Who is a poet?

[moonflower]

Poets capture beauty.... and their poetry can only be appreciated with love.......

[Raphael]

That is a lovely reply!

[Saturn]

"Yet there are times when a deeper need enters, when we want the poem to be not only pleasurably right but compellingly wise, not only a surprising variation played upon the world, but a re-tuning of the world itself."

-Seamus Heaney.

[Cybele]

"Yet there are times when a deeper need enters, when we want the poem to be not only pleasurably right but compellingly wise, not only a surprising variation played upon the world, but a re-tuning of the world itself."

-Seamus Heaney.

Yay for Seamus Heaney!
His poems are lyrical *and* wise. He manages to hit the proverbial nail on the head every time.
To stray slightly off-topic, I remember when he was discussing the poetry of Robert Frost and he facetiously said something like, "Oh -- All poems are about death!" (This was on the wonderful PBS series on American poetry called "Voices and Visions.")

[Malia]

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a poetry reading by Seamus Heaney when he visited my undergrad college (Whitman College, in Walla Walla Washington). He was a friend of one of our English professors there who taught Irish literature. I stood in line after the event to get my copy of The Haw Lantern signed by him. The whole night I felt as if I were in the presence of an historical greatness. I remember thinking that, while I might not have been able to be in the presence of Wordsworth or some other great poet from the past, I can say that I heard Seamus Heaney and got his autograph--which was just as good!

[Saturn]

Heaney is in my opinion, the greatest living poet in the English language today, so that's not bad Malia: I'd rather meet Heaney than Worsdworth to be honest, he seems from all I've read to be a bit of a cold fish, Keats certainly found him so, for all his great poetry I wouldn't want to have a drink with him.
I'd love to meet the man myself, but the closest I've been is to work as a student in The Seamus Heaney Library in his old University Queens in Belfast.

[moonflower]

I would rather be someone great.

[Saturn]

Ah good point, maybe you will be!

[moonflower]

And if I am not, I can imagine a world where I am!

[Raphael]

I have a Heaney edition- like the one about the Tolund Man

[Cybele]

I have a Heaney edition- like the one about the Tolund Man

I have that too -- altho' I'm thinking it may be in an anthology of Heaney's works.

I completely fell in love with his translation of "Beowulf." First, I took it out of the library -- then I realized that I had to own my own copy.

Then, after I bought the book, I found a recording on cassette of Heaney reading it. I wore out the tape -- I used to pop it in the tape deck every time I drove my daughter to her dorm across the state. (From our back door to door of her dorm took the exact time of a full "listen" of the tapes.)

Fortunately, CDs don't wear out as fast. I now have it on my iPod. I have not gotten tired of listening to "Beowulf" in any way. I notice new things each time I listen to it. (One of the things I love best is the rhythm of the words.) I guess that goes to show that it takes a poet to translate poetry!

[onlinebin]

A poet is a person, no more, no less.
A poet could be your father, or you mother,
Your sister or your brother. In point of fact,
Any member of your family could be
A scrivener of verse.

That which makes a poet different from
All other people is that person’s ability
To put their feelings and emotions into
Verse. Poets are able to bring tears to
Your eyes, and put a lump in your throat.

A poet can be any shape, size, colour, or
Of any ancestry. They come from all the
Fields of work. From university professors,
To soldiers, from police, to criminals,
Come works of verse great and small.

All that is needed to write is the ability
To express your feelings and emotions;
The urge to write; the inspiration to
Put the words in the proper order,
And the love for the written word.

William Smith
19 December 2007

[Ennis]

"A poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no idenity -- he is continually in for -- and filling some other Body -- The Sun, the Moon, the Sea and Men and Woman who are creatures of impulse are poetical and have about them an unchangeable attribute -- the poet has none; no identity --- he is certainly the most unpoetical of all God's creatures."

John Keats
from a letter to Richard Woodhouse, 27th October 1818

[Saturn]

Good point, and Homer, as an individual may never have actually existed, but the poems tat have come down to us with his name on them were perhaps, in some scholars estimation a conglomeration of centuries of stories, told orally and at some point, or in different times written down and they were finally 'published' if you want to use that word in 5th century Athens and have remained more or less the same since.

[robert]

Has potential in his writing. Uses thoughts creatively to transform them into poetry.