Poems I’ve Read Recently and Liked

I’ve been reading a lot of poetry as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry class on Coursera.

One of the things I like about the class is that the video lessons are done a little differently than other Coursera classes I’ve taken. Rather than recorded lectures, the videos consist of the instructor, Al Filreis, leading a small group of Penn students in close readings of selected poems.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorites so far:

• I dwell in Possibility by Emily Dickinson
• Tell all the Truth but tell it slant by Emily Dickinson
• The Brain within its Groove by Emily Dickinson
• Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams
• This Is Just To Say by Willim Carlos Williams
• A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsburg
• Lines for an Abortionist’s Office by Ruth Lechlitner
• Incident by Countee Cullen

These next two, both by Richard Wilbur, I want to single out as being particularly exquisite and heartbreaking:

• The Death of a Toad
• Cottage Street, 1953