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Throughout the centuries there have been many poets, Sappho or Byron etc, Who of all the poets, including ones alive today, are the most influential?
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Suess
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Plath
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Rimbaud
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The Bard
Shakespeare -
I agree - Shakespeare
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I don't agree with any of all these. With due respect, every poet grew in a different circumstance, was shaped by his age and this was reflected by what they wrote. So what parameters do we use to gauge them?
Now, then, if you ask who is the greatest poet I can as well name the griots of West Africa..they never wrote poetry but their lives were poetry. They spoke poetry. They could store tonnes and tonnes of the community's poetry in their minds. Problem was they never wrote them. And influential they were but their geographical spheres were limited.
But that is not the answer. The greatest poet is me.The problem is, some naysayers will go to my profile and not find a century collection or the best lines of poetry but my life is poetry. -
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Ah, but the question is "influence". I, of course, am the greatest - that was settled long ago. Alas, Shakespeare pretty much wins when we throw in that whole "influential" thing.
No single person in the history of writing has been published in as many languages and read by as many people.
Ever. No man. No woman. No biblical figure. No travelling bard or minstrel. -
It's still Shakespeare!
No, it's still Shakespeare. I have read a lot of poetry over many years. I own hundreds of anthologies of poetry including Victorian editions of Milton, Arnold & Christina Rossetti, I have even met some contemporary poets. I studied poetry (inter alia) at University.And You just don't alliterate or rhyme as well as he did. Oh yeah, & I was born not far from where Willy was & I even speak in a similar accent. I would never claim to be the greatest poet but I recognise genius when I see it. It's still Shakespeare! -
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He came, Conquered and Influenced
Cynewulf, I wrote my comment tongue-in-cheek..I have read Bard's sonnets and whatnots, nobody beats him. I just wanted to stir up the debate and give it some heat. I love poetry but have not attained the expertise and refined flavour of Shakespeare but may be someday I will be a Lorot'speare somewhere. Thank you for the comment. -
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I still think the poets of the Bible were and are more influential. I don't know who's gone to war for Shakespeare.
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Nobody has gone to war for Shakespeare. There is no need for it. I agree that the poets of the Bible are influential since the Bible is the most influential and widely read book( I stand to be corrected) but that's where it stops.
Sometimes I read what Shakesspeare wrote in his life and wonder where he found time for all of them. Here in Kenya, to show his influence, in a remote school in Kacheliba where parents herd goats and cattle, the Bard still reigns. In a secondary school, a set text called Merchant of Venice is done. With all the shouldst and thou and canst. And boy,Shakespeare is here.
I am a christian, I read the Bible. Verses inspire me but here is a single man who wrote lines you just admire!
Admit it. It's the Bard. -
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never in a million years will I admit it! Think of all the religious mystic poets through the ages that have drawn on the bible - didn't you even comment on the Donne thread? Where would Donne, Henry Vaughan, George Herbert, even Shakespeare be without all the cultural references they make that came from it.
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We could certainly argue that the Bible is the most influential anthology, but the atheists would have a problem attributing authorship to God, so we must consider the Bible as a collection of many writers. Can a single author, excerpted from the Bible, claim as much invluence as Shakespeare? I am skeptical.
It is surely arguable that the Bible is the most influential book, though. -
Jacobean smackobean
The translation of the King James has been influential. I don't know if it the translation or the original that has had the most influence.
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An answer only a poet could give.
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What about Anonymous? I've seen a lot of work credited to him...(or her)
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Dorothy Parker, Maya Angelou and Sylvia Plath
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Whoever
those unknown poets of the Bible were (think Song of Solomon) were pretty darn influential. -
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King James ?
Ah yes, back to those translations again ! The King James Bible has had a great influence, wasn't it Wycliff's interpretaions that made them so good. -
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Let's start with William Tyndale then, if Scott wants to take this one on, I'm sure we are up for a good game of hardball here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tyndale
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I guess I am being called out. lol
Did Tyndale write the Bible? Should translators be elevated to equal status with the writer?
Hell, I'm not even making the obvious argument that the Bible is not poetry in the purest sense (because I am sure you would go into some form of paroxism over that).
This thread is asking for the most influential poet. Do you nominate Tyndale? If not, relax. -
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why don't you go read the Song of Solomon and get back to me on whether Tyndale, as the translator working during Shakespeare's time, was a poet or not.
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Are you nominating Tyndale?
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Have you ever read the Song of Solomon, translated or in the original? Is it a poem? You do realize that until about the last two centuries, everything that was written in the English language was influenced by the Bible, written mostly by people affiliated with the church in some way - since they were the people who could read.
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Are you nominating Tyndale?
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and now you're stuttering.
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I'm just trying to get an answer to the question: "Who is the most influential Poet?
You cited a book, not a poet. Then you mentioned a translator.
Gee, you are so much smarter than I am.
Are you nominating Tyndale?
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You've demonstrated 100 times over that you can't even read the most basic comment posted, "the unknown poets" but ok, you want to narrow the playing field - which means it is necessary to pinpoint a poet who was a translator of English - in the meantime, you've never even read the bible.
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My entire education from second grade through university was in Catholic schools. I have read the Bible, dearie. MOre than once. And in more depth than most people who are not scripture scholars. Get off your high horse, darling. Come on down here where the air is clear.
