Poetry that Reads like Fiction

NEW! 4/09

Beowulf Translated by Seamus Heaney
This controversial translation of one of the best – and certainly the oldest – examples of Anglo-Saxon poetry reads like an old granddad relating a tale of his youth. Many scholars hate it for how “chatty” it is, in fact. Read all about disgusting monsters, dragons, valiant deeds, night stalking and fire snakes.

Dante’s Inferno Translated by John Ciardi OR Sandow Birk
Trepidatious poetry readers may choose between two translations of this amazing first section of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Ciardi is a poet who knows what he’s doing and beautifully renders Dante for the modern ear. But, if you REALLY think that you hate poetry, then try Sandow Birk’s version, where hell is post-apocalyptic Los Angeles and the English is VERY modern (Dante purists beware); you get illustrations, too.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Translated by Simon Armitage
This poem is insane and awesome. Sir Gawain is kind of a namby-pamby member of King Arthur’s court, but shows his mettle when one day a green knight (as in all green, hair and skin included) shows up and challenges someone to chop his head off. Gawain accepts, and then the headless green knight, via severed head, insists that he gets to do the same! Armitage will keep you glued to your seat.

The Canterbury Tales Translated by Nevill Coghill
Coghill’s translation is often used by high school teachers because he really does an excellent job of playing up how bawdy Chaucer is. Farts, illicit sex, swindlers, valiant knights...it’s all there, but in the plainest of English. If you haven't read this amazing poem (or think you hate it), then check out Coghill’s rendition.

The Odyssey Translated by Robert Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald’s translation is not only award-winning, but will win over any poetry skeptic. None of the old “thees and thous,” of archaic language: Fitzgerald manages to convey in plain English why Homer’s poem is still regularly taught, read and referenced. Also, there’s a Cyclops, a witch, angry gods, adultery and myriad monsters.

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
This is actually a novel in poem form. It’s also an opera. And, it’s also HILARIOUS. This was Pushkin’s favorite of his own works, and a classic of Russian literature. Eugene, in short, is a complete fool, who bungles a relationship with the lovely Tatiana. That’s the plot. The pleasure in reading the whole thing, though, is what makes this work so enduring and infinitely enjoyable to read. The library has several translations.

Don’t like poetry? Think again! these poems are just as compelling as any novel

Collected Poems by Robert Lowell
Poetry that makes your spine tingle: “My only thought is how to keep alive./ What makes him tick? Each night now I tie/ ten dollars and his car key to my thigh./Gored by the climacteric of his want,/ he stalls above me like an elephant." from To Speak of the Woe That is in Marriage. Lowell’s poems are like time bombs, or high literature boiled down to just the kernel of what lies beneath the best of fictions.

Poems, prose, and letters by Elizabeth Bishop
“A new volcano has erupted,/the papers say, and last week I was reading/ where some ship saw an island being born:” Poet of the everyday-made-extraordinary. Bishop writes in plain language and tone, but her stories have the sticking power of the weirdest abstraction.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (also on audio)
In a series of poems, 15-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years. A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her mother is gone. Her father can't talk about it. And the one thing that might make her feel better – playing the piano – is impossible with her wounded hands. To make matters worse, dust storms are devastating the family farm and all the farms nearby. A multi-award winning book that is not to be missed.

Ordinary Mornings of a Coliseum by Norman Dubie
A "broken fantasia" that addresses our struggle with spiritual engagement. Backdropped by politics and religion, Dubie's poems search for independent, individual meaning in the lives of the famously spiritual: "I adore how they are all ignoring us," Dubie writes, "with an absolute genius like snoring." One of the most radical imaginations in American letters.

The Maverick Room by Thomas Ellis Sayers
Ellis’s defiance for any one tradition or voice is a powerful argument against monotony: "Pretty soon, the Age of the Talk Show / Will slip on a peel left in the avant-gutter." Poetry where call-and-response becomes Steinian echo becomes Post-Soul percussive pleasure becomes a bootlegged recording hustled out of a go-go club.

The Voice at 3:00 AM by Charles Simic
Gathering much of his material from the seemingly mundane minutia of contemporary American culture, Simic matches meditations on spiritual concerns and the weight of history with a nimble wit, shifting effortlessly to moments of clear vision and intense poetic revelation. Political, sardonic, alert: brilliant.