Just Finished Reading: Alone on the Beach at Night by Walt Whitman [55pp]

Poetry AGAIN! I do think I'm open to this sort of thing - at least I feel that I am. There have been poems that I've liked (and, indeed, at least partially memorised) but mostly the whole genre passes me by. I'm not entirely sure why. But reading a poem is like reading a random selection of sentences (or even just words) that fail to make any coherent theme in my head. They leave me somewhere between perplexed and bored. It's almost as if I'm reading something in a language I'm aware of but one I'm only partially familiar with. Broadly speaking the meaning of these things - assuming they HAVE any - eludes me! But I'll keep trying as long as the Penguin Classic booklets keep giving examples to be confused by. Maybe I'll hit on one poet I like and that might open me up to liking some others. Stranger thing have indeed happened!

As to the booklet itself, it contained 19 poems - mostly quite short - which seemed to have a common theme of coastlines, beaches and ships at sea. I'm afraid that none of them really stood out. A few where nostalgic looking back at beach trips in the authors childhood and a few were based around storms either during or shortly after the event. Overall, I didn't skim too much but the temptation was definitely there. No doubt there will be more Classic poetry to come... [sighs]