P is for Poetry.

Years ago, around the time I started my MA in English and German Literature, I discovered my love for poetry.

Shortly before, at precisely the right time in my life, the film 'Dead Poets Society' had come out. It resonated on many levels, and not just because I had spent several years at boarding school myself.

I've always preferred poets whose works breathe Power, Passion and a Pure, raw intensity. There are so many: Pablo Neruda, Maya Angelou, Lord Byron, Walt Whitman, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Adrienne Rich, P.B. Shelley, Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Audre Lorde, William Blake and many more.

In this post, I want to share one of my favourite poems, 'Acquainted with the Night' by Robert Frost, and - for old times' sake - the original trailer of Dead Poets Society.

Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

- Robert Frost






Who are your favourite poets?

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Image: 'The Night at Azcuenaga' by Luis Argerich. Available under a creative commons license. © 2010, Luis Argerich.

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