnet also fits in this vein.

This poem serves as a prayer of repentance to God, a pleading for him to show mercy through the blood of his Son. It depicts a regret for turning away from him to a sin that only proved to be self-destructive. I have not modified this poem since it was written 6 years ago.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed these slices of poetry. Let me know in the comments which ones you enjoyed and why!