DESERT ISLAND POEMS
What would you do if a you were stranded on a desert island and you could only "save" 7 poems? Which would you choose and why?
There are over 6,000 poets and nearly 60,000 poems on the oldpoetry website and if I had to pick 7 for myself I would choose the following.
Monday
Robert Browning --- How They Brought The Good News From Ghent To Aix.
oldpoetry.com/opoem/300-Robert-Browning-How-They-Brought-The-Good-News-From-Ghent-To-Aix
This has been a favourite for more than 40 years since I first read it as a schoolboy studying Browning for my English literature GCE.
It's rhythmical beat as one reads it aloud is so reminiscent of the beat of horses hoofs in my mind that it's as if I am being carried along with the riders as the narrator tells the tale.
Those stirring words in line 2
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three
are so ingrained in me that I use them as a mantra for relaxation.
Tuesday
Robert Service --- The Cremation Of Sam McGee
oldpoetry.com/opoem/3532-Robert-W-Service-The-Cremation-of-Sam-McGee
I came across the work of Robert Service about 10 years ago listening to a friend reciting some of his work. I was hooked immediately and am now giving readings of some of those poems myself.
The Sam McGee story is a fine tale with a marvellous ending which captivates many people when they hear or read it for the first time. I know it well and it still tickles me. But what is even more impressive than the actual tale is the rhyme and rhythm that Service manages to maintain which grip you and help you to feel each twist and turn as he plays with your emotions.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
Wednesday
John Masefield --- cargoes
oldpoetry.com/opoem/6632-John-Masefield-Cargoes
This poem was read to me as a child at Junior School almost half a century ago and I still remember those marvellous words ringing in my ears and then rolling around my mouth as I read them for myself.
Right from the start Masefield entrances us with a vocabulary every bit as rich and luxuriant as the vessels he is describing.
Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus
Then, using more commonplace words he places the mundane craft in the same company.
Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Magnificent.
Thursday
Cicely Fox Smith --- Lee Fore Brace
oldpoetry.com/opoem/45241-Cicely-Fox-Smith-Lee-Fore-Brace
To my mind this is one of the most tragic love poems I have come across. Not the romantic love that seems to abound in poetry but the brotherly love of two friends who have shared happiness and danger together day in and day out for many years. For me the final lines sum it all up so eloquently.
A lump of my heart went down with Dan
That night in the wild Horn sea!
What raises this poem out of the ordinary is its descriptive accuracy. The reader knows that the writer is describing things just as they happened (or could have happened) in the true language of the sailor. All of this from a woman born in the closing decades of the nineteenth century who probably only sailed as a passenger and who nevertheless displays an amazing familiarity with her subject and the lore of the sea.
Friday
A. B. (Banjo) Patterson --- Mulga Bill's Bicycle
oldpoetry.com/opoem/5350-A-B--Banjo-Paterson-Mulga-Bill-s-Bicycle
Like many people I first came across the work of Banjo Patterson through the song Waltzing Matilda which is so inextricably linked to the idea of Australia in the minds of several generations of Britons (and Australians).
But that is not the best of Patterson's poems for me. I think the tale of the madcap bicycle ride of poor old Bill is hard to beat anywhere.
Bill, a horse rancher and skilled horse rider, decides to try out one of these new fangled bicycles (Well! New in 1892 when this was written) and tries to use it in the hills in the same way he used to gallop on horseback. The narrative is so well written I always find myself speeding up as the poet reaches the tale of Bill's mad descent down the mountainside on his two wheeled steed.
It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box:
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,
Friday
Marriott Edgar --- Asparagus
oldpoetry.com/opoem/7923-Marriott-Edgar-Asparagus
A well spoken Englishman, brother of the noted crime writer Edgar Wallace, Marriott Edgar is the last person one would associate with the working class areas in the North of England and yet his poetic monologues have the vocabulary and lilt that conjure up those areas with ease.
In this classic example the ubiquitous Mr Ramsbottom (father of young Albert) comes into some money and tries to impress his wife with a bunch of Asparagus, an upper-class delicacy at the time. The tale of how the no -nonsense Mrs Ramsbottom viewed her surprise gift is an excellent piece of writing. Although firmly linked to the late great Stanley Holloway this is guaranteed to raise a smile when read by any competent reader.
Saturday
Rudyard Kipling --- Gunga Din
oldpoetry.com/opoem/833-Rudyard-Kipling-Gunga-Din
Though Kipling was not much respected by his own generation of poets he was always appreciated by "the man in the street" and is now regarded in England as one of the best poets never to have been made Poet Laureate.
This tale of loyalty and sense of duty has never been bettered. The humble calling of its hero Gunga Din is used to remarkable effect in this stirring story.
So well has this poem seeped into the consciousness of the English speaking world that the last line is a well used saying by many people who have never even read the poem.
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
Sunday
Dylan Thomas --- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
oldpoetry.com/opoem/2906-Dylan-Thomas-Do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night
To round off the collection is a protesting rant from Thomas against the insidious approach of old age and death.
It is one of the most poetically correct poems in my selection but it is equally if not more powerful than even C Fox Smith's excellent Lee Fore Brace.
One can readily picture the poet's father on his sick bed telling his child that he welcomes Death as a release and the Poet loudly, almost screaming back at him not to give in but to fight.
Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
He is telling his father to cling to life and make death fight for possession of his body (and soul).
Well those would be my seven desert-island poems. Which ones would yours be I wonder
Why not try to select your 7 poems and see what they mean to you!
Adding your comment:
An awesome idea.
OK one for each day of the week. I'm so pleased to see you have an Australian poem in there Jim and I knew CFS would be included. 
Of course Marriott Edgar is also a great favourite of mine too - this is going to be tough though choosing just 7 poets and 1 poem from each, but I'll give it a go - just for the fun of it.