And you still haven't answered my question, have you?
Your intelligence is beyond question. You think I am a dunce. I answered the question. Did You? Did you answer the question proffered in the title of this thread? You did not. Instead, you brought your own agenda. I can accept that. I am used to that response from you.
But, please. Who is the most influential poet? Are you nominating Tyndale. -
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King James was scared of witches
When you say you have read the Bible, would that be the Coptic, Septuagent, King James, or NIV? -
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And
And does that include both or either Protestant or Catholic apocrypha?
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"Whoever
those unknown poets of the Bible were (think Song of Solomon) were pretty darn influential."
Was Tyndale the poet, or the unknowns? You seem to want it both ways.
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Break......gentlemen please....ding round 2......
The Scottman loves to be the devil's advocate I think. But ea I have a very limited knowledge of aramaic, but I know that the Song of Solomon is almost certainly much older than the Biblical aramaic version. My guess it was some Babylonian/Sumerian fertility song or poem. So how far do you want to go back? -
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Yes, you can take Song of Solomon back to the Babylonians, as far as Ea/Enki is concerned, Cyney.
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The English Novel, Irony & dipsticks
After Walpole (the dipstick) censored English theatre to death (he just couldn't take satire or irony,he may have been American) The birth of the epistolary novel, Pamela, Clarissa & the like were more or less a direct descendant from Paul's letters in the new testament. So Walpole (the dipstick) at least created the English novel. He was still a dipstick though.
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I don't read Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, so I cannot undertake a comparative reading of a translation. Can you?
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Plowmen & the Reformation
There is an excellent section on Tyndale in 'The Adventure of English' by Melvyn Bragg. I think his translations of the Bible were influential. But does that make Tyndale or the Bible the most influential? The idea that the 'plowman' should be able to read the Bible was a long debate. What do you think Langland was talking about?
In a somer seson whan soft was the sonne
I shope me in shroudes as I shepe were;
In habite as an hermite vnholy of workes
Went wyde in this world wonders to here.
Ac on a May mornynge on Maluerne hulles
Me byfel a ferly, of fairy me thougt:
I was very forwandered and went me to rest
Vnder a brode bank bi a bornes side,
And as I lay and lened and looked in the wateres
I slombered in a sleyping, it sweyued so merye.
As this is a Midlands dialect, & I am familiar with it I will translate. In fact I have often walked on Malvern hills. Didn't see any fairies though!
In a summer season, when the sun was pleasant
I dressed myself as if I was a shepherd;
In the habit of a not so holy hermit,
I went out wide in the world to hear wonders.
On a May morning on the Malvern hills
I fell across a land of fairy I thought:
I was very lost and went to rest
Under a broad bank on the side of a bourne
And as I lay I leaned and looked into the water
I slumbered and slept, it sounded so merry.
(Merry = pleasant in Midlands/Mercian dialect, to this day!)
I think there would have been no reformation Bible in vernacular English without the likes of Langland. -
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nice piece, must let it mull . lucky not to have run into any fairies from what I hear though. Yes, it was you Scots who decided that the plowman should go to school to learn to read that Bible... look what's happened.
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Haggis or Roast Beef?
AAAAAggghhhhhh You can't call a Roast Beef a Haggis.......I bet you can't even describe the English flag or tell me who our patron saint is? -
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you said, "The Scottman loves to be the devil's advocate" - I thought you were talking about yourself (again.)
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WHITMAN
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Singing the poet electric
Whitman only really came to prominence after he was recognized in England. He was a great influence on some English writers, D.H. Lawrence being one of them. He also was a strong influence on the beat poets. Much as I like Whitman, his influence is limited. -
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for most influential American poet, I'd say it's Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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Why, jingle writers are the most influential poets! They can convince to buy krap all with a charming, stuck in your head ditty.
Marketing genius!
~Hippie -
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I'm not too sure about that. I know they make more money writing that tripe, but I am not convinced it works.
For instance, there is an ad on TV recently with a song that sticks like a tick in your brain: "Let's go outside...". The ad has been running for weeks. Yesterday I finally noticed that it was for Coleman products.
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Maybe I just really love brand reconigtion and buying junk!
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Mug shots
Yeah, I was going to upload some fancy, clever avatar....instead a bad mugshot from a knackered mobile had to suffice. I don't look too bad from a distance.....well about a kilometre! What about the Vedas & the Bhagavad gita's influence. When Jesuits translated the gita they discovered all Indian (except Dravinian) languages & all European languages (except Finno-Ugraic & Esquimiduk) were descended from the same source: Aryan Proto-Indo European, I think they called it. Even the words Iran, Iraq, Eire & aryas are from the same source. Possibly like the Old English 'Heoran' they all mean 'Horse' or Horserider. A reference to the first Aryan tribes to invade western Europe around 1000-1500 BCE, who displaced or conquered the original Europeans. The Celts were the first Aryan tribe in Britain & it is possible some Brythonic & Hibernian goidelic contains some of their language (or what's left of it). -
Mugs bug.
Let's stick to song of solomon, shall we? -
Muggy day ADHD.......shiny things
I think that is probably a good idea. I have ADHD .....ooh look ....shiny....sorry, I have actually trained to teach people with learning difficulties....I have an insight into this.......ooh a little spider, how nice......What were we talking about?
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celadia
Jun 26 8:37 PM
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